Corinthian Race: A Low Toned Finish

The late nineteenth-century Darktown prints by Currier & Ives depict racist stereotypes that are offensive and disturbing. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves such works to shed light on their historical context and to enable the study and evaluation of racism.

This print satirizes a miserable conclusion at the finish line of a horse race, witnessed by three Black (African American) judges in the judge's stand (center background); one of them holds an oversized stopwatch. Two of the five Black caricatured jockeys have fallen off their exhausted, collapsing mounts, while another is squashed beneath his overturned horse. At right, a riderless donkey runs away. The horse of a fourth rider (wearing a polka dot shirt), who is draped across his horse's back, turns to bite his jockey's rear end. The last rider (left), though upright, clings to the head of his suddenly motionless horse to prevent being bucked off. The title is imprinted in the bottom margin.

Nathaniel Currier, whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law) was made a business partner; subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued until 1907. The artist of this print is Thomas Worth, a prolific nineteenth-century illustrator who excelled at drawing horses and other subjects, many of which were made into lithographs published by Currier & Ives.