The Darktown Bicycle Club -- Knocked Out: "Dar! I knowed dem Odd Fellers was a breedin mischief."

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 shows the aftermath of a bicycle accident. In the center foreground, a dazed Black (African American) cyclist is seated on the ground amid parts of his destroyed bicycle; he gestures towards his injured right eye. His striped outfit is in tatters, but he is also "wearing" a damaged bicycle wheel diagonally across his torso. At right, a Black woman (dressed in a red dotted skirt, red/yellow striped blouse, and white gloves; her red hat with long blueish feathers has flown off her head) is being knocked towards the victim by a butting horned billy goat (a bicycle wheel was smashed over its head). At left, another Black woman (wearing a blue dress with a red pattern and yellow gloves) is on her hands and knees after tumbling from her bicycle. Behind her, a fellow cyclist (dressed in a red shirt and yellow pants) is toppling off his bicycle. In the background are crowds of Black people on the street who witnessed the accident; heads of more Black townsfolk peer out of every window of the two- or three-story buildings lining the street. In the right middle ground, there is a building identified as the "OD FELLERS HALL" where a Black woman stands amazed in the doorway; more curious spectators lean out of the windows above her. At the far right, a Black boy in a red shirt and blue pants (the goatkeeper) has been felled flat to the ground -- having lost his grip on the escaped goat. The title and caption are imprinted in the bottom margin.



Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), who established a successful New York-based lithography firm 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. In 1857, Currier made James Merritt Ives (1824–1895) a business partner. People eagerly acquired Currier & Ives lithographs, such as those featuring spectacular American landscapes, rural and city views, marines, railroads, portraits, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. The firm operated until 1907. Images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company; later, prints were printed in color.