Got 'Em Both!

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.

In this print, seven well-dressed Black (African-American) men surround a billiards table in a state of commotion. The game has been disrupted by billiard balls striking unintended targets. At right, a very thin man, wearing red plaid pants and a green-blue vest, raises his hands as he laughs uproariously after hitting the cue ball so hard it has caused three balls to fly off the billiards table. At left, the print shows two grimacing victims being knocked off their feet: a red billiard ball has struck the nose of one man, while another white ball has struck a second man in his left eye. Behind them, a third ball has knocked the stovetop hat off a bewhiskered man. In the left background, a man, wearing a green-striped jacket, has jumped in the air with his hands raised after being "speared" in the belly by the errant, airborne cue stick. At the right, flanking the thin laughing man, two men --one behind the table, and an older, portly man in front of the billiards table-- express amused shock; they have dropped their cue sticks. At the upper center, a four-candle chandelier now hangs askew. On the floor in the foreground beneath the billiard table (near the left leg), a basket and whiskey bottle have been overturned.

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.