Black Duck Shooting

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 unlucky duck hunting scene, three men and a dog are in a capsizing rowboat on rough water. At right, a Black man (African-American), holding his backside and howling in pain, is thrown off the boat's bow into the air. He has been accidently shot in his rear by a white man seated at the boat's stern; the shooter holds his mis-aimed rifle puffling smoke. The dog, upset by the shot and the tipping boat, jumps between the shooter's legs. At the center of the boat, another white man tumbles backward; as he falls overboard, an oar hits him on the head, while his dropped rifle sinks into the water. In the upper right background, ducks fly unharmed in the sky.



Nathaniel Currier, whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of 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 caricatured subjects, many of which were made into lithographs published by Currier & Ives.