Darktown Bicycling -- A Tender Pair: "I'se gwine to git dat pear or bust sumfin"

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 depicts caricatured figures. Two Black (African American) cyclists happily ride their bikes on a dirt road toward the viewer. The large woman cyclist on the right is dressed in a dark red jacket with puffy dotted sleeves (adorned with a gold-yellow collar and buttons), gray-and-white striped pants, tan spats over her blue striped leggings, and a small red hat with gold-yellow band. A thin man cycles with his left arm linked to the right arm of his companion; he is wearing a red/gold-yellow cap, orange shirt, and blue pants. They are unaware that along a tree limb overhanging above them, a Black man stretches precariously to grab a pear. At the base of the tree at left, the head of another Black man (or youth) appears over a rock wall. A sign attached to the tree trunk warns against tree climbing. A house (white with a blue roof) is in the left background. At the far right, beside a white rail fence, there is another sign ("DARKTOWN" reading in reverse) pointing in the direction behind the cyclists. The print's title and caption are imprinted beneath the image.



Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), 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 (1824–1895), the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law, was made a business partner. Subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued via their successors until 1907.