The Darktown Elopement: "Skip softly lub, dont sturb de ole man an de bull pup!"

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 Black (African American) figures. On a moonlit night, a young woman descends via a rope ladder from the trap door in the roof of a wooden shack. She steps onto the back of a young man,who cautions her (see caption imprinted in the bottom margin). The young man wears red checked pants and his hat is on the ground beside him .They are unaware that around the corner of the shack, a man with a shotgun and a small dog peer out of the door. On the roof are two black cats (one of them is atop the chimney). To the right of the shack, a donkey stands ready to depart with the couple. The full moon (upper right) is partly obscured by clouds. The title and caption are imprinted in the bottom margin.


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.