Darktown Sociable, A "Fancy Dress" Hoodoo

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 caricatures a Black (African American) opera troupe frightened by the entry (from the doorway at left) of two black men garbed in white sheets (one wearing a skull mask). At the center of the room, a standing woman -- dressed in a blue blouse, pink ruffled tutu skirt, and pale blue stockings (with a tambourine in her left hand) -- faints backward against the back of a man, wearing a green cape and a feathered hat, who raises his arms in alarm. In front of them, collapsed onto the floor beside a broken stool, is a chubby man (wearing a yellow shirt and red leggings); his accordian leans against his left leg. Another man dressed in a red troubador costume (a purplish-gray cape over his shoulders), leans into the trio, yet outstretches his left arm to hold his banjo away from the fray. Three others (two costumed men -- one holding a banjo-- and a woman in a green skirt, red blouse, and green veil) rush through the door at right. Overturned candles (lower center and lower right) have started a smoking fire that engulfs a small black dog. At the lower left, a candlestick with its lit candle stands upright on the floor. On the wall in the background is a banner with the words "GRAND OPERA" and a gold clock on a ledge. The title is imprinted in the bottom margin. .

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.