A Darktown Lawn Party: A Bully Time

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 Black (African American) people at a disastrous picnic incident. A charging bull, wearing a red umbrella as a tutu, has disrupted the lawn party. The bull is about to trample a terrified prone woman, who is partly covered by a white table cloth on the ground. Her howling male companion (in a formal black suit) has been tossed into the air above her; his arms are outstretched. At right, a scared man scrambles up a tree, while a woman faints backward at the base of the tree. At left, a man flees the bull --leaving behind an overturned food basket. The sole of a shoe of another fleeing man is also visible. In the right background, there is commotion among other guests. 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.