Darktown Tourists--Going off on their Blubber: "Nuffin but poor weak cullud pussuns."

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 shows six caricatured Black (African American) people on a wooden dock saying goodbys. At left, the back of a sailer is shown standing beside a ship; masts of more ships are shown in the central background. Depicted in a row in the foreground, from left to right, a gray-haired woman, wearing a red skirt and blue blouse, lifts her white apron to wipe away her tears. She is next to a pair of women who cry as they hug each other: one wears a red-polka-dotted kerchief, and a white apron over her red-polka-dotted white dress, and the other (wearing a red scarf, a dark blue blouse and a light blue skirt) holds a carpet bag labeled DINAH LONES/ DARKTOWN"). Next to them, a weeping man (wearing a light blue jacket, red shirt, blue pants, one boot and one shoe) holds a sack labeled "CUFF CONE'S BAG" as he shakes the hand of an older, white-haired man with a cane. At the end of the line, a barefoot youth (wearing a blue jacket, patched pants and a red/yellow cap) watches the weepy farewells. 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.