Darktown Tourists--Coming Back on their Dig
Publisher Currier & Ives American
Not on view
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; ship masts with unfurled sails are in the central and far left background. At left, a fancily dressed couple stroll towards the right as they snootily ignore the four shabbily dressed people who have come to greet them. As they advance, the man, who smokes a cigar and sports a monocle, raises his left hand to dismiss the poor folks. He wears a blue suit revealing a red-polka-dotted collar; his black top hat is embellished with a white sash. On his arm, his companion wears a pink dress with a blue bustle, a pink hat with yellow feathers, and yellow gloves; her right hand holds a yellow handbag (with a red grid pattern) and a leash attached to a small dog (lower left). Behind them on the pier, is their trunk, labeled "CUFFEE DeLONES/AND LADY." The group of four are open-mouthed because the couple pretends not to know them. At center, a bespectacled old man stands with a cane; he wears a red shirt, blue jacket, patched blue pants, and a old white hat. To his left is a woman in a green dress whose arms are outstretched towards the couple. Beside her is a large woman wearing a red polka-dotted yellow dress and kerchief and white apron. At the right, a barefoot youth, shown in a side view, wearing a green jacket and a yellow/red cap, stares in disbelief at the approaching couple. The title and disparaging 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.