A Darktown Trotter Ready for the Word: Now den say go! And see Fancy Pranks bust de record wif dis ball bearin bike.

Thomas B. Worth American
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. 

In this harness-racing scene, a caricatured Black (African American) sulky driver (shown in a side view) points at three judges in the wooden judge stand sited beside the race track. The driver, who holds a stick instead of a whip, wears a green jacket with very long tails, yellow pants, black boots, and a red/white striped cap with a long red "duck bill" visor. The donkey, hitched to the sulky, turns towards the judges. The three judges (white men-- two with beards and one with a mustache-- are dressed in tailored jackets and hats) gaze down at the sulky driver. The sulky itself looks "home-made" with its curved pneumatic wheels (adapted from a bicycle). In the background on the far side of the race track beyond the grassy median, a horse-drawn sulky is shown moving briskly. The print's title and caption (spoken by the sulky driver) 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. The artist of this print is Thomas Worth, a prolific nineteenth-century illustrator who excelled at drawing horses, horse-drawn carriages, and other subjects, many of which were made into lithographs published by Currier & Ives.

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