A Fair Start: "Take de water togedder when yous hear de shot!"

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 swimming race scene, two Black (African-American) men stand on a edge of wooden dock with their arms extended as they prepare to dive. At left, a thin man is wearing a red and black swimming outfit. Closer to the center of the image, a fat man, wearing a yellow and green swimming outfit, turns his head to look with concern at his rival. In the right half of the image, four Black men (one standing and three seated) are in a row boat: In the boat, from left to right: there is a seated man, wearing a red T-shirt and yellow hat, holding on to the dock to keep the boat close to it; beside him, a man (in a top hat, blue jacket, polka dot collar, yellow/red checked pants) stands holding a desk clock in his right hand as he extends his left hand poised with a gun; the oarsman wears a tweed jacket, light plaid pants, and a straw boater hat; and the fourth man (wearing a bowler hat, plaid jacket, pale blue striped pants, spats and shoes) sits cross-legged as he perches on the end of the boat.

Nathaniel Currier, whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored 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.