Grand Football Match -- Darktown against Blackville: A Scrimmage

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 print, two soccer (football) teams of Black (African-American) men are piled on top of each other in a big heap on a green field. There are players' legs in all directions; most of the men are shown from the rear. At the bottom of this heap of bodies, several men have their mouths open to express shock, dismay and distress. One man (at bottom right) is shown having his head squashed by a foot. At right, a running player (in a blue/white striped jersey shirt and yellow pants) appears as though he is about to join the pile-up. In the left background, two players run behind the goal post.

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.