A Mule Train on a Down Grade: "Clar de Track for We's a Comin."

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 caricatures a family traveling in mountainous terrain. A Black (African American) woman --wearing a white dress with bluish stripes and a straw bonnet -- is riding a downhill-racing donkey. The woman is seated on the donkey's neck with her legs lifted. Beneath her left leg, a red trunk is tied to the flank of the donkey. Her mouth is open wide with clenched teeth, as she tightly holds the donkey's ears. Behind her, a Black child in a basket grasps his mother's shoulder, while he holds a banjo in his other hand. Flying behind them is a grinning Black man gripping the tail of the donkey. He wears a blue/white checked shirt and patched white overalls; he has lost his hat and one boot which are in the air behind him. The title and caption are imprinted in the bottom margin. This print has a companion print "A Mule Train on an Up Grade: "Golly! Where Is Dis Yere Promis Land!" " (Peters 421, Gale 4637; see accession no.52.632.19).

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 and other subjects, many of which were made into lithographs published by Currier & Ives; he also drew many of the Darktown images.