On the Homestretch

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, three caricatured Black (African American) men (one at left, and two at right) are grinning as they bend over and raise their hands with laughter at the sight of a drunk white man in a horse-drawn, four-wheeled carriage passing by. They see that the man has missed the carriage seat, and, instead, has landed with his legs in the air and with his backside broken partway through the collapsable cloth top at the far back of the carriage. In the right background, four white men stand laughing on a covered porch, and beyond are the stables. The title is 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.