"Two Souls With But A Single Thought"

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, a caricatured Black (African American) couple are seated on a wooden bench on a narrow front porch of a small wooden house. As they lean in to share biting into a huge slice of watermelon they are both holding, they eagerly gaze at each other. Inside the doorway (left), an older couple watch and smile at them; beside them is a watermelon on a cloth-covered table. The young woman (center), who adorns her hair with a green ribbon, wears a red jacket and a yellow-ish skirt, red/white striped stockings, and brownish-red shoes. The young man (at right) wears red/white striped shirt and pants, an off-white vest, a blue jacket, and a small straw hat tipped on the back of his head. A banjo hangs upside down on a post at the edge of the porch (right). A full moon is at the upper right shining on the scene, which includes a distant cluster of buildings.The title is imprinted in the botom margin.


Nathaniel Currier, 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 (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.