The Bric-A-Brac Mania

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 shows a Black (African American) man and two Black (African American) women in a cozy domestic interior with an iron stove--it's stove pipe connects to the wall above several decorative items on a mantle piece of an unlit fireplace (left). The man (wearing a hat and red/yellow striped pants), tilts his chair back as, with his legs crossed; he perches his right foot on the stove ledge near the glowing embers. With his hand on his chin, the man addresses the women: "Dat's fine piece " broke yer back" Missis Jonsing. Whar you got him?" [This is the caption below the image. The man has mis-pronounced "bric-a-brac," a term for objects and ornaments of little value, as "broke yer back."] The young woman (with braided hair) has a big grin as she stands between the man and the back wall and displays a lidless teapot on her outstretched right hand. An older, bespectacled woman (wearing a headscarf, a blue neck scarf, and pink dress) is seated behind the stove as she looks at the man; her left hand in a raised gesture. In the left foreground, there is a black cat (seen from behind) sitting beside the stove, upon which are a kettle and frying pan.

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 Currier (the artist and printer of this print) 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.