The Darktown Yacht Club--Ladies' Day: You'll just ballast de boat, Miss Tiny

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 depicts a boating scene with caricatured Black (African American) people. At center, standing on a wooden pier, a huge woman (wearing a straw hat and a jacket with billowing red/yellow striped sleeves) lifts her yellow skirt (showing her white petticoat) as she daintily lifts her right foot to board one end of a rowboat. She towers over a young sailor (wearing a blue jacket with gold buttons and white pants), who has his right leg in the boat, and his left leg on the pier, as he politely raises his blue hat and holds her right hand to guide her aboard. At left, seated in the boat and holding their oars vertically, are two pairs of sailor-oarsmen (wearing white sailor suits and straw boater hats); they are wide-eyed as they behold their oversized passenger. A United States flag flies from the tip of the rowboat, and three sailboats are sailing in the background. At right, on the wooden pier, a woman (wearing a pink pinafore over a puffy-sleeved yellow blouse, and a straw hat) descends ladder-like steps; a ranking sailor in a blue jacket supports her descent by holding her right hand as he doffs his cap. Above them, a yacht club banner flies over the yacht club entry. In the right background, on the shore across the water, is a house.and a barn. The title and caption are 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.