A Sharp Rifle: With the Bulge on the Shooter

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 the aftermath of a misfired rifle at a shooting range. The caricatured face and feet of a Black (African American) man, as well as part of his rifle and the legs of a Black boy, protrude from a giant bulge, which is, in fact, a blazing, fiery mattress (at left), which has exploded into the air and engulfed the shooters. Below and to the right of this burning "bulge," the viewer can see that the blast has caused the soldier's red-feathered hat and shoes to fly off. On the ground (at right) is an injured (or dead?) dog lying with its paws up in the air; a straw mattress with holes has landed nearby. In the upper right background, a light blue canopy has collapsed and covered a Black woman, so that only her arms and legs (and part of her pink petticoat) are visible. The print's title is imprinted in the bottom 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. 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.