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Albion College Archives: Exhibits History in Context: Currier & Ives "Darktown Comics"
Inclusive Dates
1877-1894
Be aware that the words, descriptions, and images from Currier & Ives Darktown Comics series are considered racially offensive by today's standards. The materials are presented in order to provide a historical representation of nineteenth century perceptions of immigrants and minorities in New York, and provide some information into the influence American politics had on these views. Albion College Special Collections hopes this site will serve as a valuable resource for research, generating a deeper understanding and respect for the subject, and sparking further interest in its study and discussion.
Provenance
History Currier & Ives proclaimed themselves as "Printmakers to the People" (qtd. in American Historical Print Collectors Society), as their images documented 19th century American life – sports, home, religion, politics, children, hunting, fishing, trains, views of cities, etc., while insidiously feeding the public's fears and biases as the market allowed. A catalog from the 1870s stated that the company was "thoroughly acquainted with the wants of the Public, and the best methods of producing good pictures at a small expense" (qtd. in Philadelphia Print Shop, Ltd. 2005). The operation was more a factory production line than an art studio. The third floor contained their hand-operated printing presses. The lithographers, letterers, and artists shared the fourth floor at No. 33 Spruce Street in lower Manhattan. The firm used a variety of sources for their prints, including virtually unknown staff artists, and more famous artists like Louis Maurer, Thomas Worth, Frances ('Fanny') Flora Bond Palmer, Napoleon Sarony, and Charles Parsons. They also borrowed images from other print publishers, both American and European (American Historical Print Collectors Society).
The role of the lithographer was to take the sketches or oil paintings completed by the artists and replicate it on a textured stone surface in reverse with greasy black crayons of various thicknesses and hardness. The technique allowed for few mistakes and nearly no erasures—serious mistakes meant that the stone had to be ground down so that the lithographer could start back at the beginning. It could take over a week to complete even a small print in this manner (Rawls). The fifth floor of No. 33 was occupied by the hand colorists, who only produced the small- and medium-sized prints—they were mostly German immigrant girls with artistic talent. The girls would sit at long tables, each using only one color before passing it along for additional colors. The large prints, approximately 2' x 3', were sent out to trained artists for coloring (Rawls). Even so, the professional colorists were only paid $1.00/12 large prints or $1.00/100 small, while the prints retailed anywhere from $0.20 up to $6.00 a piece (Philadelphia Print Shop, Ltd.). The firm also sold uncolored prints, with instructions to dealers on how to prepare the prints for coloring, or to schools for use in painting classes (American Historical Print Collectors Society). In the early years of the firm, Currier & Ives' lithographs were less expensive than chromolithographs, which are lithographs printed in color, and engravings; the daily "penny presses" didn't offer the same image quality as lithographs; and the celebrity portraits and historical scenes they produced offered color and movement that photography had yet to offer. But by continuing to use hand colorists as the century came to a close, Currier was fending off the inevitable. New technological advances began to slowly erode the popularity of Currier & Ives prints, as photographs became less expensive to produce and more widely available. Photography created a fad in the collecting of carte-de-visite photographs of famous people and stereopticons wherein the user to view a scene in three dimensions, and steam-powered printing, which allowed for 1,800 impressions per hour, allowed magazines to increase their quality, quantity, and timeliness as it reduced costs and eased the output of printed words and illustrations (Rawls). Faced with these competitors, declining content, and a rising middle class with more sophisticated tastes, Chauncey Ives closed the business in 1907 and sold the equipment and lithography stones to his shop foreman, Daniel W. Logan (Currier & Ives Foundation).
Historical Context When Irish immigrants first began coming to America, Currier & Ives depicted them as heroic characters, fighting against political oppression and starvation, idealizing major figures in Irish history. But as New York became flooded with immigrants, specifically the large numbers of Irish, the prints began to foster "ugly, stereotypic images of people who did not conform to the Currier & Ives idealized vision of an idyllic and homogeneous white middle-class American way of life" (qtd. in Dorsey 8E). The Irish became stereotyped as violent and hard-drinking, the poorest of the poor; as depicted in comic prints such as "Paddy Murphy's 'Jantin Car'" or "Paddy and the Pigs" (both undated). Not even the Catholic clergy were immune from Currier & Ives mistreatment of the Irish. In "Oh! How Fine," a bearded friar in a cowl smiles as he holds both up a bottle and a glass of wine. Over two hundred images were published by Currier & Ives on the Irish and Irish immigrants as a whole, and, while most of them were furthering stereotypes, few were intentionally negative—despite the fact that the Irish constituted the "largest and most troubling such group of the period" (LeBeau 245), especially after the New York City riot in 1863. Similar images were created focusing on the Scots. The Germans were likewise caricatured, often pictured wearing a fez and large waxed moustache while smoking giant cigars, as in "The Jolly Smoker" (1880), or they were featured as untrustworthy, as in "A Skin Game" and its companion "A Skinner Skinned." The Chinese were featured with simian-like skulls and facial features, as in "The Heathen Chinee" (1871). The lithographs by Joseph Hull that were originally used to illustrate the poem, "Plain Language from Truthful James or The Heathen Chinee" (1870) by F. Bret Harte were, not surprisingly, no better than the Currier & Ives images. The Chinese were seen as deviant heathens, considered pollutant to white society, and were met with slurs, such as "chinks," "coolies," "celestials," "slant-eyes," and "moonfaces" (244-45). Native American depictions depended upon which artist created the image—George Catlin, for example, had actually visited the West and seen buffalo and met native people, studying their traditions and skills. His drawings were realistic in their portrayal of Native Americans, and one can see his expertise in "Indians Attacking the Grizzly Bear, the Most Savage and Ferocious Animal of North America" (circa 1865). The majority of the artists for Native American prints had never been to the American West and knew nothing of Native Americans except through secondary sources—"The Last War Whoop" and "The Pursuit" as good examples. Their images showed the conquest of Native Americans as "inevitable and desirable," favoring the popular ideology of westward expansion (Mellor). Currier & Ives likewise depicted women's suffrage in a negative light. In "The Age of Brass or the Triumph of Women's Rights" a group of women are pictured, one of who holds a sign that states, "Vote for the Celebrated Man Tamer, Susan Sharp Tongue," while, in the background, women are voting, obviously for her, and a women on the right scolds a man, holding a baby. "The Age of Iron: Man as He Expects to Be" is equally negative, with a woman driving a stage coach of other women on the left, while their husbands sit on the right, tending to their children and washing. But the obscene level of exploitation through stereotypes and caricature was not fully imagined until Currier & Ives' Darktown series. Previous to the Emancipation Proclamation, Currier & Ives generally depicted blacks as individuals content with their lives and position in society; they were often pictured in the background of idyllic plantation images. Initially after the Proclamation was issued, the firm continued to depict blacks in a positive light, focusing more on individuals, publishing portraits of John Brown, Frederick Douglas, and black Union soldiers fighting for their freedom (222). As time went on, however, and the freedmen began to move north into the cities, it became more apparent that not all Northerners were unanimous in their support of emancipation and the status of the freedman. The political images published by Currier & Ives during this time were vicious attacks against the character and intelligence of blacks, depicting them as unsupportive and disobliging of the political figures who sought to free them, such as Abraham Lincoln, Horace Greeley, and Senator Charles Sumner (226). During and after Reconstruction, Currier & Ives, and America it seems, continued to appreciate these negative images of African Americans. Out of this, between the mid-1870s to the early 1890s, the Darktown Comics arose, mostly illustrated by Thomas Worth (1834-1917) and James Cameron (1828-1963). The company described the Comics as "pleasant and humorous designs, free from coarseness or vulgarity, being good natured hits at the popular amusements and excitements of the times" (qtd. in LeBeau 231). It has been suggested that Darktown may have "served as satires on polite white behavior as well" (232), as could be supported by previously positive images of African Americans. Regardless of intent, the prints only reinforced negative racial stereotypes throughout the country. The caricatures presented by the Darktown Comics consisted of "African Americans performing actions that were more or less normal for 'ordinary' folk, meaning whites...the implication being that the African Americans could not execute even the simplest tasks of everyday life without making themselves appear ridiculous" (qtd. in LeBeau 232). The most common images depicted by Currier & Ives' artists were of African Americans attempting to have horse, scull and sulky races; ride in carriages and yachts; hunt; host lawn parties; play tennis; and fight fires--always with disastrous results. And the depiction of African American lawyers, doctors and the clergymen as bumbling and dishonest were quite malicious. African American children were also featured in a poor light - as mischievous, out of control, disrespectful hoodlums. This is evident in prints by Thomas Worth such as "A Put Up Job" and "A Fall from Grace" (1883) and "Breaking In: A Black Imposition" and "Breaking Out: A Lively Scrimmage" (1881). African American stereotypes that still exist today were begun here – the connection of African Americans to music, in Darktown specifically of banjo playing, and of their supposed eating habits, most notable in the Comics, that of eating watermelon. This can be seen in the prints that make up the set of the Darktown Banjo Class and in single prints like "O Dat Watermillion!" (241). As one can see, African American speech was attacked as well, through phonetic renderings steeped in the distortion of stereotypes and caricature (234). The Darktown Comics did not develop or exist in a vacuum, however. In addition to the Darktown prints that came out of this time, Harper's Weekly featured the Blackville prints; examples of which can be seen at HarpWeek's exhibition, "Toward Racial Equality: Harper's Weekly Reports on Black America, 1857-1874" or the Philadelphia Print Shop's "Blackville Prints." These were similar in content to Darktown—spoofs of African American attempts at high fashion, sports, etc. The most prevalent artists of this series were Sol Eytinge, Jr., William Ludwell Sheppard, S.C. McCutcheon and "Sphinx" (Philadelphia Print Shop, Ltd.). Other publications, such as Life, Puck and Judge, as well as Pulitzer's New York World and Hearst's New York Journal produced similar images but these were in the context of satire (Hays). Whether or not these images were taken as satire or at face value by the American populous is up for debate, however. Other news and editorial magazines, such as The Outlook and The Independent, also promoted these types of images through their illustrations and advertising—exemplifying the prevalence and acceptance of these racist stereotypes across the country (Hays). The "high art" of this time, specifically that of southern artists, furthered these stereotypes as well, dehumanizing the African American through their depictions of coal black skin, thick red lips, oversized teeth, and patchwork clothing. It wasn't until the impact of the Ashcan Society and the period of realism came into play that classical forms of art began to celebrate the figure of the African American as he really appeared. The art of Robert Henry, George Luks and George Wesley Bellows are forefathers of this new view – a celebration of the African American (James 68-69).
This was also the time of Darwin, when some scientists sought to show the inferiority of minority races as a natural occurrence of evolution. A popular example of this time aimed at African Americans was "Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro." Racial stereotypes were also furthered through the music of this era. Henry Tucker's "The Irishman's Shanty" represents the Irishman as a poor drunkard, living like one of the animals from which he is supposedly evolved. Irish violence and alcoholism are also featured in "Auld Times" at Donnybrook Fair" (undated). African American stereotypes can also be found on the covers of sheet music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The popular Leo. Feist, Inc. edition of "The Darktown Strutters' Ball" by Shelton Brooks (1917) contains images of African Americans dressed in their best finery, apparently putting on airs, while "strutting" at the ball. The premise behind the song is that of a "formal" dance held annually in Chicago for prostitutes and their associates. The stereotypical oversized lips, black skin and simian features that were prevalent in such designs are in the cover art for this song as well (Morgan). Another example would be the sheet music for "Primrose and West's Big Minstrels" – this image was created by the Strobridge Lithograph Company, circa 1896. African American speech at the time was also mimicked and caricatured in these songs. Other examples of racism in music can be found at the Parlor Songs Association.
Hopefully from a review of the images and references below, one can come to understand the historical context in which the stereotyping, hate, and fear of other races arose during the nineteenth century, in order to prevent those same discriminations from creeping into the present or overtaking the future.
Inventory
& Description Box 1An Affair of Honor 001 A Stray Shot – “What Yer Gwine Nigga? Yer Done Shot Old Sawbones!”
Artist King & Murphy, 1884 Physical Description 13.75" x 10.5" (plate and text). 20” x 16" (matted). Crease, lower right. Insect damage. Bottom left corner missing. Hand-colored. Vignette. Scene The duel is over, and the two contestants have fallen over one another. The elderly black man with the surgeon’s tool box is the only one who gets shot, in his thigh. * Notes Companion and conclusion to The Critical Moment: Now Den Brace Em Up, —One!—Two!! —. Black & white prints owned by Library of Congress and Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY). Hand-colored print owned by Museum of the City of New York. 002 Asking a Hand – “Leff Me be de Possessah ob dat Lubly Number Seben!”
Artist Unsigned, 1887 Physical Description 12" x 10.75" (image and text). 19" x 16” (matted). Hand-colored. Vignette. Scene A black man in tails, his top hat on the floor in front of him, shouts his desire at a black woman standing across from him. A small dog flies through the air on the far left. Notes Black & white prints owned by Chicago Historical Society, Library of Congress, and Museum of the City of New York. 003 A Base Hit
Artist Thomas Worth, 1882 Physical Description 13.75" x 10.25" (image and text). 20" x 16” (matted). Tear, bottom right corner. Hand-colored. Vignette. Scene Three black baseball players tumble to catch a baseball that has just hit a portly passerby in the stomach. Notes Black & white prints owned by Library of Congress, Chicago Historical Society, Peters Collection and Heritage Plantation of Sandwich (Sandwich, MA). 004 The Boss of the Road
Artist Thomas Worth, 1877 Physical Description 12.5" x 9" (image and text). 20" x 16” (matted). Water damage. Discoloration. Brittle. Hand-colored. Scene A black man carries his jug at left, and a horse-drawn carriage has been forced to either side of the road. Notes Closer view point of larger image with same title, printed in 1884. Same character as in Bulldozed! (009). This was reprinted in 1883 in this smaller size. It was also published without a date and as a trade card (1880). Black & white print owned by Library of Congress. Hand-colored print owned by Museum of the City of New York. 005 De Boss Rooster
Artist Thomas Worth, 1882 Physical Description 13.75" x 10.5" (image and text). 20" x 16” (matted). Hand-colored. Vignette. Scene In the foreground, black men observe the results of a cockfight, while others peer over a board fence. One of the roosters lies dead, its feather scattered on the ground. The winning group of bettors cheer joyfully on the right. Notes Black & white print owned by Library of Congress. 006 Bound to Smash!! Or Caught by the Wool.
Artist Thomas Worth, 1877 Physical Description 13.5" x 10" (image and text). 20" x 16” (matted). Insect and water damage. Discoloration. Brittle. Hand-colored. Scene A black couple racing against a white rival loses control as the wheels of their wagon slide into a ditch. The wife grabs her husband by the hair. Notes Companion to Bound to Shine!! Black & white prints owned by Library of Congress and Museum of the City of New York. 007 “Breaking In.” A Black Im-position Image coming soon Artist Thomas Worth, 1881 Physical Description 14.25" x 10.25" (image and text). 20" x 16” (matted). Large tear, middle top. Hand-colored. Vignette. Scene A horse is tethered to a wooden fence as young black boys, grinning fiendishly, climbs onto the rails. Another boy whittles a branch with a knife while he runs toward the fence. Notes Companion to Breaking Out (008). Black & white print owned by Library of Congress. 008 Breaking Out. A Lively Scrimmage Image coming soon Artist Thomas Worth, 1881 Physical Description 14.25" x 10.5" (image and text). 20" x 16" (matted). Tear, left side. Brittle. Hand-colored. Vignette. Scene A rearing horse crashes through a fence and send young black boys flying through the air, some of them holding pieces of the fence. A smaller boy races away to the right. Notes Companion to Breaking In (007). Black & white prints owned by the Museum of the City of New York and Library of Congress. 009 Bulldozed!
Artist Thomas Worth, 1877 Physical Description 12.5" x 8.75" (image and text). 20" x 16” (matted). Hand-colored. Scene On the left, a large bull watches a donkey and its black rider take a tumble in front of a haystack as a result of his charge. The man’s open umbrella files toward the upper right. Notes This is the same character as in The Boss of the Road (004). This was also printed as a comic trade card in 1877. 1875 print entitled Bull-dozed – connection? Black & white prints owned by Library of Congress and Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY). 010 The Champion in Danger. Golly! He’s Got dis Nigga Suah Less Sumfin HappensImage coming soon
Artist Thomas Worth, 1882
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