1 10 43 https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/98b5cd64ea470a37ae547131c7b21d31.jpg 4b820e3f782d5acfecfdaf9233ecd6be Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data daguerreotype Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image Ninth Plate (2 x 2.5 inches) Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Captain Walker became famous as an abolitionist and slave-liberator after he was seized in 1844 at sea while attempting to bring seven escaped slaves to the Bahamas, a colony of the British Empire, where slavery had been abolished. A Florida court sentenced him to be fined and branded on the hand with the letters “S. S.” for “slave stealer.” Abolitionists raised funds to pay Walker’s substantial fine and to secure his release from prison. After his release, Walker traveled for several years as a popular speaker at abolitionist events, and in 1845 he published a book based on his experiences, his Trial and Imprisonment of Captain Jonathan Walker. The photograph below portrays Walker later in life; printed on the back of the card mount for the photograph is an outline of Walker’s life. walkermedwalkerrevmed J. D. Westervelt, Jonathan Walker, cabinet card (circa 1870), collection of Greg French Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary White Suffering and The Branded Hand Martin A. Berger Sometime in 1845, Jonathan Walker (1799-1878) entered the fashionable Boston daguerreotype studio of Southworth & Hawes to sit for an unusual portrait. In contrast to the many middle-class patrons who made their way to portrait studios to have bust- or full-length likenesses of themselves made for family and friends, Walker had agreed to the request of a prominent Boston physician, Henry Ingorsoll Bowditch (1808-1892), to have a commemorative daguerreotype taken of his hand. Just a few years prior, Walker was a little-known New England tradesman and shipwright who had relocated to the sleepy territorial town of Pensacola, Florida. He gained international fame in November of 1844 when convicted by a Florida jury of “aiding and inducing two slaves to run away, and stealing two others.”(1) A white man who had long been opposed to slavery, Walker was known in Pensacola for his unusual determination to treat the slaves and free blacks around him with respect. In June, Walker embarked on a more radical path, consenting to the request of seven enslaved men to sail them several hundred miles to freedom in the Bahamas. Once Parliament’s passage of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act initiated gradual emancipation in British possessions, Canada, to the north, and various Caribbean islands, to the south, became alluring destinations for American slaves. Unfortunately for Walker and his passengers, his small boat was discovered after fourteen days at sea by a passing American sloop; suspicious of seven blacks sailing with one white man in a cramped boat, the captain ordered Walker’s vessel towed back to a Florida port so that the men could explain themselves to authorities. Ardent abolitionists such as Bowditch considered Walker a hero for putting his life and liberty at risk for the sake of American slaves. But even for northerners less committed to the abolitionist struggle, Walker’s story was deemed remarkable for the cruelty of the punishment he stoically endured. After a speedy trial, a Florida judge sentenced Walker “to be placed in the pillory for one hour; then brought into court, and branded in the right hand with the letters SS.; then remanded to prison for fifteen days, and remain there until the fine (one hundred and fifty dollars) and the costs of the prosecution should be paid.”(2) The clearly visible branding scars in the daguerreotype, which stood for “slave stealer,” were intended as a punishment for Walker and as a warning to like-minded whites not to act on their political convictions. The daguerreotype Bowditch commissioned―now in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society―shows Walker’s open right hand resting on a table with its palm facing toward the camera and thumb extended upward. The dark cuff of Walker’s jacket is evident at the left-hand side of the image and a hint of his white, stiffened shirtsleeve visible above and below his wrist. Just under the base of the thumb two raised white scars trace themselves across the lines and wrinkles of Walker’s palm, each of which forms a reversed “S” Daguerreotypes are produced without the aid of negatives. They are made of copper sheets coated with a thin plating of silver that is chemically sensitized to light. Upon exposure to light, a daguerreotype plate produces a mirror image of the object before it, which is why the scars are laterally reversed and the hand appears to be Walker’s left. Because a daguerreotype’s image forms directly on the plate―without mediating negatives―each plate is a unique object from which duplicates are not easily created. The image of Walker’s hand was first and foremost a one-of-a-kind keepsake for a prominent Boston abolitionist who wished to possess a visual reminder of the shipwright’s exploits. The image was seen by small circles of sympathetic men and women who surely passed the image around at intimate gatherings in Bowditch’s home. And yet, despite the limited circulation of the daguerreotype itself, the image of Walker’s branded hand became one of the best-known symbols of the American abolitionist movement. An engraving of the daguerreotype was printed in newspaper accounts of Walker’s ordeal, abolitionist pamphlets, Walker’s bestselling autobiography, and even carved into the imposing funerary obelisk erected to mark his grave upon his death in 1878.(3) Click here to see the Walker Pamplet Walker was feted in the north as soon as he made his way to New York after the last of his court costs were paid by supporters and his release secured. The same abolitionists who raised funds to support Walker’s family during his imprisonment, paid a prominent lawyer to look into his case, and discharged his court fines and costs, now encouraged him to pen an account of his exploits and lecture on his experiences. For several years after his release Walker was a sought-after speaker on the abolitionist lecture circuit who frequently shared the stage with former slaves. Walker and the freemen would recount their harrowing experiences before audiences for the sake of raising concern and funds in the north for the abolitionist cause. His stature was such that newspaper headlines announcing abolitionist lectures routinely listed his name first―or alone―even when he was to appear with such well-known figures as John S. Jacobs, the younger brother of Harriet Jacobs, or the century’s great orator, activist and, later, statesman, Frederick Douglass. The Liberator reported on a joint appearance by Walker and Douglass in August of 1845 under the headline: “Walker Meeting in New Bedford.”(4) It may seem surprising that white newspapers gave greater attention to Walker than Douglass. After all, the white abolitionist spent just eleven months in a Florida jail before his northern supporters paid his court fine and costs, while the former slave endured decades of bondage before escaping on his own to the north. In addition, Douglass was widely acknowledged as an unrivaled speaker who excelled in communicating to audiences the appalling conditions under which slaves lived. But no matter how poignant their experiences and eloquent their testimony, freemen did not enjoy the authority of white abolitionists among European-Americans in the north. White speakers on the abolitionist circuit were valued for their perspectives on slavery, but also for their ability to authenticate the stories told by blacks. The authority of whites is demonstrated by a nineteenth-century publishing convention for slave narratives, whereby publishers routinely included a foreword by a prominent white citizen attesting to the truthfulness of the slave whose story was told in the chapters that followed. The forewords offered tacit assurance to readers that the author of the narrative was a former slave (and not a white impostor hoping to turn a quick buck), as it explicitly vouched for the veracity of the story told. As America’s most famous white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison wrote reassuringly in the preface to Douglass’s bestselling Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (1845): “I am confident that it is essentially true in all its statements; that nothing has been set down in malice, nothing exaggerated, nothing drawn from the imagination; that it comes short of the reality, rather than overstates a single fact in regard to SLAVERY AS IT IS.”(5) Since Garrison had witnessed none of the events recounted in Douglass’s autobiography, his willingness to lend his name to Douglass’s story was ultimately as important as his choice of words. Much as Garrison vouched for Douglass’s printed account by attaching his name to the autobiography, so Walker bestowed legitimacy on the freeman’s oral testimony through his willingness to share the stage. But Walker’s presence worked on white audiences in other ways as well, allowing them to imagine the centrality of suffering, white martyrs in the anti-slavery movement. The comparatively few white abolitionists who’d been imprisoned, mistreated or martyred for acting on their beliefs became the face of slavery for millions of whites in the north, notwithstanding that it was millions of black Americans who lived under and engaged in daily struggles against the slave system. The white abolitionist organizer and editor, Maria Weston Chapman, lamented how the plight of the occasional white abolitionist distracted white audiences from their attention to the much greater distress of millions of blacks. As she observed, when a white man is arrested for attempting to free slaves: “The whole North, aye, Europe, is unusually moved. Money is poured out, like water, for the prisoner’s family, and to test points of law for the prisoner’s benefit.” Speaking specifically of Walker’s treatment, Frederick Douglass observed that it “was one of the few atrocities of slavery that roused the justice and humanity of the north.”(6) The historian Marcus Wood reminds us that the suffering of the black slave was long associated by whites in Great Britain and the United States with the suffering of Christ. As Wood explains, “the abused and tortured body of the slave was closer to Christ’s experience than were the bodies of free abolitionists. Ultimate suffering at the hands of the wicked implicitly raises the slave victim above the white audience either inflicting or contemplating suffering.”(7) And as Wood points out, the image of the black slave as a Christ-like figure posed a peculiar challenge for even the most radical white abolitionists, since few whites could then conceptualize of blacks as their moral, intellectual, or spiritual equals. Because a belief in the evils of slavery did not equate with a belief in black equality, the specter of suffering blacks being closer to Christ than God-fearing white abolitionists was unsettling to many whites. This is what made the narratives of white abolitionist martyrs so appealing to European-American audiences. While no one could argue that Walker suffered more than the slaves he tried to aid, his suffering appeared nobler, given that it was freely chosen. Like Christ, and unlike slaves who were forced or born into servitude, Walker chose his fate. Walker’s autobiography is filled with references to his chosen suffering and to the religious nature of his cause. He repeatedly wrote of “the act for which I was called to suffer;” “the misery and suffering of imprisonment;” the “severe” pain he endured during and after his branding, which he deemed part of “the most degrading punishments that human invention has produced.”(8) In his detailed recounting of the court-ordered branding, Walker described the scene in the following manner: “When about to be branded, I was placed in the prisoner’s box [in the courtroom]. The Marshall, Ebenezer Dora, formerly of Maine, proceeded to tie my hand to a part of the railing front. I remarked that there was no need of tying it, for I would hold still.”(9) It is a minor but telling detail that Walker recounts his willingness to compliantly present his hand for branding. As wrong as he believes the punishment ordered by the court to be, Walker accepts his sentence as something he is called on to stoically endure. A subsequent press account of his court case took pains to note that Walker, “on Christian grounds objects to any legal [appeal] proceedings in his own behalf, choosing to suffer wrong.”(10) White accounts of Walker’s ordeal consistently presented him as a Christ-like figure who chose to suffer for the cause of abolition. Many of his supporters re-branded the “SS” scars to stand for “soul savior,” “slave savior,” or “salvation to the slave,” making Walker’s links to Christ even more clear by highlighting how black salvation hinged on his sacrifice. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier brought these links before a large reading public in “The Branded Hand” (1846), his famous tribute to Walker. In it he wrote that Walker’s “branded palm shall prophesy, ‘Salvation to the Slave!’” A heated essay appearing in the Boston Chronicle took the imagery a step farther in its conflation of Walker and Christ. The editors wrote of the branding: “This thing which ye have done unto the least of his little ones, ye have done unto Him who died for the slave. Into His hands, still bearing the nail-marks of the cross, have ye burned the literal signet of your malignity to man and human freedom.”(11) Given the like placement of Walker’s brand and the stigmata on Christ’s hands, few would have missed the visual analogy as Walker moved among abolitionist crowds at the conclusion of his talks, holding out his marked right palm for eager audiences in the 1840s.(12) So fixated was Walker on his own suffering, that the first edition of his 119-page published account of his exploits contains not a word on the fate of the seven men who set off with him from Florida. Several of them are not even named in the text. The enslaved men who enlisted Walker’s help, initiating the chain of events described in the autobiography, are inexplicably dropped from the narrative at the moment of Walker’s arrest. We know from surviving accounts of Walker’s abolitionist talks that he would hold up his hand to audiences so that they might view his famous scars. At the conclusion of his lectures, one can imagine Walker passing among eager audiences, allowing men and women to take his middle-aged hand in their own to inspect the scars up close. Younger, less restrained, observers may even have touched the raised letters. The daguerreotype allowed this intimate ritual to be repeated by Bowditch and his associates at their leisure. Produced on a “Ninth Plate (2 x 2.5 inches),” The Branded Hand was created on one of the smallest daguerreotype plates in circulation, measuring just 2 x 2.5 inches. Even with the inclusion of its protective casing, the framed image was diminutive. To see it clearly one needed to take it in hand; while women and children may have used both hands to cradle the daguerreotype, a man could easily have grasped it in one. To hold and study the daguerreotype is to see the stigma burned into the copper plate as a visual reminder of Walker’s ordeal, and to place an overlay of the “SS” brand across one’s own palm. For the elite, white viewers who cradled the daguerreotype, the mere desire to hold the image attested to their own abolitionist credentials, as it aligned Walker’s more famous hand with their own. With the superimposition of his “SS” scars on their palms, the daguerreotype may also have flattered viewers into imagining his or her own “suffering” (either emotional or financial) for the noble abolitionist cause. As it raised interest in and awareness of the fight against slavery, the Branded Hand daguerreotype helped to ensure that abolition would remain linked in the minds of white northerners to the dedication and suffering of European-Americans. In the odd logic of its day, the plight of blacks was publicized through attention to the experiences of whites whose more modest―and often imagined―suffering bore little relation to that experienced by millions of American slaves. Martin A. Berger is Director of the Visual Studies Graduate Program and Professor in the History of Art and Visual Culture department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His most recent book is Seeing through Race: A Reinterpretation of Civil Rights Photography (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2011). NOTES (1) Jonathan Walker, The Branded Hand: The Trial and Imprisonment of Jonathan Walker, at Pensacola, Florida, for Aiding Slaves to Escape from Bondage (Boston: Anti-Slavery Society, 1848), 32. (2) Walker, Branded Hand, 40. (3) For engraved reproductions of the daguerreotype image, see “The Branded Hand,” Prisoner’s Friend: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Criminal Reform, Philosophy, August 13, 1845, 79; “The Man with the Branded Hand,” Zion’s Herald, July 12, 1899, 877; and the title page in each of Walker’s many editions of his autobiography The Branded Hand. For the popularity of newspaper engravings of the branded hand image, see Hazel Wolf, On Freedom’s Altar: The Martyr Complex in the Abolition Movement (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1952), 67. (4) “Communications: Jonathan Walker and John S. Jacobs on Sunday,” The North Star, March 31, 1848; “Walker Meeting in New Bedford,” The Liberator, August 22, 1845, 135. (5) Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (New York: FQ Classics, 2007), 10; when John S. Jacobs published an account of his life in The Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation, the journal’s white editors prefaced his essay with their comment that “The writer of these autobiographical sketches has, since his escape from slavery, held positions of trust in free countries, and every statement may be relied on.” In “A True Tale of Slavery,” The Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation (February 7, 1861), 85. (6) Maria Weston Chapman, The Liberty Bell (Boston: Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair, 1845), 205-06; Douglass quoted in “The Branded Hand,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 2, 1878, 1. (7) Marcus Wood, Blind Memory: Visual Representations of Slavery in England and America, 1780-1865 (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 2000), 243. (8) Walker, Branded Hand, 101, 20, 40, 86. (9) Walker, Branded Hand, 40-43. (10) Walker, Branded Hand, 44; C.M. Bruleigh, “Tour on the Cape,” Liberator, February 28, 1845, 35. (11) For whites’ reinterpretation of the “SS” branding, see Walker, Branded Hand, 108; “Walker Meeting in New Bedford,” The Liberator, August 22, 1845, 135; “Jonathan Walker,” Christian Reflector, August 21, 1845, 136; “The Branded Hand,” Liberator, September 5, 1845, 1; also, see Frank Edward Kittredge, “The Man with the Branded Hand,” The New England Magazine, November 1898, 369. “The Branded Hand,” Boston Chronicle, reprinted in Elihu Burritt, Sparks from the Anvil (London: Charles Gilpin, 1847), 97-98. (12) [Anti-Slavery Society], The Branded Hand, pamphlet #9 (Philadelphia: Anti-Slavery Society, c.1846), 34. For abolitionist’s empathetic imaginings of themselves and their family members as suffering slaves, see Aileen S. Kraditor, Means and Ends in American Abolition: Garrison and His Critics on Strategy and Tactics, 1834-1850 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1967), 237-39, 242. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure007 Title A name given to the resource The Branded Hand of Captain Jonathan W. Walker Subject The topic of the resource The Branded Hand of Captain Jonathan W. Walker Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Albert Sands Southworth (American, 1811-1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes (American, 1808-1908) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1845 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Massachusetts Historical Society Collection (Photo 1.373) https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/6a2be3bf3ec6800ee1b80047e840d2c9.tif 0af270a876a5b3efdd221d53af7e58e6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data daguerreotype Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image Quarter Plate (3.25 x 4.25 inches) Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Jenny Lind (1820-1887), “the Swedish nightingale,” achieved extraordinary celebrity in mid-nineteenth century America by touring the country for singing performances under the management of P. T. Barnum, the famous circus manager and events promoter. Lind was one of the the first performers to achieve “celebrity” or “star” status, thanks in part to the overwhelming publicity and marketing efforts of Barnum. Lind married the German-Jewish pianist and composer Otto Goldschmidt (1829-1907) on Feb. 8, 1852 in Boston. Though he was Jewish and she was not, she married him despite their differences in religious background. At the time, this was a bold thing to do, but Lind’s enormous and international popularity as a performer allowed her a rare freedom from social constraints. This daguerreotype is a copy of an original made by the great Boston photographer team, Southworth and Hawes, as commissioned by Lind and Goldschmidt on the eve of their wedding. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary A broad theme we are interested in exploring at Mirror of Race is how whiteness was, and is, construed. In the America of the 19th century, and indeed well beyond that period, Jews belonged to a suspect category of people who might seem white but who did not fit the expectations of what made someone properly white. In the 19th century, nationality or ethnicity were often conflated with race, and so Jews faced exclusion not only on religious but also on racial grounds. Jews were not alone in being subjected to this kind of scrutiny and exclusion from the full privileges that whiteness bestowed. The largely Protestant white population of the United States resisted accepting Irish Catholics as members of their kind, especially as large numbers of Irish began immigrating after the Potato Famine of the late 1840s. Later in the century, southern Europeans faced similar doubts and prejudice. Otto Goldschmidt belonged to a class of persons who, as visitors to America, could rise above such prejudice, due to his being a highly educated foreigner (a German by birth) and to his success as a composer and performer of what the upper class in 19th century American society would have deemed one of the most refined cultural spheres: classical music. Furthermore, his marriage to Jenny Lind, one of the most beloved figures of the age, would have protected him to some extent, too. We hope to present more images of Jews in mid-19th century America, especially ones who made their lives in the United States, for their story is necessarily different from that of a visitor and celebrity such as Goldschmidt. We welcome submissions for our essay publication page on the topic of Jewishness and race in the United States. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure024 Title A name given to the resource Otto Goldschmidt and Jenny Lind Subject The topic of the resource Otto Goldschmidt and Jenny Lind Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1852 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/9eccb4fa8357fdbeafabca6bcd2c5b34.jpg 2c2956d65748a26456597efa38f7259b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data cabinet card Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image cabinet card standard Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1807-1873) was one of the most celebrated naturalists of the 19th century. He has also become quite controversial, because he was one of the major advocates for the theory of polygenesis, the idea that not only are there distinct human races, but that each of these races was separately created, with its own special attributes, to inhabit a specific geographic, environmental region. Louis Agassiz was born in Switzerland and educated there and in Germany. He then went to Paris, where he became the student of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the great Prussian geographer, and Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), the equally influential zoologist who was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology. Agassiz became the first to present scientific evidence that the Earth had undergone an Ice Age, and he also became famous for his system of classification of fish, and he developed the scientific system of zoological classification for all genera. Agassiz's growing international renown resulted in his appointment as professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University in 1847. He founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology there in 1859, and he lived in the United States until his death in 1873. In his portrait here, Agassiz stands before a chalkboard, with an illustration of various species of radiates, a form of invertebrate marine life that involve symmetrical formation around a central hub (such as starfish, jellyfish, etc.). The portrait was taken late in his life, when Agassiz traveled to California in 1872 for an expedition and to give lectures in San Francisco. It shows him engaged in the work that most fascinated him: the classification of forms of life, and he is posed as if lecturing. For Agassiz, educating the public about the discoveries of naturalism was an important part of his calling. It was the task of classifying species that brought Agassiz to the question of race. Like many other scientists of his day, Agassiz was convinced that the human species was divided into races, and so the question was, what was the origin and basis of these different races? Agassiz was a biological idealist, a position he learned from his mentor, Cuvier. What idealism meant in biology was that all biological forms had their origin in the mind of God. As their Creator, God had a preexisting idea of each form of life and where it should fit into the overall plan of life on Earth. From this basis, Agassiz proposed his theory of polygenesis (literally, multiple births or origins): that each of the human races had a separate creation, that each race was created to be suited to a specific environmental context, and that therefore each race had particular physical and mental attributes appropriate to its intended context. Agassiz's theory, which he developed in the late 1840s, was tremendously controversial, because it seemed to contradict the biblical story of a single origin (monogenesis) of the human race with Adam and Eve. Agassiz was a believer, and he insisted that his theory did not contradict the biblical sense of a spiritual unity of humankind. Furthermore, when Charles Darwin (1809-1882) published On the Origin of Species in 1859, which argued that the various forms of life derive from the blind struggle of evolution, Agassiz became one of his chief opponents due to his idealist belief that the "origin" of species is the idea of each species in the mind of a creator God. This portrait of Agassiz should be connected to another photograph in the exhibition, the daguerreotype of Delia. In 1850, Agassiz commissioned a photographer in Charleston, South Carolina, to take pictures of slaves. The purpose of these images, some of the earliest images in ethnography, was for use as illustrations to demonstrate Agassiz's theory of polygenesis. Agassiz never published these images, and they remained forgotten until they were rediscovered in 1976. A good source for his biography is Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science, by Edward Lurie (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988 [1960]). Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary It is a compelling question how one of the most admired naturalists of his day, who loved his work and was dedicated to education, could also have argued for one of the most disturbingly racist explanations of the variation in human forms: the theory of polygenesis. The essays Page of the Mirror of Race has published several pieces on the influence of Louis Agassiz. "Louis Agassiz: Full Face and Profile," by Molly Rogers, presents a bio­graph­i­cal approach to the pho­tographs of slaves that Agassiz commissioned, con­sid­er­ing the images in rela­tion to the personal and pro­fes­sional attitudes of the nat­u­ral­ist who com­mis­sioned them. The series of essays by Helena Machado, Flavio Gomes, and John Moneiro, examines the meaning of an expedition to Brazil that Agassiz undertook in 1865-66, in part to gather evidence for his theory of polygenesis. In the future, we hope to publish more essays on science and race, both from a historical perspective and on the understanding in modern science of what race is -- and is not. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure082 Title A name given to the resource Louis Agassiz Subject The topic of the resource Louis Agassiz Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carleton Watkins Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1872 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/d6818c8ab57e03ac3e4ad806d3234d26.tif a1c822862ec4428181c8890810e26af4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite: albumen print Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image cdv standard Factual Commentary Factual Commentary This photograph is another in the series of former slaves from the New Orleans area who obtained freedom during the Civil War and participated in one of the first photographic publicity campaigns to support a cause ― in this case, the Union and schools for former slaves. The caption on the front of the card reads: “Learning is Wealth. Wilson, Charley, Rebecca & Rosa. Slaves from New Orleans.” Printed on reverse: “No. 6. / Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by S. Tackaberry, in the Clerk’s Office, of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. / The nett proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted to the education of Colored People in the department of the Gulf now under the command of Maj. Gen’l Banks. / Chas. Paxson, Photographer, New York. / N. B. ― All orders must be addressed to H. N. Bent, No. 1 Mercer Street, New York.” Wilson is Wilson Chinn, who appears in another image in this exhibition displaying the chains and implements of punishment used on slaves. For more images in this series of photographs of former slaves, see here. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary Of all the photographs in the series of former slaves from New Orleans, this is the one that indicates most directly a key goal of the publicity campaign: to provide education for these former slaves. The children gather around Charley, as if in a family. Little Rosa seems exhausted and fed up with must have been a very long day in the photographer’s studio. Although this image might seem innocuous to a modern viewer, it must be remembered that teaching a slave to read was a crime in the slave states. It was understood that literacy was an essential step on the path to liberation and autonomy, which was either a hope or a threat, depending on whether one’s aim was liberty or preserving the domination of the masters. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure085 Title A name given to the resource “Learning is Wealth" Subject The topic of the resource unknown Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Charles Paxson Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1864 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/e4dad503533856b0973bbb15910ca658.tif 438bce92861163b917df646467a1fbea Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite: albumen print Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image cdv standard Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868) was a dancer, performer and poet. Her origins were obscure even in her lifetime, but she seems to have been born as Adelaide or Ada C. McCord in Louisiana, and she took the stage name Ada Bertha Theodore until her first marriage. She had a short but sensational career as an actress, her fame due as much to her own genius for self-promotion as to talent. Her most famous role was playing a man in Byron’s Mazeppa, wearing a flesh-colored body stocking to appear nearly nude, a shocking thing to do at the time, and this photograph portrays her in that role. Menken wore her hair short, smoked at her press conferences, and flaunted her connections with famous men. She married six times. Her first marriage was to Alexander Isaacs Menken, who was Jewish and for whom she converted; she remained in the faith until her death. Her origins are disputed, with reports of lineage that includes a Spanish Jewish father, a New Orleans creole mother, and a free Black father, among other accounts. Menken seems to have reveled in this kind of dramatic ambiguity. From 1864 to 1866, Menken took her Mazeppa role to London and Paris, where it had enormous success, in part due to her notoriety, but attention waned as the novelty wore off. Menken died in Paris in 1868. The photographer Charles Reutlinger (1816-1881?) was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, and opened a studio in Paris in 1850, where his clients included the upper echelons of society. Menken visited his studio during her European theatrical tour. Menken would have used copies of this carte de visit for publicity and sales for the Mazeppa production. A contemporary (but not necessarily reliable) account of Menken’s life may be read here. A collection of Menken’s poetry, Infelicia, may be read here.Adah Issacs Menken managed to flout many of the most hardened conventions of her time: she converted to marry a Jew, she smoked, she wrote and published on topics a "lady" would not discuss in that era, she appeared on stage nearly nude, she divorced five times, she dressed as a man for roles on the stage -- to name some of her transgressions. Add to this the strong possibility that she was mixed race and her career raises important questions about the performative nature of both racial and gender identity. What did it take to "pass" over these lines as boldly as Menken did? How was it possible for her to have public success at all when she violated some of the most stubborn taboos of her society? Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary Adah Issacs Menken managed to flout many of the most hardened conventions of her time: she converted to Judaism, she smoked, she wrote and published on topics a "lady" would not discuss in that era, she appeared on stage nearly nude, she divorced five times, she dressed as a man for roles on the stage -- to name some of her transgressions. Add to this the strong possibility that she was mixed race and her career raises important questions about the performative nature of both racial and gender identity. What did it take to "pass" over these lines as boldly as Menken did? How was it possible for her to have public success at all when she violated some of the most stubborn taboos of her society? For a valuable study of Menken and her transgressive life and career, see Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of American Celebrity, by Renée Sentilles. A recent (2011) biography for a general audience is A Dangerous Woman: The Life, Loves, and Scandals of Adah Isaacs Menken, 1835-1868, America's Original Superstar, by Michael and Barbara Foster. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure095 Title A name given to the resource Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-68) Subject The topic of the resource Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-68) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Charles Reutlinger (Paris) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1866 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait, theatrical performer Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/a527d2de0b11747a9bc306b17709630f.jpg 644e447f73a3a0495f5f00ed01e1e804 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data ambrotype Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image Sixth Plate (2.75 x 3.25 inches) (pair) Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Van Meter has posed holding a copy of W. O. Blake’s History of Slavery and the Slave Trade, Ancient and Modern. The title on the book’s spine can be seen by magnifying and reversing the image:Blake’s History was first published in 1857 by J. & H. Miller of Columbus, Ohio and sold exclusively by subscription. Blake’s History is a vast overview of the historical forms of slavery, treating the subject up to the debates over Kansas in the US Congress. It strives to maintain “objectivity,” but is clearly abolitionist in its didactic intent. The Van Meters lived near Rock Island, Illinois, and Van Meter’s posing with this book seems a clear declaration of his views on the slavery question. Presented below are the title page, two page Preface, and an illustration of a slave ship, all from Blake’s History: Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary For an exhibition of portraits of abolitionists, please see this link on the Mirror of Race website.http://mirrorofrace.org/abolitionits-page/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure018 Title A name given to the resource David James Van Meter and Martha Avery Van Meter Subject The topic of the resource David James Van Meter and Martha Avery Van Meter Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource David James Van Meter and Martha Avery Van Meter Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1859 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Gregory Fried Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/c9acbbb0f84e94aa5945f51e8f91bf67.tif b5bc788542c319fb2db636afbc324793 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data tintype Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image “gemtype” (0.75 x 1 inch) in a paper mat, cdv standard Factual Commentary Factual Commentary The photograph above is a tiny tintype portrait of kind known as the “gemtype” (click the image to the left for a close-up). Photographers would use special cameras with as many as 16 lenses to make multiple, postage-stamp-sized photographs on a single thin, metal plate, which the customer could then cut up and give to friends and family. The paper mat holding this one is embossed: “Hathaway, Photographer, Glens Falls,” which is in New York state. We know nothing about the man in the photograph, except that he is almost certainly a white man in “blackface,” which was a costume popularized by the minstrel shows of mid-19th century America. Blackface consisted of blackening a white person’s face with makeup, such as greasepaint or shoe polish, or even burnt cork. In this photograph the man also wears a wig to mimic the hair of African Americans. The minstrel show emerged in the United States in the 1830s and became enormously successful as a form of popular entertainment among whites. White performers, both professional and amateur, would wear blackface and perform satirical skits and musical numbers, posing as African Americans. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary One thing to notice about this photograph is that it was made in Glen Falls, New York, around the time of the Civil War. The extreme racial stereotyping that characterized the minstrel show was very popular in northern regions, and it is important to bear in mind that this form of racism was widespread in the United States. Blackface and the minstrel show was a form of mock reverse passing from white to black. In actual passing, a person attempts to convince others that they embody a different identity than would normally be ascribed to them. But in blackface, white performers played with taking on the persona of blacks for an audience that would still see them as white. This mock passing played on the fascination with racial boundaries. Comedy works on the borders of hysteria, and blackface touched a nerve by presenting a white person as black, exploiting a deep-seated anxiety about racial identity and purity ― but at the same time, this anxiety would be quelled by the audience knowing the performers was “really” white and by the demeaning representation of blacks, which would reassure them of their distance from the characters depicted. The audience could then return to a reassured sense of possessing their whiteness as a mark of genuine superiority, combined with a feeling of mastery over the black archetypes captured and forced, as the audience saw such performances, to reveal themselves in the caricatured forms of blackface. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure026 Title A name given to the resource man in blackface Subject The topic of the resource unknown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1865 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Gregory Fried Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hathaway (dates Unknown Photographer Photographer) https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/7fcc929ba86042b5e607c166e52e4307.tif 0c31aa29c3f04b464a8fa8e907872248 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Daguerreotype Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image Sixth Plate (2.75 x 3.25 inches) Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Princess Victoria Kamamalu Ka’ahumanu, 1838-1866, was the sister of King Kamehameha IV, who reigned in Hawai’i from 1854 to 1863. She was the granddaughter of Kamehameha the Great, who founded the kingdom by uniting Hawai’i, and she was presumptive heir to the throne when she died. When her brother the king died in 1863, she was serving the kingdom as Premier (Kuhina Nui), as she had since 1855, and in this role, she had the power to appoint his successor. She named another brother, Lot Kapuaiwa, as king (Kamehameha V), but she herself had in fact been queen regent for the one day (Nov. 30) during which she made this appointment. In this photograph, taken around 1855, she would have been about 17 years old, and probably already serving as Premier. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary Hawai'i occupies a distinct place in the history of race and identity in American history. In part because the Hawaiians continued under their own rule until the 1890s, with a royal family granted respect by the resident Americans and Europeans, the color prejudice that afflicted the distant mainland did not have the same effect on these islands ― despite the fact that the Hawaiians suffered the effects of colonization. This image in particular illustrates the determination of the Hawaiians to maintain their dignity and autonomy, despite the cultural, economic, and political power of the United States. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure002 Title A name given to the resource Princess Victoria Kamamalu Subject The topic of the resource Princess Victoria Kamamalu Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hugo Stangenwald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1855 Type The nature or genre of the resource Studio Portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/64c59179e808335a8543769e12402e33.jpg 1ce6a2223a1162647d72dc3458e359f9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data daguerreotype Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image Half Plate (4.25 x 5.5 inches) Factual Commentary Factual Commentary This street scene is by James Presley Ball (1825-1904), a successful African American photographer. Ball learned the daguerreian process in 1845, and then spent most of the next 25 years in Cincinnati, where his business was successful enough to allow him to travel to Europe in 1856. He was an abolitionist, and his large and elegant studios hosted both white and black clients. This scene depicts a street in Ball’s home city, Cincinnati, featuring the building of a candy manufacturer, Myers and Co., Confectioners, along with some of the employers, and perhaps the owner himself (we do not know if Mr. Myers is one of the men standing outside). If you click on the image to the left, you can zoom in to see the extraordinary detail of this daguerreotype, including the writing on the hand-painted signs and a youthful, well-dressed black man, leaning on a post. Barely visible behind him is another black youth in a white shirt, pushing a wheelbarrow with crates of goods on it. On the street is a wagon, where the crates are being loaded for delivery. They are marked “CANDY, Myers & Co., 50 lbs.” Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary J. P. Ball was a remarkably skilled photographer, as this extraordinary daguerreotype demonstrates. In the bright light of full day, Ball produced an image with beautiful tones and contrasts that even captures a sense of movement without the tell-tale blurring of a long exposure time. The resolution and detail in the photograph is exceptional, and such effects required a practitioner who had both the talent to compose a shot and the technical mastery to bring it off, both in preparing the plate and in understanding all the conditions of light and subject matter. Ball’s mastery of the process explains why he was such a successful portrait photographer, too. We cannot know for certain, but it is likely that Myers and Company commissioned J. P. Ball to make this portrait of their business, probably from a sense of pride at is success ― hence the delivery under preparation and the sense of activity. While not exactly a documentary photograph, because it was probably made on commission and not to record historical facts, early images such as this of city life are rare, and J. P. Ball executed this one with great skill. The best scholarly work on James Presley Ball is by Deborah Willis: J. P. Ball: Daguerrean and Studio Photographer (Routledge, 1993). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure013 Title A name given to the resource Cincinnati street scene Subject The topic of the resource Cincinnati street scene Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Presley Ball (American, dates uncertain) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1850 Type The nature or genre of the resource city scene, commercial Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/b37aef2bde0f8141542b00513934112d.tif 7624353e7db127a60cb12fc538aef31c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite: albumen print Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image cdv standard, mounted in album page Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Inscribed in period pen on reverse of this carte de visite (circa 1864) is the name “James M. Trotter.” Also inscribed, in period pen on the album page: “James M. Trotter Sergeant 55th Mass.” See image below. There is a printed stamp on the reverse of card, which reads: “Whipple, 297 Washington Street, Boston.” Also present on reverse of card is a 3-cent tax stamp signed in pen “JAW” (John A. Whipple). See below for the back of the card. We can date the image to the period of August 1864 to August of 1866 because the US government required the use of these stamps during that time for the collection of revenue to support the war. According to his enlistment papers (Greg French collection), James Monroe Trotter enlisted on June 11, 1863 and was mustered into company K of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry on June 23, 1863 as a 1st Sergeant. The 55th, like the more famous 54th, was designated as a Colored regiment. Trotter was promoted to Sergeant Major on Nov. 19, 1863 and to 2nd Lieutenant on April 10, 1864. In the photograph, Trotter wears the uniform and officer’s shoulder straps of a 2nd Lieutenant. The image is remarkable for the rarity of African Americans serving as officers in the Union armies, and the even greater rarity of this being documented in a photograph. Trotter was born February 7, 1842 and died Feb. 26, 1892 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. According to the muster rolls, he was born in Grand Gulf, Mississippi, and enrolled in the Union army in Readville, Massachusetts. His profession is listed as school teacher. He was wounded at the battle of Honey Hill on Nov. 30, 1864. An interesting feature of his enlistment papers is the following remark: “Letters to be directed to Robert Thomas, Parlersburg, Wood Co., Virginia (guardian).” This image reportedly came from the personal album of the French nobleman, the Count de Gasparin, who was sympathetic to the abolitionist cause. James A. Whipple was one of Boston’s leading photographers from 1845 to 1874. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary There is much that is remarkable about James M. Trotter. Born into slavery, he was one of the first Americans of African descent to attain rank as an officer in the United States army, having fought in the Civil War. He went on to have a career as an author, civil rights advocate, and a public servant. His son, William Monroe Trotter (1872-1934), became an important newspaperman in Boston and a civil rights champion in his own right, helping to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People with W.E.B. Du Bois in 1909. An elementary school in Boston, the Trotter Innovation School, is named after William Trotter. The Mirror of Race has published an essay by Erina Duganne on the topic of "Black Civil War Por­trai­ture in Con­text". We are hoping to publish other essays on topics relating to African Americans fighting for their civil rights, and how that struggle has been reflected in photography. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure086 Title A name given to the resource James M. Trotter Subject The topic of the resource James M. Trotter Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John A. Whipple (American, 1823-1891) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1864-1866 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection