3 10 101 https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/0dee9a904a10af7b7d9246638e29f2f4.tif 3c90651524b6b52013c6ca76a401ad7b 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 This early daguerreotype, dating from the mid-1840s, may have been collected by the Harvard naturalist Louis Agassiz as part of his ethnographic collection. All that we know about the image is a caption written on a slip of paper from the period that identifies them as “two Hindoo men” ― with “Hindoo” being a spelling variant for “Hindu.” So, the two men, otherwise unidentified, were almost certainly visitors to the United States from India. The style of mat and case are American, and so the image was made here. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary One reason to believe that Louis Agassiz collected this image for his ethnographic studies is that they are only identified by ethnicity as “two Hindoo [Hindu] men.” This identification treats them more as specimens than as people. We would expect a proper identification to give us their actual names, for example, but whoever collected this image thought the only relevant thing about them was their type. Who were they? Travel from India to the United States would have been a very serious undertaking in the 1840s, requiring months, even years, and involving considerable risk from accident and illness. So why had they come so far? Such travel would have cost considerable money. Both hold themselves with a certain austere dignity; they are very well groomed and dressed in expensive and fashionable Western clothes, and so they were almost certainly wealthy, high-status individuals. Were they visiting dignitaries? Students? Indian nobility making a grand tour? We hope that further research may yield answers. 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 Figure084 Title A name given to the resource two men 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 1845 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Harvard Peabody Museum (T1889 35-5-10; 53059) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Photographer Photographer 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/91b023c380f18a825f7f5388e458d614.tif 74963b51d61b23ec90f7d5ea4edf5d28 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 This daguerreotype by Thomas M. Easterly (1809-1882), of St. Louis, portrays Na-Che-ninga (1797-1862), a chief of the Ioway, or Iowa, tribe. Easterly took several photographs of Na-Che-ninga (more commonly known as Nacheninga) at the same sitting. Several clues show that this particular image is a copy daguerreotype of another, original image. For one thing, the edges of the original are dimly visible. Secondly, Easterly used a sharp tool to inscribe a caption into the silver surface of the daguerreotype plate. That inscription shows up here backwards, because unless a camera had reversing lens, it would show the subject in a mirror image, as it is in this case. That inscription reads as follows (see below for a close-up of the photograph, with the image reversed to show the writing more clearly): “Na-Che-ninga, or No Heart of fear. Chief of the Iowa tribe.” Nacheninga had a reputation as a fierce warrior and shrewd negotiator, one who kept his people whole. He rose to the position as chief in 1851, when his predecessor, Mahaska (White Cloud) died. Nacheninga dealt with the United States government and negotiated treaties in Washington, DC. In this daguerreotype, he poses wrapped in a heavy blanket and holding what must have been a prized possession, a splendidly crafted rifle. On another daguerreotype from the same session, Easterly inscribed the following about this weapon: "The Rifle was presented to the Chief of the Chippeways by King William the fourth of England during his sojourn in America.” And: "The barrel is made of Gold, Silver, and Platina, and carries an ounce ball with accuracy a distance of one mile.” If that is all true, the rifle would have been an exceptionally valuable weapon. William IV reigned 1830-1837, and as a much younger man, he served in the British navy, stationed in New York during the Revolution, and that is how the rifle may have come to the Chippewa. It is not know how the rifle traveled from the Chippewa, located around the Great Lakes, to the Iowa, although there were certainly trade and diplomatic ties between the peoples. Harvard’s Peabody Museum, where this photograph is held, notes that the image was collected by David Bushnell, Jr. (1875-1941), an amateur anthropologist and ethnographer with roots in the St. Louis area who donated his collection to the museum after his death. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary Thomas Easterly was an exceptionally skilled daguerreotypist who truly loved the medium ― he refused to give it up even when the daguerreotype process fell out of fashion after around 1860. Easterly took a particular interest in the Native American people of the regions around St. Louis. That he made multiple images of Nacheninga, and even copied them later, indicates his desire to document those peoples. It is fair to call this image of Nacheninga a portrait, for he seems to be a fully willing partner in his own representation, and as a diplomat and negotiator for his people, the Iowa, he was a man who might have understood the power of projecting an image by whatever means available. 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 Figure078 Title A name given to the resource Na-Che-Ninga, Chief of the Iowa Subject The topic of the resource Na-Che-Ninga, Chief of the Iowa Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas M. Easterly Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1847-51 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Harvard Peabody Museum (T1904 41-72-10; 53023B) https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/8db2fafd6ad35f002ccb930f48b06d49.tif 27389b7e0bdd8560a88a31bbee62370b 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 This daguerreotype comes from the collection of the Harvard Peabody Museum. I was probably collected by the Harvard naturalist Louis Agassiz as visual evidence for his work on what he believed to the the separate races of humanity. While we do not know who either of the men were, the image, which dates from the mid-1840s, is likely to have been made in the Boston area. The man on the left is clearly of European descent, and the man on the right is Chinese, to judge by his clothing. We hope that further research will identify one or both of them. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary There are many interesting details to this photograph, and while we can for now only speculate as to what those details might mean, they might also provide clues to identifying the two men. For example, the Chinese man wears well-tailored clothes, possibly silk, and he has very long fingernails, so clearly he was not a worker. So was he a Chinese government official, perhaps an ambassador? A student come to study at an American university? A wealthy merchant? The white man also wears an elegant and expensive suit. Why did he pose with the Chinese man? Was he the escort to the visitor? Did he bring his guest to have this daguerreotype made to commemorate an event? He seems relatively relaxed, and looks into the camera with an almost familiar gaze, as if he has done this often before. The Chinese man, by contrast, seems stiff and formal, and does not engage the viewer at all; perhaps this was his first time having a photograph taken . 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 Figure077 Title A name given to the resource two men 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 1845 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Harvard Peabody Museum (T1897 35-5-10; 53068) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Photographer Photographer https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/51f2b51c02ab8b983676c3f4a8b9e866.tif 1d463d119b5adc24e6bfca5c6804b4ab 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, albumen print Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image cabinet card standard Factual Commentary Factual Commentary While we do not know anything about the identities of the people in this photograph from the latter part of the 19th century, there are some things we can say about it. To begin, this image is of a kind know as a spirit photograph. Such photographs were produced using double exposures and other manipulations of the photographic process to produce an image that seems to include the spirits of those not present or no longer living. There was a craze for spirit photographs in this period, in part because the aura of photography as a scientific process that supposedly captured reality could be used to give a sense of realism to a spirit world. In this particular photograph, the spirits are child and an older Native American man. At the center of the image is a young man in Western clothing, but it is possible that he is a Europeanized Native American himself. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary This photograph poses numerous puzzles. Who are each of these people? Why has the man in the middle, who seems to be the client of the photographic portrait, chosen to have this spirit photograph made, with an older Native American man and a child as his spirit companions? Is he a Native American himself? Do these represent generations in a family? For a discussion of this image, see the essay "A Spirit Photograph" by Shawn Michelle Smith, on the Mirror of Race website. 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 Figure074 Title A name given to the resource spirit photograph Subject The topic of the resource unknown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890s 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 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Photographer Photographer https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/3b28e0ccd3976457631d88aa8541b0ba.tif 0d7e24d1234c41e98c501291bd0fd22c 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 Otto Giers, right, and his father Carl, a German immigrant, documented life in Nashville from 1855 through the early 20th century. Otto Giers became quite successful as a portraitist; compilations of his photographs of Nashville are still in print. This staged amateur theatrical includes a mock hanging of an African American. Note also the man holding a pistol on the man being hanged. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary Although the violence depicted here seems all in jest, it echoes the very real and widespread use of lynching in post-Civil War America. Lynching served as a form of terrorism to enforce white supremacy well into the 20th century. While such lynchings occurred outside the legal system, that system proved either unwilling or unable to stop them or to prosecute those guilty of murder by lynching. In large part, this was because the white communities involved often supported this activity and would not assist investigations and would not testify or convict the perpetrators in a jury trial. For a powerful photographic history of lynching in the late 19th and 20th centuries, see the book Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, by James Allen. The Without Sanctuary project also has a website exhibition of its photographs. What this work demonstrates is that for several generations, the extraordinary brutality of lynching was openly embraced by much of society: by the late 19th century, when snapshot cameras became common, onlookers would take photographs that were turned into picture-postcards that they would send to friends and family. Lynchings were therefore a kind of terror as entertainment. For that reason, the image we see here, even although made "in fun," participates in the same discourse where the violent subjugation of Blacks could be seen as a form of amusement. When extraordinary injustice can be seen as funny, that assists in the perpetuation of the injustice, because it means that the community does not take it seriously as the outrage it is. A question worth asking here is, to what extent do fun and play contribute to systems of injustice? In the 19th century, and well into the 20th, when there was no radio or television, amateur theatricals ― in which student, family, and community groups would put on informal (and sometimes quite formal and elaborate) performances ― served as a form of popular entertainment. Such "plays" allowed participants to transgress traditional roles and ordinary behavior, such as we see here: the men playfully dress as woman, while at the same time they playfully hang a Black man. So, does such play undermine the norms, by allowing participants to imagine roles beyond the norm, or does it reinforce those norms by showing how ridiculous it is to imagine things being any other way than they are? 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 Figure073 Title A name given to the resource amateur theatrical group Subject The topic of the resource unknown Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource W.G. Thuss, Emil Kollein and Otto Giers (Nashville, Tennessee) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1880 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/9aaa9b5e8882f980d4a8284965c458a2.jpg 03b0a0612bc95d8a55212349442a2438 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 Inscribed in period pencil at the top of the back of the card: “Zublia Aggolia, Circassian Lady”; and then along the right side: “H. M. Hill.” H. M. Hill was probably the collector who first bought the card. The printed stamp on reverse of card reads: “Moore Brothers, Opposite Court Square, Springfield, Mass.” This is probably the maker’s mark of Hiram Charles Moore and C. L. Moore. Hiram Moore began his career as an ambrotypist and daguerreotypist in Boston in 1858, moving to Springfield, MA in 1859. Although no further information about Zublia Aggolia in particular has been found, the “Circassian Lady” was a type of performer that became very popular in circuses and sideshows, starting in the 1860s and continuing until around the turn of the century. Based on the style of the carte de visite and the woman’s clothing, we can date this photograph to some time in the 1870s. For further discussion, see the Interpretive Commentary page. For a subsidiary exhibition of people whose bodies challeges the expectations of the period, please follow this link Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary For an analysis of this and similar images, see the article on the Essays page entitled "A Freakish Whiteness: The Circassian Lady as Sideshow Spectacle." 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 Figure071 Title A name given to the resource Zublia Aggolia Subject The topic of the resource Zublia Aggolia Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Moore Brothers (American) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1870s Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait, commercial/circus performer Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Gregory Fried Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/f756c8f7d1cffbd3f6dbdbcddcbb743a.tif 6034d18bced7aa7905c750ba534b8738 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 In this double-exposure portrait, Moung Kyau (1841-1883) poses in traditional Burmese clothes on the left and European on the right. Kyau belonged to the Karen people of Burma (modern Myanmar). Moung Kyau converted to Christianity and came to the United States for education as a Baptist minister. Kyau seems to have lived in in Waterville, Maine, before returning with a large group of missionaries to preach in Burma. In Burma, he composed hymns as part of his missionary work, and he later became a schoolteacher. He died of consumption. A double exposure is a photograph produced by exposing the photographic plate or negative twice, so that two separate impressions from the light are made. In this case, the photographer probably covered half of the light-sensitive plate plate while exposing the other half so that Moung could appear twice in the same image. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary We do not know if it was the photographer’s or Moung Kyau’s idea to produce this unusual double-exposure portrait. What was its intended meaning? Did he seek to show his double identity both as a Burmese man and as a Christian who had understood the ways of the Europeans well enough to dress like a gentleman and earn an education as a missionary? Are we meant to read this image as a progression, from left to right, from “heathen” to Christian? Is this then an example of European colonialism and triumphalism, working through the respectable front of Christian evangelism? Is Kyau a victim of cultural imperialism? But if Kyau had completely rejected his origins, why would he keep his traditional clothes? Did he understand himself as having a double or multiple identity, rather than a divided one? Kyau studied in the eastern United States, after what must have been a very long voyage from Burma, probably supported by the Baptist missionaries who converted him and saw his potential as a preacher to his own people. Asian visitors were not common in the eastern part of the United States at this time (the 1860s), and especially if they were involved in education and religious work, they might well gain some acceptance in white society. Isolated individuals such as Kyau were not perceived as a racial threat and might even gain respect as exotic curiosities or as signs of the global triumph of white Christian civilization. In California, by contrast, where tens of thousands of Asians, mostly Chinese, immigrated for the Gold Rush, their sheer numbers and competition for jobs with whites exposed them to prejudice and abuse. 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 Figure060 Title A name given to the resource Moung Kyau Subject The topic of the resource Moung Kyau 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. Greg French Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Photographer Photographer https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/b2b81750a225e4eebf85943015ef6878.jpg 08470e64f146c9028ea990692613e96a 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 The penned inscription on this photograph reads “Tonquaways of Texas,” and it dates from around 1865. The two men, at this point unidentified, each pose with a bow and a single arrow. They wear a combination of tribal and Western clothing. “Tonquaway” is a 19th spelling for the Tonkawa tribe, which once roamed the region that is now Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. In 1884, the US government forcibly gathered and relocated the Tonkawas, finally settling them in Oakland, Oklahoma in 1885. That this image identifies the two men as “Tonquaways of Texas” is further evidence, apart from the photographic style of the print and mounting, that this image dates from a time before their expulsion from Texas. The Tonkawa have endured, despite their version of the Trail of Tears. According to the official website of the Tonkawa tribe, the Waco (Wichita) name for the Tonkawa is “Tonkaweya,” which means “They All Stay Together,” and the Tonkawa’s own name for themselves is “Tickanwa•tic,” which means “Real People.” Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary In the case of photographs of Native Americans from the 19th century, it is always worth asking if they have full agency in the representation of themselves in any given image. So, for example, in this photograph of the two Tonkawa men, we can ask: For whom was this image made? It is a carte de visite, which means it was printed from a glass plate negatives, and so many copies could have been made by the photographer. The fact that it bears the title “Tonquaways of Texas” indicates that the images was indeed printed for a clientele other than these two men, who would not need this label. As such, it was probably sold to white patrons of the photographer as a quasi-ethnographic souvenir. But even if that were the case, photographic images such as this, especially quite early ones, provide important and rare evidence about the lives and cultures of Native peoples. 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 Figure057 Title A name given to the resource “Tonquaways of Texas” 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. Greg French Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Photographer Photographer https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/7e12fbd5a90defef50d7299f709bd0f3.jpg 24d75037158eadbb8221263e87315ea8 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 Half Plate (4.25 x 5.5 inches) Factual Commentary Factual Commentary This tintype dates from around 1875. It shows three white women in elegant expensive clothes, posed in an oxcart, with a black man leaning up against the cart. The woman at the right holds the whip and reins. The scene is late fall, winter, or very early spring, in a semi-rural setting, with indistinct houses in the background. We know nothing more about who these people were or where this was. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary There is a bit of a puzzle to this image. If the woman on the right is holding the whip and reins, what is the role of the African American man in the photography? Only he faces our direction, but even he does not seem to meet our gaze. The whole composition seems a study in alienation. The three women do not interact at all, despite their proximity to one another: the one at the back looks down, the one in the middle looks off to the left, and the one with the whip and reins stares forward, as if ready to drive. Perhaps the whole composition was meant as a little joke: that this rich, elegant woman would herself drive the oxcart, the most humble form of transportation, one step above a child’s goat cart. If so, then the black man would have been the real driver, who has stepped off for a moment for the photograph to be taken, but who stays in place just to be sure there is no mishap. 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 Figure044 Title A name given to the resource ox cart 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 1875 Type The nature or genre of the resource outdoor scene Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Photographer Photographer