8 10 101 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/6471c80a4ede695d049abd702315b359.tif 74441cc8306dc86c0117e3b60f5361ab 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 Slaves in Black and White 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. Exhibition Name Name of the exhibition in which the item appears Slaves in Black and White Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite, albumen print Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Charles Paxson has selected the three “whitest” from among the “Slave Children from New Orleans” —Rosina Downs, Charles Taylor, and Rebecca Huger —to pose them literally wrapped in an enormous American flag. Paxson has titled the image “Our Protection” because the flag symbolizes both the Union army, that had taken New Orleans and given former slaves such as these the opportunity to escape bondage, and because of the foundational principles of liberty represented by the flag that Paxson and other abolitionists sought to make the goal of the war as a fight to end slavery, not just to preserve the Union. By 1863, the war exacting an enormous cost in lives and treasure, and Paxson seeks to reinforce what is worth fighting for in the conflict. 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 Figure 6 Title A name given to the resource Our Protection Subject The topic of the resource Our Protection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Charles Paxson (New York) 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. Gregory Fried Collection 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 https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/5464bec9aeb3c05b1e6f782fa32a68fe.jpg c5989d2d00520bafa477c5283ec9fb59 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 Frontiers of the Human Body 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. Exhibition Name Name of the exhibition in which the item appears Frontiers of the Human Body Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Carte de visite, albumen print Factual Commentary Factual Commentary The 19th century fascination with permutations of the human body extended as much to people ordinarily categorized as white as to people outside that grouping. P. T. Barnum (1810-1891), the great American huckster and showman, reserved a whole section of his American Museum in New York City for performers of this type and sold souvenir photographs such as this to the public. See the back of the photograph for identification of the performers, although many of these are stage names. Revenue stamps, such as the one on the back of this image, were used from 1864 to 1866 to raise funds to pay for the Civil War. 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 Figure 2 Title A name given to the resource Performers in Barnum's American Museum Subject The topic of the resource Performers in Barnum's American Museum Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1864-66 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 photographer 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/407b6e73c858dd0cd0f6011c096ca572.jpg 2d0eb6550dc387080e890a6000872e4b 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 Slaves in Black and White 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. Exhibition Name Name of the exhibition in which the item appears Slaves in Black and White Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite, albumen print Factual Commentary Factual Commentary In this portrait, Charles Paxson, the photographer, has posed Rebecca Hubner before a mirror, a common theme in portraiture of the period, especially for women. But Paxson goes beyond the conventional use of the mirror as a symbol of femininity, or even of vanity, to goad the viewer to reflect on the contradictions of slavery: that although this child might appear “white” enough to pass for white, she was nevertheless “A Slave Girl from New Orleans.” Was this merely exploitation of white self-regard to get the audience to identify with people they would not ordinarily because of their racism, or is it a legitimate attempt to shock the viewers into a realization that the racial categories were so fluid as to be meaningless? 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 Figure 5 Title A name given to the resource Rebecca, A Slave Girl from New Orleans Subject The topic of the resource Rebecca, A Slave Girl from New Orleans Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Charles Paxson (New York) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1863 Type The nature or genre of the resource Studio Portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. John Daggett Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/6569ee6d5a6ee5f309cf49b015c54a02.jpg 5cfef2cdf7a0edf3c26939202515401f 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 Slaves in Black and White 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. Exhibition Name Name of the exhibition in which the item appears Slaves in Black and White Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite, albumen print Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Rebecca Huger seems to have been a favorite with the photographer. Certainly she is pretty, and she also could easily have passed for white. She is also on the verge of becoming a young woman, and probably something the photographer sought to provoke for the viewer is the fate such a young woman might meet at the hands of an owner for whom an enslaved woman’s body was property to use in any way he saw fit — which would account also for the very existence of “white” slaves such as Rebecca in the first place. The publicity campaign used these photographs to uphold support for a war to end such practices. 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 Figure 9 Title A name given to the resource Rebecca: A Slave Girl from New Orleans Subject The topic of the resource Rebecca: A Slave Girl from New Orleans Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Myron H. Kimball (New York) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1863 Type The nature or genre of the resource Studio Portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Joan Gage Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/c03c06030d85ae1bae490eb80a8f6061.tif fd880b21d6ed688f1999c357967e4c73 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 A slip of paper that accompanied this daguerreotype identifies the man as the “Richards family slave.” Nothing more is known about this image other than it comes from the St. Louis, Missouri area. The man depicted sits holding a hoe, with his arm through the handle of a wicker basket, presumably for harvesting vegetables. He wears coarse pants and a work shirt. Judging by the style of mat and case, this photograph probably dates from the late 1840s or perhaps the early 1850s. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary Early photographs of slaves are quite rare, and they require particular care to interpret. For example, is it right to call this daguerreotype photograph from around 1850 a portrait? In her book, Delia’s Tears, Molly Rogers argues that we should not call photographs such as this one “portraits,” because that word implies that the person sitting for the photograph had a choice in how he wanted to be represented ― that the image would be in some real sense a projection of his own self-understanding. But for an enslaved person being posed for the camera by an owner, this could never be the case. And so, in viewing an image such as this, of the ”Richards family slave,” we need to be very careful about what we think we are seeing, because all of the elements here might have been arranged by the legal owners or by the photographer, and almost certainly not by the man himself, on his own initiative. For a meditation on the meaning of this photograph, see "Work and the Poetry of Sterling Brown: Reclaiming Forced Labor,” by Anita Patterson, on our essays 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 Figure025 Title A name given to the resource Richards family slave 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 1850 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/3fbf1af081c09e6f74a28ea310aa7ecb.tif 6ef93cdac9ea72d3ceef693784c75c36 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 Quarter Plate (3.25 x 4.25 inches) Factual Commentary Factual Commentary There is no identifying information on this Quarter Plate (3.25 x 4.25 inches) ambrotype, which dates to the late 1850s, but it depicts what is almost certainly a well-to-do white woman and both her African American attendant and her dog. We cannot know if the young woman is an enslaved person or a free servant employed by the elderly woman; the young woman holds a wicker basket in one hand and an unidentified object in the other. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary Although we cannot know if the young Black woman in this photograph is free or enslaved, one thing that is remarkable about this image is how she stares so directly at us, while the elderly woman is paying attention only to the dog ― who, by the way, is also looking into the camera. Photographs such as this were expensive: it is a large format and the elderly woman wears proper but clearly costly and fashionable clothes. So, the woman at the center probably commissioned it because both the young servant woman and the dog were important to her, part of her private, household life, and part of what she saw as her own identity as a mistress and a caretaker. And yet, she is not the one making contact so boldly with us through the camera’s lens. So, who truly commands the presence of this portrait? What does a photograph such as this tell about the relationship of employer ― or master, or mistress ― to servant? What were, and what still are, the social meanings of race that would explain the dynamics between the women here and how they feel comfortable presenting themselves to the camera? 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 Figure015 Title A name given to the resource servant, woman, dog 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 1860 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/90a2347e4688408645eda29e94d7fcc4.tif 33a59c8b6edc3ba9493c888f2b2068a7 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 Abolitionists 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. Exhibition Name Name of the exhibition in which the item appears Abolitionists Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Carte de visit, albumen print Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was born Isabella Baumfree in Swartekill, New York, when slavery was still legal in that state. She escaped in 1823, and in 1843 she took the name Sojourner Truth to symbolize her pilgrimage through this world as a witness to God’s truth of liberation for all human beings. A campaigner against slavery and for women’s rights, she delivered her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?”speech in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention. Along with Frederick Douglass, she helped recruit African American soldiers during the Civil War 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 Figure 4 Title A name given to the resource Sojurner Truth Subject The topic of the resource Sojurner Truth 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. Wikimedia Commons Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource photographer Unknown Photographer Photographer