1 10 101 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/93b2e0b30b04a6a0af48ae8028869bf4.pdf 52f7fdbaf2040533c912265ceca9f5b7 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 Critical Analysis 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 Work and the Poetry of Sterling Brown: Reclaiming Forced Labor Subject The topic of the resource Work and the Poetry of Sterling Brown: Reclaiming Forced Labor Description An account of the resource Juxtaposing an 1850 daguerreotype portrait of a slave, a painting by Jean-François Millet, a photograph by Lewis Hine, and a poem by Sterling Brown, this essay seeks to understand how, and under what conditions, even forced labor may be reclaimed and commemorated in works of art. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anita Patterson Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 28, 2013 https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/9af1ec0e880ec05ba3194bfd7ee1cfb2.tif ebb2d5749cb5d4d902e080bd420d0f99 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 In early photographs, people often would pose with objects that had special meaning to them, such as tools of a trade, or, as in this case, a book. This woman holds Frosts Pictorial History of California, by John Frost, first published in 1850. She is probably a “Californio,” a Latina native to California, resident after the American annexation following the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. This daguerreotype dates to the early 1850s, soon after the Gold Rush, the war, and the annexation of California as a state in 1850. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary The question of how Latinos, or Hispanics, fit in with the American construction of race is a complex one. Latinos have certainly suffered from racial prejudice in this nation’s history, but at the same time, Latinos do not fall neatly into the standard racial categories familiar to America. Some Latinos do indeed have dark skin, but other Latinos also have European, African, Native, and even Asian roots ― or mixtures of these. Latinos often define themselves ethnically and nationally rather than racially. Nevertheless, Latinos from other parts of the Americas, who come to the United States as immigrants, often bring with them very different social constructions of race that vary from country to country. And of course, other Latinos, such as the woman in this daguerreotype, have roots in the territory of the United States that reach back before this nation’s founding. Given this complexity, the Latino experience of the question of race also has the potential to help Americans see how arbitrary race is as a social construction, and so perhaps the growth of Latinos in the United States will contribute to a dissolution of our entrenches racial categories. 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 Figure094 Title A name given to the resource woman holding book 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 1850-1855 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 Unknown Photographer https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/71882d0290b1ea384ed80b67188e7fec.tif 6147d41bd1db0c600220a3fd43cb26b6 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 This portrait shows Wilson Chinn, branded on his forehead with the initials of his former master, Volsey B. Marmillion, and displaying implements of bondage and punishment for slaves. The device with the three prongs around his neck would prevent a person from lying down, and the rigid leg iron would prevent running to escape. The perforated paddle on the floor was for beatings. Marmillion ran a sugar plantation outside of New Orleans, and 105 of his slaves, including Chinn, escaped to the Union lines. Harper’s Weekly in a story of January 30, 1864, reported that “Thirty of them had been branded like cattle with a hot iron, four of them on the forehead, and the others on the breast or arm.” 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 3 Title A name given to the resource Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana Subject The topic of the resource Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana 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. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/0956da653820c814bd080630f691bec7.tif 6147d41bd1db0c600220a3fd43cb26b6 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 shows Wilson Chinn, a former enslaved person, displaying implements of bondage and punishment used against slaves such as he had been. The image is one of a series of photographs produced in 1863 to lend moral support to the Union cause in the Civil War and to raise funds for schools for African Americans in the occupied Confederate territories. Chinn and seven other former slaves, both adults and children, came north for a publicity tour, accompanied by an officer from one of the newly formed regiments of African American soldiers. Chinn had been enslaved to a man named Volsey B. Marmillion, who ran a sugar plantation near New Orleans. Marmillion had the habit of branding his slaves with his initials, VBM, and this can be seen on Chinn’s forehead here ― the brand is retouched on the photography’s negatives, as it must have been hard to see (click on the image to the left for a close-up). The spiked collar would prevent a person from lying down, the leg iron would prevent running, and the perforated paddle on the floor was for beatings. The caption of this photograph reads in part: “Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana; also exhibiting instruments of torture used to punish slaves. Photographed by Kimball, 477 Broadway, N. Y. Ent’d accord’g to act of Congress in the year 1863...” Text printed on the reverse of the card reads: “The proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted exclusively to the education of colored people in the Department of the Gulf, now under the command of Major-General Banks.” The back is also stamped: “All Orders Must Be Addressed to H. N. Bent, 1 Mercer St., N. Y.” See the enlarged illustration below. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary The series of photographs of emancipated slaves to which this one of Wilson Chinn belongs (see here for more in the series) constitutes one of the first times that mass-produced photography was used as propaganda in a campaign for a political goal. Is it fair to ask if Chinn and the other former slaves, including five children, were once again being exploited by this posing of them for the camera? Or is it more likely that having endured and escaped slavery, they were perfectly willing to lend their visible forms to this publicity campaign? If so, these photographs would embody their agency as an expression of their new-found freedom. So then would it be right to call this photograph a portrait of Wilson Chinn, in the way it is hard to call portraits the daguerreotypes of Delia, forced into the photographer’s studio to serve as an illustration for a scientific theory, or the unnamed Richards family slave? They both had no agency in how they appeared for the camera, and a “portrait” usually implies the person portrayed has some choice in how she or he is to be portrayed. Yet we also speak of “taking” someone’s portrait, and so there is a sense that we might capture the essence of a person without their knowing or against their will, as often happens in photojournalism. Would Chinn or the other emancipated slaves from New Orleans freely choose to show themselves in this way, for example in chains, as we see Chinn, if they wanted to make a portrait of themselves? Or would Chinn, like Frederick Douglass telling the story of his slavery and freedom, understand this kind of portrayal as what would in fact best tell the story of who he was and hoped to be? 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 Figure033 Title A name given to the resource Wilson Chinn Subject The topic of the resource Wilson Chinn 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, social-political 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 Kimball (dates Unknown Photographer Photographer) https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/f04d5aabd9a8d56270f9cd3c78c2f680.tif 6147d41bd1db0c600220a3fd43cb26b6 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 Violence 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 Violence Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Carte de visite, albumen print Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Wilson Chinn, who escaped from slavery during the Civil War, poses here with the instruments of bondage and punishment used on slaves, both to restrain their movement and to terrify them. Chinn participated in a series of such photographs in part to help educate people about the violence involved in the system of slavery. As one of the measures of control employed on Chinn, his former master branded him with the initials VBM, for Volsey B. Marmillion, a sugar planter in the New Orleans area. More images from series of former slaves may be seen on the Mirror of Race website in the special exhibition entitled “Slaves in Black and White.” 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 3 Title A name given to the resource Wilson Chinn Subject The topic of the resource Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana 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. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/6127a0319a53955d20a660c7cecd2ea7.pdf 6506e68687511e4c30818d7284066174 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 Critical Analysis 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 White Suffering and the Branded Hand Subject The topic of the resource White Suffering and the Branded Hand Description An account of the resource This essay ana­lyzes the social and racial sig­nif­i­cance of an unusual mid-nineteenth-century daguerreo­type of a white abolitionist’s branded hand. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Martin A. Berger https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/3aa0cf41fe1e0d3439e83e11bada236e.jpg 6b459e857052d872c4d41f97ae779b9b 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 The caption to this image, “White and Black Slaves from New Orleans,” is designed to shock the (mostly white) viewers of such portraits with the realization that skin color was no obvious marker of who counted as a slave — after generations of masters forcing themselves upon enslaved women. This portrait seeks both to arouse moral outrage and prey upon the sympathy of a white audience that would identify with the “white” slave in the image. The back of the image explains that proceeds of the sale of such photographs “will be devoted exclusively to the education of colored people in the Department of the Gulf,” the region of the Confederacy around New Orleans occupied by the Union army. 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 White and Black Slaves Subject The topic of the resource White and Black Slaves 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. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/cc0e2f7b65b35b0477888fa0e84de871.jpg ddc85b1762ab9a7d523a7422538d4d32 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 Violence 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 Violence Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Ambrotype Factual Commentary Factual Commentary This young man is a new recruit in the famous 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Starting in 1863, nearly 200,000 free African Americans, as well as those who escaped from slavery during the war, served in the Union Army and fought in the Civil War. Abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass argued for allowing them into the army: “Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters US, let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship 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 Figure 4 Title A name given to the resource Union soldier Subject The topic of the resource Union soldier Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1863 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 photographer https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/c5c95df01d4c9968a492439e30b08177.jpg ddc85b1762ab9a7d523a7422538d4d32 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 This ambrotype portrays a Union soldier armed with a musket and pistol. Black soldiers were able to enter the Federal army starting in 1863. Research into this image, comparing the studio setting to other known photographs, has shown that this is probably a soldier who enlisted in the 54th or 55th Massachusetts Infantry and posed for his portrait at Camp Meigs, the training base for these regiments in Readville, Massachusetts. The 54th became famous as the first Black regiment organized in the North, and it proved that soldiers of African descent could fight courageously when it made a valiant assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863. This led the way to nearly 200,000 Black soldiers being able to join the Union army. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary The story of Black soldiers making the Civil War a fight for their freedom is a decisive one in American history. Rarely does a people have the opportunity to make such a concerted decision to determine its fate. African Americans seized this one to prove their dedication to the cause of ending slavery, whatever other Americans thought the war was about, enlisting in military in their hundreds of thousands, despite unequal pay, discrimination, and mistreatment. The Mirror of Race has published one essay, by Erina Duganne, on "Black Civil War Portraiture in Context." We hope to publish more essays on this topic in the future. 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 Figure016 Title A name given to the resource Union infantryman 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 1863 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait, military occupational 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