← Previous Item

Figure 9

Citation

Unknown Photographer Photographer. “Boy with toy gun.” circa 1850. Gregory Fried Collection. Mirror of Race, 11 Feb. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/133. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Title

Boy with toy gun

Subject

Boy with toy gun

Creator

Unknown Photographer Photographer

Date

circa 1850

Type

Studio Portrait

Identifier

Figure 9

Rights Holder

Gregory Fried Collection

Original Format

Daguerreotype

Factual Commentary

This boy, perhaps 10 years old, holds a toy gun. It is rare to find early photographs of children with guns, and even rarer with toy guns. But in contrast to the previous image, which is unusual in showing a black man with a gun, what is not unusual here is the implied context, one in which white boys would expect to grow up in a world where guns were the mark of manhood and power. For this boy, the power of the gun was assumed as a birthright, if here only in play. But play can make the man. Play is how we learn our roles.