Figure044

Citation

Unknown Photographer Photographer. “ox cart.” circa 1875. Greg French Collection. Mirror of Race, 11 Feb. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/262. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

Title

ox cart

Subject

unknown

Creator

Unknown Photographer Photographer

Date

circa 1875

Type

outdoor scene

Identifier

Figure044

Rights Holder

Greg French Collection

Original Format

tintype

Physical Dimensions

Half Plate (4.25 x 5.5 inches)

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

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.

Alternative Title

Collection

Mirror of Race