Museum of the City of New York

Widely known for their picturesque winter scenes and quaint landscapes, Currier & Ives also produced the Darktown Comics, an enormously popular series that portrayed African Americans as dim-witted buffoons, promoting stereotypes popularized in 19th-century minstrel shows. Joshua Brown, executive director of the American Social History Project at CUNY, moderates a discussion with Professor David Jaffee of Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design and Culture; and University of Maryland Professor Carla Peterson, author of Black Gotham, about the "other side" of Currier & Ives. The panel will look at the broader catalog of the most important commercial art firm of the 19th century, exploring the climate and attitudes that made Darktown one of its most profitable series.

Presented in honor of Black History Month conjunction with Currier & Ives and Other Winter Tales.

Co-sponsored by the American Social History Project.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED
$6 Museum members; $8 seniors and students; $12 general public