The Darktown Bowling Club: Bowled Out

The late nineteenth-century Darktown prints by Currier & Ives depict racist stereotypes that are offensive and disturbing. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves such works to shed light on their historical context and to enable the study and evaluation of racism.

This print depicts caricatured figures. At center, an airborne bowling ball hits the belly of one of the men (he is wearing a red/white polka dot shirt) thereby knocking him backward into his other companions. The right half of the image is filled with five Black (African American) men tumbling and falling amid flying bowling pins caused by the mis-aimed bowling ball. Standing just to the left of this chaotic jumble of men and bowling pins, a tall man (wearing a striped red/white shirt) holds his hands up and is open-mouthed in shock; his hat has just popped off his head. At the far left background, the bowler and two male spectators (their hands upraised) are also open-mouthed in amazement. The title and caption are imprinted beneath image.

Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law, was made a business partner. Subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued via their successors until 1907.