Explore Black History

early 20th century

A sepia tone photograph of a family posing in front of a house. The two women, one man, two teenage girls, and a boy are depicted in three rows. At the front, seated in a matched pair of high back wooden chairs, is a woman and a teenage girl. Both the woman and the girl are wearing white blouses and light tone, long skirts. They are both facing the viewer and are seated with their hands folded in their laps. The teenage girl on the left, has her hair side parted, pulled back, and secured with a black ribbon headband. The woman on the right is wearing a graduated, collar length, pearl necklace. She has her hair side parted and pulled back into a loose knot at the back. Standing in the second row behind them is a man and another teenage girl. The man, depicted right, is wearing a dark tone suit with a white dress shirt and thin bow tie. His hair is parted at the side and smoothed down with a finger wave over the proper right side of his forehead. The other teenage girl, depicted left, is wearing a medium tone striped blouse with a white collar with rounded points and a long skirt. She also has a knot of small, thin ribbons securing the collar at her throat. On the raised porch to the house is a boy crouched down between man and the teenage girl. He is wearing a dark jacket and a medium tone newsboy cap. On the far left, seated in a chair on the porch, is the other woman. She is wearing a light tone dress and an Edwardian, wide band picture hat with a bow on one side. She is cradling a baby with a white baby bonnet in the crook of her proper right arm. A toddler leaning over her proper right leg appears to be kissing the baby in the woman’s arms. The woman has her proper left arm draped over the toddler’s back, obscuring the toddler’s face. A partially depicted person is on the far left edge of the image with only their arm visible and resting on the edge of the porch. On the far right is another partially depicted individual, seated in a chair on the porch. The house behind them features light tone clapboards, a door, and a partially shuttered window. The square photograph is adhered to a plain, gray cardboard mount. The mount has four pin holes at the top center and two at the bottom center. There is a loss at the bottom right corner of the mount. The back of the frame is plain.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Photographs and Still Images

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of James M. Baxter

National Museum of African American History and Culture

2021.13.10

mounts (framing and mounting equipment)
gelatin silver prints
portraits

Public domain
Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.

silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper on cardboard

H x W (Mounted): 5 1/4 × 5 1/4 in. (13.3 × 13.3 cm)
H x W (Image): 3 9/16 × 3 5/16 in. (9 × 8.4 cm)

Object Name • Photograph of a family posing in front of a house

nmaahc_2021.13.10

NMAAHC

PHOTOGRAPH OF A FAMILY POSING IN FRONT OF A HOUSE

National Museum of African American History and Culture

CC0

1920s • 1890s

United States • North and Central America

Photography • Family

Country • United States • Continent • North and Central America

mounts (framing and mounting equipment) • Portraits • Photographs

Images

No Known Copyright Restrictions