“Saint Mauritius is the reason I wandered south and west into old Germany. Saint Mauritius, the black knight who appears consistently in mediæval and renaissance art (not as frequently as Balthazar does in Adoration of the Magi), particularly in northern-central Europe and along the Hanseatic trade routes (later in Flemish and Dutch art, and spreading across western Europe and the Mediterranean), had his first known and extant representation in a stone sculpture mid-late 13th century, probably around 1250-70, which currently sits in the Hoher Chor in Magdeburger Dom, opposite his companion Saint Katharina, sculpted by the same artist at the same time.“
Next Wednesday Dining with Dana will be covering “Rococoa”, discussing black royalty in the niche subculture and the importance it holds today. Join in on Wednesday 14th in The Scene!
6th photo I believe may have been someone’s personal Halloween or reenactment costume based of of the character Calypso from Pirates of the Caribbean (and ended up posted on Pinterest at some point)
September 5-12, 2016, I’ll be posting pictures and articles about Historical Fashion, Fantasy/SFF cosplay, how-to guides, art history-inspired garb, and of course SUBMISSIONS of your costumes, reenactments, and Renaissance Festival gear!
LADY SARAH | THE BLACK VICTORIANS | 1862
Vintage hand-colorized photograph of Lady Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies. She was orphaned in 1848, when her parents were killed in a slave-hunting war. She was around five years old. In 1850, Sarah was taken to England and presented to Queen Victoria as a “gift” from the King of Dahomey. She became the queen’s goddaughter and a celebrity known for her extraordinary intelligence.
Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond. Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.
I’ve posted on Lady Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies for previous 1800s Weeks, but I’ve never seen a colorized photograph of her! Thank you so much for posting it, @blackhistoryalbum!!
Hello! I have followed your blog for a long time and want to thank you so much for evrything you post. The work and exposure of the truth about poc being present throught the times is such a welcome sight. Thank you. I also have a question for you, my city does a Victorian age themed festival and I was wondering if you could give me any advice or information on how to dress for the event. Costumes and Hair styles especially seem to be very elusive for black women of color.
I’m so glad you asked! There are a ton of photographs of Black Victorian ladies, both African American and Afro-European. There are a few places you can find these online, and many different clothing and hair styles to choose from.
There are quite a few images of her, and she always seems dressed in the height of fashion. ;) Here’s a video that includes some biographical information and more artworks and photographs of Lady Sarah (about ten minutes long) at the National Portrait Gallery in London:
You really do have a ton of options, so you can choose a look that suits you in particular or that you find especially appealing!
You might also want to check out Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina’s Black Victorians/Black Victoriana, which goes a bit more in depth about the Black British population during this era, focusing especially on the history of London.
One of my favorite things about this painting is how massive it is. The figures are nearly life size, as you can see in this photograph by art historian Esther Schruder:
Extensive research revealed that Douglass was a leading pioneer in photography who sat for as many portraits as he could in order to combat blackface caricatures and to assert the humanity of African Americans in place of slavery.
Douglass believed that photographs were a powerful means of “moral and social” influence, allowing the poor and oppressed to find self-confidence.
“The humblest servant girl may now possess a picture of herself such as the wealth of kings could not purchase 50 years ago,” he wrote.
There are 160 surviving portraits of Douglass, created between 1841 to 1895, and the collection represents a powerful timeline of his legacy as a man, artist, and leader. Many of the photos were found by scouring hundreds of libraries, museums, schools, societies, archives, and auction houses in the US and in Europe. Some of the original photos were previously sold for over $10,000 each.
Since Caravaggio’s paintings are all about lighting, contrast, and of course, chiaroscuro, different photographs of the same painting can look rather different.
In any American art history or history of Western Civ classroom, you’re practically guaranteed to hear of and see works from Caravaggio. But this work is less likely to be seen in PowerPoints and textbooks as an example because it includes a man whose race appears ambiguous to Americans-the man with brown skin who represents one of the Apostles accompanying Doubting Thomas to examine the wounds of Christ. Here is an image from caravaggio.org of people viewing the painting in a museum, to hopefully offset the illusion that any one specific photograph can capture its colors and contrasts perfectly.
We are encouraged to assume that because he is “from history” he must therefore be white; he is white because he is from history.Sometimes we are even prompted to imagine the people in these paintings as someone we know, perhaps they look like us, or a relative of ours. But if the works we see are limited to only white or white-appearing people, how does this affect our sense of identity and connection to history? Are students of color discouraged from identifying with the people in paintings like this one, and why or why not? Further analysis and examination in this direction is discouraged in most classroom environments and disciplines, although this is beginning to change. My focus is on examining our expectations of these works, and how we as viewers categorize and identify with the people depicted in them.
Thank you for running such an informative, comprehensive blog! I'm wondering if you know/have any resources regarding the lives of East-Indian immigrants living in England in the early 1900s? I want to make sure my novel is as accurate as possible but I'm not sure how to go about searching for such specific information... Thanks and best wishes
Well, this kind of resource shouldn’t be very difficult to find, considering the time period you’re asking about is still within living memory. You have a general overview on the Wikipedia page, which estimates the Indian British population at around 70,000 by the year 1900:
Now considering that Indian people have been in Britain since well before the time you’re asking about, you would have to decide what kind of narrative you want to write, since this history is too diverse and varied to write it for you. In other words, what you describe as “such specific information” is actually…not, very.
If you’re looking for something more biographical, there’s the works of Savitri Devi Chowdhary. There is also a lot of information out there about the Lascars, and The Lascar Project offers a downloadable teaching resource (audio, if that’s accessible to you).
In this audio extract, Gilli Salvat remembers arriving in England from India shortly after partition in 1948. She and her family were among the first of many settlers who were lured to Britain by the promise of employment. She describes her parents’ tears as the boat leaves India, and the racist attitudes of the English people that she was initially confronted by.
Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, was a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She campaigned for votes for women nationally as well as locally in Richmond and Kingston-upon-Thames. She was often seen selling the newspaper The Suffragette outside Hampton Court Palace where she lived - her father had been close to Queen Victoria, and the family were given the use of the Palace’s apartment rooms. On 18 November 1910, known as ‘Black Friday’, she led a 400-strong demonstration to parliament together with Mrs Pankhurst. As clashes broke out between the police and protestors, over 150 women were physically assaulted.
Sophia was not the only Indian suffragette. An Indian women’s group took part in the 1911 coronation procession of 60,000 suffragettes.
Sophia also belonged to the Women’s Tax Resistance League, whose slogan was ‘No Vote, No Tax’. Her refusal to pay tax led to her prosecution several times and some of her valuable possessions were impounded. A committed campaigner for women’s rights and an active fundraiser, she was often seen selling the newspaper The Suffragette outside Hampton Court Palace.
So, keep in mind that all of this is a beginning, not the end of information about a lot of amazing and accomplished people, many of whom are still alive. This past isn’t distant, so you’re opening the lid to a veritable cornucopia of documents, photographs, and first-person accounts. Good Luck!
Here’s another image of British Indian suffragettes:
Photograph of Indian suffragettes on the Women’s Coronation Procession, 17 June 1911.
To mark the coronation of King George V, a huge march through London was arranged demanding votes for women in Coronation year. Led by suffragettes dressed as powerful women from the past, the march of 40,000 women was watched by crowds, some on specially erected stands. Indian suffragettes, including Mrs Roy, Mrs Mukerjea and Mrs Bhola Nauth marched in the Empire Pageant section of the procession along with representatives from New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies.
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I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of good photography when it comes to the sharing and archiving of digital artworks. The images above, taken by Frances d’Ath, are extremely high-quality, as opposed to a lot of the images you’ll see in other online archives. To compare, this is the image for the Wikimedia file [via WGA.hu] on this painting:
The contrast in this image is much higher, the lighting is darker, and it’s a grainier image overall. This is why I sometimes post multiple images of the same artwork, or make additional posts when I find a better picture of it. You can also check out this post to read more on how racism is ingrained in the history of photography, and why/how this affects images here that feature people of color in European art history.
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