Collection Highlights
The Intelligence Office
1849
1959.46
Oil on canvas
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
Jim Crow Ten Pins
Title
Jim Crow Ten Pins
Object name
Table game
Date
1890-1910
Medium
Wood, cardboard, paper
Dimensions
Each (figure): 6 3/4 x 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 in. (17.1 x 3.2 x 3.2 cm)
Box: 1 1/2 x 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. ( 3.8 x 19.7 x 19.7 cm
Description
"Jim Crow Ten Pins" table game with box and ten pins; cover of box lithographed with a caricature of a black man in overalls bowling in a watermelon patch; cover inscribed, "JIM CROW/ Ten/ Pins/ PUBLISHED BY J. OTTMANN LITH CO. N.Y."; ten pins, each with a caricature of a black man with his mouth wide open and dressed in red and white striped pants and a shirt, a yellow and green striped vest, a blue tie and a green and purple waistcoat; each figure set into a circular wooden stand painted purple; two red wooden balls.
Credit Line
The Liman Collection
Object Number
2000.384
Marks
lithographed: on the box cover: "JIM CROW/ Ten/ Pins/ PUBLISHED BY J. OTTMANN LITH CO. N.Y."
Gallery Label
Target games overtly demonstrated white hostility against African-Americans. The object of Jim Crow Ten Pins, a bowling game, was to knock down the smiling minstrel figures.
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
