Collection Highlights
Aaron Burr (1756-1836)
Date:
1836
Object Number:
1927.59
Medium:
Plaster with wash
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
Jim Crow Ten Pins
Object Number:
2000.384
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
Marks:
lithographed: on the box cover: "JIM CROW/ Ten/ Pins/ PUBLISHED BY J. OTTMANN LITH CO. N.Y."
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.
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.
Bibliography:
Hofer, Margaret K. "The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board & Table Games." New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.
Credit Line:
The Liman Collection
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
