Snapshots of the Past

[African American man giving piano lesson to young African American woman] – Antique Print

[African American man giving piano lesson to young African American woman], [1899 or 1900] — historic photograph
[African American man giving piano lesson to young African American woman], [1899 or 1900]. Historic photograph from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

A window into the past: [African American man giving piano lesson to young African American woman], preserved in this historic photograph. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

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[African American man giving piano lesson to young African American woman]

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A young Black woman sits at a piano in a Georgia parlor while a Black man gives her a lesson, a scene that the record's subject headings place in the 1890s. The photograph is one of a series of images of African American life in Georgia that W.E.B. Du Bois assembled around 1900 for the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where the pictures showed education, family, and domestic refinement to counter prevailing stereotypes. Owning a piano and paying for lessons signaled the cultural accomplishment that many Black families pursued in the decades after emancipation.

Created / published[1899 or 1900]
Medium1 photographic print : gelatin silver.
GenreGelatin silver prints 1890-1900.
NotesIn album (disbound): Negro life in Georgia, U.S.A., compiled and prepared by W.E.B. Du Bois, v. 4, no. 363. A microfilm surrogate is also available. Forms part of: Daniel Murray Collection (Library of Congress). Exhibited: American Treasures at the Library of Congress, 2005.
SubjectsAfrican Americans--Education--Georgia--1890-1900. Music education--Georgia--1890-1900. Parlors--Georgia--1890-1900. Pianos--1890-1900.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,220 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-138380

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