Snapshots of the Past

[Minnesota State Fair: African American on soap box using hand puppet] – Historic Print

[Minnesota State Fair: African American on soap box using hand puppet], [1900?] — historic photograph
[Minnesota State Fair: African American on soap box using hand puppet], [1900?]. Historic photograph from the Barns & Farms 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

This rare historic photograph captures [Minnesota State Fair: African American on soap box using hand puppet] in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. A conversation-starting piece for home, office, or as a meaningful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

[Minnesota State Fair: African American on soap box using hand puppet]

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A man stands on a soapbox at the Minnesota State Fair, working a hand puppet to draw a crowd, a tactic common among street performers and traveling sellers at turn-of-the-century fairgrounds. Frances Benjamin Johnston, a Washington, D.C. photographer known for her documentary portraits of Black life and education, is credited with the picture, though the card's date of about 1900 is unverified. Such speakers often sold patent medicines, household goods, or entertainment, and they earned their living from passing crowds. The scene offers a glimpse of informal commerce on the fairgrounds of that era.

Created / published[1900?]
Medium1 photographic print.
NotesPhoto by Frances Benjamin Johnston. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,395 × 1,686 px · prints to 5 × 6 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-123614

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