Make A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York)

Robert McNeill, Make A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York), 1938, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.72.1, © 1938, Robert McNeill
Robert McNeill, Make A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York), 1938, gelatin silver print, image: 7 1⁄2 x 9 5⁄8 in. (19.1 x 24.5 cm) sheet: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.72.1, © 1938, Robert McNeill

Artwork Details

Title
Make A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York)
Artist
Date
1938
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
image: 7 1⁄2 x 9 5⁄8 in. (19.1 x 24.5 cm) sheet: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
Copyright
© 1938, Robert McNeill
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Cityscape — New York — Bronx
  • African American
  • Occupation — domestic
  • Cityscape — New York — New York
  • Figure group
Object Number
1993.72.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1993.72.1

Artwork Description

In 1937, after enrolling at the New York Institute of Photography, McNeill did a series on black domestic workers for Fortune magazine. The sophisticated composition and nuanced handling of light and space in Make a Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York) did not, however, mask the irony in the image of women waiting on a street corner hoping to pick up a day’s work in front of a poster advertising a movie for those with leisure time. When Fortune rejected the pictures, Flash!, a magazine aimed at middleclass black readers, published them as a thirteen-photograph feature.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012

Works by this artist (97 items)

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Reginald Marsh, Locomotives, Jersey City, 1934, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Felicia Meyer Marsh, 1979.127.1
Locomotives, Jersey City
Artist
Date1934
oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard
On view
Reginald Marsh, Untitled, watercolor and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1979.127.4
Untitled
Artist
watercolor and pencil on paper
Not on view
Reginald Marsh, Atlantic Liner in Harbor with Tugs (mural study, U.S. Customs House, New York, New York), 1937, tempera on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1965.18.103
Atlantic Liner in Harbor with Tugs (mural study, U.S…
Artist
Date1937
tempera on fiberboard
Not on view
Reginald Marsh, Untitled, 1927, watercolor and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1979.127.3
Untitled
Artist
Date1927
watercolor and pencil on paper
Not on view

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