Railroad Crossing Guard (Richmond, Virginia), from the project The Negro in Virginia

Robert McNeill, Railroad Crossing Guard (Richmond, Virginia), from the project The Negro in Virginia, 1938, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.72.3, © 1938, Robert McNeill
Copied Robert McNeill, Railroad Crossing Guard (Richmond, Virginia), from the project The Negro in Virginia, 1938, gelatin silver print, sheet: 8 1⁄2 x 10 in. (21.6 x 25.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.72.3, © 1938, Robert McNeill

Artwork Details

Title
Railroad Crossing Guard (Richmond, Virginia), from the project The Negro in Virginia
Artist
Date
1938
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 8 1⁄2 x 10 in. (21.6 x 25.4 cm)
Copyright
© 1938, Robert McNeill
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure male
  • African American
  • Architecture — industry — railroad yard
  • Occupation — service — guard
  • Landscape — Virginia — Richmond
Object Number
1993.72.3
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1993.72.3

Artwork Description

McNeill was hired to take photographs for the publication The Negro in Virginia, one of more than a dozen undertakings on the subject of black life and history launched by the Federal Writers’ Project in the late 1930s. Using text by African American authors, interviews with former slaves, statistical surveys, and photographs, the project sought to dispel myths about slavery and focus attention on the contemporary lives of black Virginians. McNeill understood that editors aimed for a noncontroversial book. “What they wanted were pictures of people at work, pictures that would show the soul of people in their jobs…even for people in menial occupations…I tried to be as positive as I could.”


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