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Untitled (Woman on a Bench), from the project The Negro in Virginia

  • Robert McNeill, Untitled (Woman on a Bench), from the project The Negro in Virginia, 1930s, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.72.8, © 1938, Robert McNeill

In 1938, twenty-year-old Robert McNeill was hired to take photographs for The Negro in Virginia, one of more than a dozen black-oriented history projects launched by the New Deal Federal Writer’s Project in the late 1930s. With a three-and-a-half week deadline and a small amount of film, McNeill had to choose his shots carefully. It was a challenging assignment through which he sought to dispel myths about slavery and focus attention on the contemporary lives of black Virginians.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012
Title
Untitled (Woman on a Bench), from the project The Negro in Virginia
Artist
Robert McNeill
Date
1930s
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 8 1⁄8 x 10 in. (20.6 x 25.4 cm.)
Copyright
© 1938, Robert McNeill
Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Museum purchase

Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Photography
Photoprint
Keywords
  • Figure female – elderly
  • Ethnic – African-American
Object Number
1993.72.8
Palette
Linked Open Data URI

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