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, sheet: 8 ¹⁄₈ x 10 in. (20.6 x 25.4 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.72.8, © 1938, Robert McNeill

Artwork Details

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: Museum purchase
Mediums Description: gelatin silver print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Subjects: Architecture — detail — porch
African American
Figure female — elderly
Object Number: 1993.72.8
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1993.72.8

Artwork Description

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