The Charleston Trio
date: label: date made
content: 1921
name: label: maker
content: Louis Marx and Company
notes: label: Description
content: The Charleston Trio wind-up tin toy is part of Black Americana, a genre of objects reflecting African American history. The toy was created by the Louis Marx and Company in New York in 1921. It was one of the company's earliest toy products and it features two African American performers and a dog dancing atop a tin house. Black Memorabilia like these figurines personify negative stereotypes of African Americans by utilizing humor as a vehicle for racial oppression. The exaggerated facial features like the men's big red lips and bug-eyed stares symbolize minstrelsy stereotypes of African Americans as buffoonish entertainers. Furthermore, this toy shows how toymakers of the twentieth century co-opted nineteenth-century stereotypes to increase revenue. The Charleston Trio's existence speaks to American race relations and the prejudice African Americans encountered daily in their struggle for equality.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York
topic: label: Subject
content: Stereotypes
label: Subject
content: Racism
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2018.0188.10
label: accession number
content: 2018.0188
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0188.10
objectType: label: Object Name
content: collectible
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/2 in x 5 in x 3 in; 24.13 cm x 12.7 cm x 7.62 cm