Red Cap Porter
date: label: date made
content: 1930s
name: label: maker
content: Louis Marx and Company
notes: label: Description
content: This Red Cap Porter wind-up tin toy is part of Black Americana, a genre of objects reflecting African American history. The Louis Marx & Company created this toy in New York City during the 1930s. It features a black railroad porter wearing a red uniform and carrying suitcases in each hand. Countless African Americans worked as Pullman Porters on the railroads during the early twentieth century. Porters were a prestigious employment opportunity because it paid well and required travel across the country. However, this toy personifies negative stereotypes of African Americans by utilizing humor as a vehicle for racial oppression. The Red Cap Porter’s exaggerated facial features such as his big lips and bug-eyed stare caricature African Americans. While this derogatory toy is inaccurate, its 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: 2018.0188.02
label: accession number
content: 2018.0188
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0188.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: collectible
label: Object Name
content: toy
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 in x 3 in x 2 in; 20.32 cm x 7.62 cm x 5.08 cm