Sujet

GUADELOUPE. - Type n° 7, 1900-1920. Creator: Edgar Littée.

Légende

The title of this French colonial postcard (GUADELOUPE. - Type n° 7) exemplifies the standard naming structure that categorized “exotic” native subjects in the form of ethnic and occupational “types.” Presenting the image subjects in this way conveyed the perception of them as “tame” colonial subjects capable of assimilation into European ways of life. The woman in this image wears a traditional, five-piece French Caribbean formal ensemble called a douillette, which is derived from the grand robe worn by early French settlers. Prior to Emancipation, dress codes required enslaved women to wear a chemise jupe, an informal bodice and skirt ensemble. Douillettes would have been worn by mulattas and free black women. Following Emancipation, black women resisted these old dress codes by donning elaborate douillettes that were previously forbidden.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/Heritage Art

Notre référence

HRM21A73_455

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

120,2Mo (8,9Mo) / 44,7cm x 67,4cm / 5282 x 7957 (300dpi)

Mots clés

female women woman people black education Caribbean pattern costume clothes museum headdress design dress traditional costume century clothing B&W headgear emancipation head-dress Guadeloupe Patterned Smithsonian Institution black & white black and white B W Educational Institution 1910s 20th century heritage scientific institution TGN traditional dress photograph portrait postcard cultural heritage Black History Heritage Art National Museum of African American History and Culture NMAAHC silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper douillette Edgar Littée Littée Edgar Littee Edgar