26. - Type de Mulâtresse de la Martinique: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A printed postcard of an unidentified woman from Martinique in a traditional Creole douillette ensemble consisting of a long dress cinched at the waist, with a dark foulard shawl wrapped around her shoulders and a madras headscarf. She has her hands folded in her lap. She is featured in the center of the image, seated on a white bench with a stone wall and forest behind. There is a white border around the image. Above the image, black printed text reads [Compagnie des Antilles. -- Propriétaire de la marque Rhum Chauvet]. Below the image, [26. - Type de Mulâtresse de la Martinique] is printed. The back of the postcard is unused and has [CARTE POSTALE] printed in black at the top and in smaller letters printed underneath [Tous les pays étrangers n'acceptent pas la correspondance au recto (Se renseigner à la Poste.)]. Below, are blank spaces for [CORRESPONDANCE] and [ADRESSE]. Four dark blank lines are below the Adresse. The first line begins with [M____]. Handwritten in the top left corner in pencil are the numbers, [2802].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1920
• Published by: Chauvet
• Designed by: Compagnie antilles, French, 1900 - 1910
• Photograph by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Unidentified Woman or Women
• Type: postcards
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 5 9/16 × 3 9/16 in. (14.1 × 9 cm)
• Place captured: Martinique, Caribbean, Latin America, North and Central America
• Cultural Place: France, Europe
• Cultural Place: Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia
• Topic: African American
• Topic: African diaspora
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Colonialism
• Topic: Fashion
• Topic: Freedom
• Topic: French colonialism
• Topic: Gender
• Object number: 2016.151.8
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.