I. - Marchande de bananes aux Antilles: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A photographic postcard of an unidentified woman, a banana vendor, from the French Caribbean in a traditional Creole douillette ensemble. She wears a light colored floral grand robe with a foulard shawl around her shoulders and tucked into her waist. Her skirt has extra fabric tied in a knot at the front. She is featured standing, with her left hand on her hip and her right hand holding a bunch of bananas. She is wearing a madras headscarf and has another bunch of bananas on her head. The background is a painted forest and bridge scene. The image has a white border surrounding. [Compagnie des Antilles. - Priopriétaire de la Marque Rhum Chauvet] is printed in black on the top of the postcard above the woman. On the bottom of the postcard, [I. - Marchande de bananes aux Antilles] 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 [La Correspondance au recto n'est pas acceptée par tous les Pays Etrangers. (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____].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1910
• Published by: Chauvet
• Designed by: Compagnie antilles, French, 1900 - 1910
• Photograph by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Unidentified Woman or Women
• Type: postcards
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper with ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W: 5 1/2 × 3 1/2 in. (14 × 8.9 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: Agriculture
• Topic: Business
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Colonialism
• Topic: Fashion
• Topic: Foodways
• Object number: 2016.151.11
• 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.