Postcard of a praline seller: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Vertically oriented postcard with a tinted image of a black and white photograph of a woman seated on curving stairs. The woman is seated with a fan in her proper right hand that rests in her lap. On her left side, on the step below her, is a basket with food. She is shown in a green and yellow dress and wears a head wrap. Below the image in the lower left corner is black text "PRALINE SELLER, NEW ORLEANS, LA." The back of the postcard is divided into two portions and has green text throughout "PRALINE SELLER-Pralines are a candy made of light brown sugar sprinkled thickly with meat of the pecan nut / POST CARD. PLACE STAMP HERE UNITED STATES AND CANADA ONCE CENT FOREIGN TWO CENTS / THIS SPACE MAY BE USED FOR MESSAGE / THIS SPACE FOR ADDRESS / 154". In the top left is handwritten text "WB99-7/ 1.50"

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1910
• Distributed by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Unidentified Woman or Women
• Type: postcards
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 5 9/16 × 3 1/2 in. (14.1 × 8.9 cm)
• Place depicted: New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: American South
• Topic: Cooking and dining
• Topic: Foodways
• Object number: 2015.36.2
• 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: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.