The Freedmen's Bureau: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The off-white page from Harper's Weekly has a black-and-white print of a wood engraving. It depicts a uniformed figure representing the Freedmen's Bureau at center, holding out his hand to stop a group of white men from advancing on a group of Black men. The two groups face each other from opposite sides of the image, with figures on both sides holding guns and other weapons. A United States flag hangs from a building in the background. There is a caption under the image which reads [THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU. - DRAWN BY A.R. WAUD. - [SEE PAGE 467.] ]. There is sideways text along the proper right margin which reads JULY 23, 1868. / HARPER'S WEEKLY/ 473].

The page is adhered to white paper. The back of the white paper has several marks, tears, and pieces of tape residue.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: July 25, 1868
• Published by: Harper's Weekly, American, 1857 - 1916
• Illustrated by: Alfred R. Waud, 1828 - 1891
• Subject of: Freedmen's Bureau, American, 1865 - 1872
• Type: black-and-white prints
• Type: magazines (periodicals)
• Medium: ink on paper with tape
• Dimensions: H x W x D (in mat): 12 × 16 × 1/4 in. (30.5 × 40.6 × 0.6 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (paper): 9 7/8 × 15 in. (25.1 × 38.1 cm)
• Place printed: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Emancipation
• Topic: Government
• Topic: Politics
• Topic: Race relations
• Topic: Reconstruction, U.S. History, 1865-1877
• Topic: Slavery
• Object number: 2012.160.6
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Stanley Turkel's Collection of Reconstruction Era Materials
• 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.