Walking toy in the form of a caricatured porter: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A painted, wooden walking toy in the form of a caricatured porter. The figure has a black cartoonish face with white eyes, a large, red mouth and white teeth. The top of his head is also black, with two orange stripes on the proper left. He is painted wearing a red jacket, white shirt and a black tie. His legs are cylindrical and painted orange. The figure's proper right foot is missing. The proper left foot has a flat top and curved bottom with the front of the foot painted orange, and the back painted black. The back of his head is painted orange at the top with a red body and orange legs. There is a broken orange wooden post coming out of the porter's lower back.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1935
• Created by: Unidentified
• Type: walking dolls
• Medium: paint on wood
• Dimensions: 13 7/8 x 5 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. (35.2 x 13.3 x 14 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Caricature and cartoons
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Object number: 2007.7.207
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Collection of James M. Caselli and Jonathan Mark Scharer
• 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 underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.