Whirligig in the form of a caricatured man swatting a bee: Museum Object and Cultural History
Whirligig in the form of a caricatured man swatting a bee: Date: 1992. Created by: Barbara Alfred, American. Created by: Ted Alfred, American.
The object in the museum catalogue
A painted, wooden whirligig in the form of a caricatured man swatting a bumble bee. The man is standing on a dark, wooden block. He is depicted wearing a red jacket, black necktie, white shirt, yellow pants, and black boots. The tails of his jacket are made of red painted metal. A yellow top hat with a red band sits atop his head. He has a spherical head, painted black, with round white eyes and a large red and white mouth. He has large, round paddles for hands. His arms spin around to swat at a wooden bumble bee suspended from the top hat by a curved metal wire. The bee has a black head, black and yellow striped body, white wings, and a metal stinger. A card with handwritten text is tied around the man’s leg with tan cord. It reads [Limited Edition of / "Blackman Swatting Bee" / Inspired by an antique / whirligig in a private / collection. Artist Unknown / Midwest[…?] 1880. Made of / wood & Tin / Signed & Numbered #11/250]. The text on the back of the card reads [Whirligig makers often / attempted humor in / their pieces, for they / were intended to / amuse!].
Materials, dates and provenance
- Date: 1992
- Created by: Barbara Alfred, American
- Created by: Ted Alfred, American
- Type: whirligigs
- Medium: paint , wood , metal , paper (fiber product) and cord (fiber product)
- Dimensions: 11 1/8 x 10 x 8 in. (28.3 x 25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Topic: African American
- Topic: Amusements
- Topic: Caricature and cartoons
- Topic: Stereotypes
- Object number: 2007.7.301
- 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.
Sources
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