Human Races
These “image essays” gather together striking images on the same theme from across the books in the exhibit.
American geographers voiced more casually what American scientists toiled to demonstrate in the mid nineteenth century: that the world was comprised of races — five in their view — with sharply defined and differentiated attributes. While the American continent was still identified with Native Americans, the American people were instead associated with whiteness, the kind of people even the famous abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe called “we.”
Hover over any image to see source information; right click on any image to see a larger version; look under Research Resources for guides to all images in the digital exhibit.
