Wadsworth Atheneum

I visited the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum this morning. They had 3 exhibits on display and I chose to visit the Soul Food African American Cooking and Creative exhibit. Not sure what to expect I was pleasantly surprised.

The first picture is called the Cakewalk. The picture was drawn during 1850’s. The artist is unidentified. The portrait is of two enslave couples doing a dance called the cakewalk. The photo is very detailed in color. It captures the essence of what slaves used to wear. The woman on the left side is wearing a rose colored dress with black shoes. She is bent over in the heat of the dance. The gentlemen dancing next to her is has his eyes focused on her. He is wearing a long tan coat with brown pants that don’t quite reach his ankles. Hi shoes are weathered, but he appears to be enjoying the dance. The lady next to him is in full swing. She is looking down as she moves to the beat. She is wearing a long blue dress that is hiked up to her knee. The gentlemen on the right is wearing a full suit. He has his hat in one hand and a cane in the other. The cakewalk became so popular that some plantation owners would award the best dancers. They would get dressed in their best, hats, suits and canes to perform the dance. The winners would receive hoecake or molasses candy.

The next photo is the advertisement for the sale of slaves. It is called Cotton and Rice Negroes. It is a bill of sale that describes each slave. It provides the name, age and occupation. It also explains the sale process. You pay a partial amount now and the balance by a bond bearing interest. It looks like it is printed on some sort of rice paper. Louis De Saussure was a scientist who owned several plantations in Beaufort South Carolina. He kept detailed records of the slaves that he purchased and sold.


The next display are African spoons. Theses are spoons from the early 1900’s but are still
In used today. They are wooden spoons. One has a twisted wooden handle with darker colored wood as the trim. The middle spoon has a single handle with a dark wooden trim.
The last spoon is much thinner than the first two but bears the same resemblance. The spoons were created in America, but closely resemble what was used in Africa


The next picture is titled Golly don’t I like chicken. It was drawn in 1909 by WH Grant. This picture is of a young that has a wide grin that expresses his love of chicken. He has a dark complexion with curly hair and a mouth full of teeth. This is a stereotype of the love that African American’s have for chicken.


The next picture is of paper bags that have a picture of different black people. The display is an example of how Black people used to pass in order to get ahead after slavery abolished. Paper bag is often a noun used to describe the color of African American. I took two different pictures of the display so that you can see how people had to change their identity in order to fit into a society that didn’t welcome them.


The last picture is a classic. It is a quilt that contains pictures of family members at dinner time. You will see mother’s father’s grandmother’s grandfather’s aunt’s uncles, brother and sisters. Dinner time in the Black community is the most important meal of the day. Not only was a formal meal prepared, it was a time to hand down stories from past generations. They would share information that was not past down in history books, they would make sure that the younger generation received knowledge that would help them as they reached adulthood. These moments were very precious. The quilt is very bright. It is full of the color red that is representative of the blood, sweat and tears they the family has endured.


That was my trip to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum. I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed my visit.