To order images and/or obtain permission to use them commercially, please contact the KSHS Reference Desk at KSHS.reference@ks.gov or 785-272-8681, ext. 117.
For more information see the Copyright and Permission FAQ.
This postcard features an illustration of a black girl in the form of a racist caricature called a picaninny. The picaninny was the dominant racist stereotype of black children in the United States from the 1850s through the 1970s, including Topsy from Uncle Tom's Cabin and Farina from Our Gang, or the Little Rascals. Robert Gallagher, a U.S. Army soldier on active duty at Camp Robinson, Arkansas, sent this postcard to his wife in Leavenworth, Kansas, during World War II. The routine nature of Gallagher's note on the back of the postcard--he does not refer to the illustration on the front, but comments on the weather, promises to write more and asks if his wife and baby are well--underscores just how common racist images of black Americans were in the 20th century.
Creator: Gallagher, Robert D
Date: May 12, 1943
Item Number: 316680
Call Number: KM
KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 316680
Collections - Manuscript
Date - 1940s - 1943
Home and Family - Children - Girls
Home and Family - Families
Military - Service - Army
Military - Wars - World War II
Objects and Artifacts - Communication Artifacts - Documentary Artifact - Postcard
People - African Americans - Discrimination
Places - Cities and towns - Fort Leavenworth
Places - Other States - Arkansas - Little Rock
Thematic Time Period - World War II, 1939 - 1945
Type of Material - Postcards
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/316680