Races, Negroes: United States. Virginia. Hampton. Hampton Normal and Industrial School: Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training Negro Girls in Domestic Science. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va.: Washing the Dishes. 1899 - 1900

Curator: This evocative photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, taken at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, captures a young woman practicing domestic science. It’s part of a series documenting efforts to assimilate Black Americans. Editor: The quiet formality almost hurts, doesn't it? She’s framed so rigidly, a blackboard looming like a judge over her delicate actions. It feels… performative, somehow. Curator: It's about control, I think. The composition places her within a system, but her gaze is downcast, inward-looking. The utensils on the table, the very tools of domesticity, become props in a larger narrative of race and power. Editor: I do wonder what she’s thinking. Is there a flicker of rebellion, or just weariness, in that averted glance? The photograph’s monochrome palette heightens the sense of constraint, the absence of color mirroring a lack of opportunity, maybe. Curator: Johnston's image is a loaded document, a testament to a complicated chapter in American history. Editor: It stays with you, doesn't it? A single moment, frozen in time, yet echoing with centuries of struggle and resilience.