Expulsion of Negroes and Abolitionists from Tremont Temple 1860

Curator: We’re looking at “Expulsion of Negroes and Abolitionists from Tremont Temple,” a wood engraving by Winslow Homer published in Harper's Weekly in 1860. The scene is charged, violent even. Editor: My first impression is chaos, a stark black and white rendering of figures in motion. The frenetic energy practically jumps off the page. Curator: Indeed. This piece captures a pivotal moment where anti-abolitionist sentiment boiled over in Boston. Homer was documenting a deeply unsettling social reality, the widespread resistance to racial equality, even in the North. Editor: The use of engraving as a medium feels particularly relevant here. This wasn't a painting for the elite, it was mass produced, circulated in a widely read publication. We’re talking about bringing a contentious political moment directly to the breakfast tables of ordinary citizens. It's a powerful tool to affect social discourse, but also to shape it and, perhaps, to coarsen it. Curator: Precisely! The accessibility of the image is crucial to understanding its purpose. And consider Tremont Temple itself. A space associated with progressive causes, used to host abolitionist meetings, became a site of such aggressive exclusion. Editor: And that expulsion seems so physical. Note the dramatic falls, the raised arms. The level of craftsmanship and the printing press allowed Homer to convey a clear emotional impact about that specific historical reality. And it highlights something more persistent: class antagonism, race-based division and so forth. These aren’t ephemeral ideas, these things happen because somebody makes them. Curator: And somebody disseminates images like these to reinforce particular viewpoints. Harper’s Weekly positioned itself as a national publication during a time of intense division leading up to the Civil War. Homer’s visuals are, in many ways, doing as much cultural work as the editorials found elsewhere in the paper. Editor: Looking at it today, it prompts questions about visual culture: what is amplified, what is ignored, who owns the means of representation? A fascinating work on so many levels, even though its existence represents the reproduction of ideologies that cause oppression and grief. Curator: A grim, but insightful, observation, I agree completely. Homer forces us to confront the complexities and contradictions within American history.