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.: Ironing. 1899 - 1900

Curator: This is a photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, taken at the Hampton Normal and Industrial School in Virginia. The image, titled "Ironing," shows a young Black woman engaged in domestic work. Editor: The scene feels posed, yet there's a quiet dignity in her stance, and the repetitive action of ironing—a task laden with implications of labor and servitude—almost becomes meditative. Curator: Indeed, Johnston's photographs of Hampton were often intended to demonstrate the school's mission of assimilation through vocational training, highlighting the supposed progress of Black students. But let’s not forget the labor involved. The textiles, the iron, the construction of the ironing board and the very labor of this young woman are front and center. Editor: Yet, doesn't the act of ironing, rendered so carefully here, also symbolize a striving for order and control in a world that often denied both to Black individuals? It is a potent image, charged with layers of meaning, reflecting both hope and constraint. Curator: I agree. Seeing the image as part of the material culture of this school makes me reflect on the labor and social structures at play. Editor: Understanding its symbols and the historical context deepens its emotional resonance.