Races, Negroes: United States. Alabama. Tuskegee. Tuskegee Institute: Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training for Commercial and Industrial Employment. Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama: The Tailor Shop. 1902

Curator: This photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston captures a tailor shop at the Tuskegee Institute, part of a series documenting agencies promoting assimilation. Editor: It strikes me as quite stark. The composition, with its receding lines of tables and figures, emphasizes the regimentation of labor. Curator: Johnston's work here is fascinating for its focus on the process—the very material conditions of training and labor within the context of racial uplift. Note the students' engagement. Editor: Yes, their posture and arrangement create a sense of order, but the black-and-white tonality lends an air of somberness. It visually evokes the social constraints these individuals faced. Curator: Exactly! This image encapsulates the complex interplay between industry and social mobility that Johnston documented. Editor: It’s a stark and beautiful reminder of the intersections of labor, identity, and representation.