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

Curator: This gelatin silver print by Frances Benjamin Johnston captures a cooking class at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. It's… hauntingly serene, somehow. Editor: Serene? I see rows of young women, uniforms starched, performing repetitive tasks. It speaks more of labor than leisure. The image itself—the photographic process, the silver reacting to light—becomes a document of that labor. Curator: True, but look at the light, how it softens the edges, almost like a Vermeer. There's a quiet dignity there. It’s the hope, isn’t it? The hope imbued in that domesticity. Editor: Hope constructed through very specific economic and racial hierarchies. The labor these women are being trained for reinforces those hierarchies. We need to consider the social context—the very tangible realities of their future employment. Curator: And yet, there's something universally comforting about the domestic arts, isn't there? The act of creation, of nurturing... Editor: Which in this case, is designed to prepare them for domestic service for white families. It's a limited narrative, framed by power dynamics and the intended consumption of their work. Curator: Perhaps, but perhaps, too, they found empowerment within it, a space for themselves, however small. Editor: A space forged within constraints, shaped by materials and social forces far beyond their control. Curator: Ultimately, it is a haunting reflection—a complex moment captured forever. Editor: A powerful reminder of the labor embedded in every photograph, every act of making, every meal prepared.