Races, Negroes: United States. Virginia. Hampton. Hampton Normal and Industrial School: Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training for Commercial and Industrial Employment. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va.: Engine Room. 1899 - 1900

Curator: This photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston is titled "Races, Negroes: United States. Virginia. Hampton. Hampton Normal and Industrial School: Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training for Commercial and Industrial Employment. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va.: Engine Room." Editor: The immediate impression is one of immense scale and industrial might, yet also a sense of quiet labor. The two figures seem dwarfed by the machinery. Curator: Johnston was commissioned to document the Hampton Institute, and these images were intended to showcase the school's mission of vocational training for African Americans. Editor: Right, but let's unpack that "assimilation" bit in the title. There's a tension here. Is this empowerment or a reinforcement of a racialized class system masked as progress? Curator: Exactly. Johnston's lens, though seemingly objective, participates in a larger narrative of racial uplift and the complex politics of the era. Editor: I appreciate how this image, while seemingly straightforward, opens up so many questions about agency, representation, and the promises and pitfalls of institutional progress. Curator: It's a potent reminder that photographs are never neutral; they’re always embedded in social and political contexts.