Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

Delia's Tears Molly Rogers

Delia's Tears By Molly Rogers

Delia's Tears by Molly Rogers


$66.69
Condition - New
Only 2 left

Delia's Tears Summary

Delia's Tears: Race, Science, and Photography in Nineteenth-Century America by Molly Rogers

In 1850 seven South Carolina slaves were photographed at the request of the famous naturalist Louis Agassiz to provide evidence of the supposed biological inferiority of Africans. Lost for many years, the photographs were rediscovered in the attic of Harvard's Peabody Museum in 1976. In the first narrative history of these images, Molly Rogers tells the story of the photographs, the people they depict, and the men who made and used them. Weaving together the histories of race, science, and photography in nineteenth-century America, Rogers explores the invention and uses of photography, the scientific theories the images were intended to support and how these related to the race politics of the time, the meanings that may have been found in the photographs, and the possible reasons why they were lost for a century or more. Each image is accompanied by a brief fictional vignette about the subject's life as imagined by Rogers; these portraits bring the seven subjects to life, adding a fascinating human dimension to the historical material.

Delia's Tears Reviews

Selected as an Editor's Choice by Booklist as one of the best titles published in 2010

In a book that is at once sensitive, bold, and imaginative, Rogers delivers a deep history of the causes, creation, and consequences of these now famous photographs. . . . If there ever can be a shared humanity with a shared historical memory, perhaps it can only emerge from seeing such evidence of its most brutal denial.-David W. Blight, from the Foreword



Through Delia's Tears, a beguiling mixture of history and imagination, we see that the poisonous allure of racial thinking, often posing as reasoned objectivity, has always blurred our vision. This is a story that is as beautiful as it is sad.-Jonathan Scott Holloway, Yale University


About Molly Rogers

Molly Rogers is a writer and independent scholar of American history and the history and theory of photography. She is associate director of the Center for the Humanities at New York University and the co-editor of To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes.

Additional information

NLS9780300260199
9780300260199
0300260199
Delia's Tears: Race, Science, and Photography in Nineteenth-Century America by Molly Rogers
New
Paperback
Yale University Press
2021-01-05
384
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - Delia's Tears