Crossing the Bay
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
S/NPG.2018.89.37
Tags
Art Historical Context
"Crossing the Bay" (1872) is a compelling print by an unidentified artist, preserved the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection from the National Portrait Gallery. waterscape depicts a group of named Black men—Henry Boice, Isaac White John Boice Grey, William Thomas Cope—labeled as enslaved persons, rowing a boat with oars across a bay Subtle details like a nearby ship and a book add layers of narrative, evoking a moment of labor, journey, or quiet determination on the water. Created just seven years after the Civil War's end and emancipation, the artwork carries profound historical weigh...