Ironing Day

This photograph comes from a stereoscope card published by a New York company in the1800s. It is titled ‘Ironing Day’ and depicts two white girls – twins – playing house and ironing their dolls’ clothes.

One of the legacies of slavery was a surprisingly resilient social system that kept black people in lower status work, and as shown in this picture it could work in subtle ways. If you look closely at the bottom left hand corner of the picture the black doll has been arranged to look as if it is the nanny of the white doll in its arms.