American Historical Ephemera and Photography

CDV on cardstock mount (some toning particularly to right side of image, minor residue to print; mount with light soiling and wear to edges/corners). Verso bears Newell's gallery imprint and period ink inscription reading, "Genl. Scott & Asst- Bathing Robes to hire / Cape May."

Featured in the image are five African American men posed in front of structures draped with dozens of robes, hanging presumably from hooks attached to the outer walls and awnings, some even strewn on a bench between two of the subjects.

Situated on the southernmost tip of New Jersey, Cape May was at the crossroads of North and South. As such, the seaside destination was visited by southern enslavers (sometimes bringing enslaved persons with them as servants), white northerners, and free black people, while also being home to white and black people who lived and worked there in the years leading up the Civil War. An undertaker by the name of James Harding opened a hotel on Cape May called the Banneker House, one of the country's only such establishments, specifically accommodating black patrons. In Philadelphia newspapers in 1845, he announced the opening of the hotel, The Island was a hub for anti-slavery activity, being visited often by abolitionists, Unitarian ministers, Quakers and other anti-slavery activists from nearby Philadelphia.