[African Americana] Occupational stereoview of identified African American bather

Stereoview featuring an African American man holding a towel and a kettle, and standing next to a table topped with two unknown implements. He is identified in pencil on mount recto and verso as Daniel Rollins, a "bather." Mount recto also includes a penciled set of initials, likely representative of the publishers of the view, "B. &. B. H. H. B."

The subject in this photograph is likely a bathhouse attendant. In Hot Springs, Arkansas, for example, many bath house attendants were African Americans serving white patrons. One of these attendants, Napoleon Rowell, petitioned Congress for a bathhouse that African Americans could use as their population was flourishing in the rapidly growing town ever since the Civil War. Rowell was pictured in print material for the Park Hotel in Hot Springs in 1892, where an illustration shows him standing in a white uniform, holding a kettle, towel, and another implement, possibly a water thermometer or candlestick.

While the subject in the image featured here is almost certainly not Rowell, and likely not located in Hot Springs, Rowell's story and likeness do shed light on the history of African American male bath attendants, like the one featured here.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.

Freeman's I Hindman strives to describe historic materials in a manner that is respectful to all communities, providing descriptive contexts for objects where possible. The nature of historical ephemera is such that some material may represent positions, language, values, and stereotypes that are not consistent with the current values and practices at Freeman's I Hindman.

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The Collected Library, Including Americana and Early Photography

[African Americana] Occupational stereoview of identified African American bather

The Collected Library, Including Americana and Early Photography

[African Americana] Occupational stereoview of identified African American bather

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