Untitled (West Indian Women Being Measured)

c. 1860s

Untitled (West Indian Women Being Measured), c. 1860s. Caribbean, 19th century. Three studies mounted on a single card; image 1: 8.6 x 5.2 cm (3 3/8 x 2 1/16 in.); image 2: 8.6 x 5.2 cm (3 3/8 x 2 1/16 in.); image 3: 8.5 x 5.2 cm (3 3/8 x 2 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Barbara Tannenbaum and Mark Soppeland 2019.70 The eerie depictions of three ages of West Indian women of African descent are early examples of photography’s use by nineteenth-century anthropologists to categorize different ethnic and racial types within the human race. These images were almost certainly taken by a European or Caucasian photographer during a time of colonial occupation. The tension in the sitters’ body language and expressions suggest that posing here was not a choice or a pleasurable experience.