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Lynching Photographs and Their Aftermath: the Overlay of the Gaze Lynching Photographs and Their Aftermath: The Overlay of the Gaze Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Jordan, Meghan Lynn Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 02/10/2021 19:12:39 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/626147 LYNCHING PHOTOGRAPHS AND THEIR AFTERMATH: THE OVERLAY OF THE GAZE by Meghan Lynn Jordan ____________________________ Copyright © Meghan Lynn Jordan 2017 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF ART In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS WITH A MAJOR IN ART HISTORY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2017 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR The thesis titled Lynching Photographs and Their Aftermath: The Overlay of the Gaze prepared by Meghan Lynn Jordan has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for a master’s degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Meghan Lynn Jordan APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: __8/19/2017__ Dr. Kate Palmer Albers Date Associate Professor, Art History 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My grandmother, Dorothea, has been my biggest inspiration throughout my education. Thank you for sharing your stories of graduate school, introducing me to the world of museums, and empowering me to follow my dreams regardless of where they take me. Without your guidance, I would not have grown into the woman that I am today. It is difficult to express the gratitude that I have for my parents, Dawn and Michael, whom have never once failed to support me. Thank you for getting me through endless doctors’ appointments, necessary brain surgery, and the painful recovery in order for me to receive my BFA on time; for paying for four months of Metro North tickets so that I could fulfill my dream of interning at MoMA; and for encouraging me to move across the country for graduate school. I am strong and independent because of the two of you. To my grandma and poppy, Thelma and Harry, who gifted me my first camera, thank you for giving me a lens through which to articulate the views of a seven-year-old. I owe my infatuation with photography and its histories to Amy Johnston Cunningham and Ken White whom taught and inspired me far more than they will ever know. To my Aunt Deirdre, thank you for welcoming me with open arms to live with you for 16 months as I had my dream internship in New York City and held my first real job involving photographs. Without those opportunities, I would not be in the position I am currently. To my Maria Lil’ Sharp, you have gone above and beyond the duties of being my best friend and I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done the last eight years. You have been incredibly patient with me, especially when I send you multiple text messages in a row in an attempt to figure out the word on the tip of my tongue. A very special thank you to Megan Orcutt and Anne Gallenstein for helping me through this journey. Finally, thank you to all the professors and students that I interacted with while at the University of Arizona. Each of you fed my desire to learn, pushed me out of my comfort zones, supported me when I struggled, and listened to my unorganized rambles. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 5 Introduction… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …6 Literature Review… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ... …10 Chapter 1: Spectatorship and Private Circulation… … … … … … … … … … … … … … …19 Chapter 2: Allen Brooks and Emmett Till: The Second-Hand Consumption of Imagery in the Press… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ... … … … …29 Chapter 3: Recent Exhibition and Appropriation… … … … … … … … … … … … … … ... 41 Conclusion… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ...52 Figures… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 54 Bibliography… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ….64 4 ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to examine the circulation of photographic postcards depicting lynching events in the United States, as well as the changing contexts and gaze. The initial mailing of the postcards to far away family and friends, some including handwriting on the versos, makes apparent the desire to spread white supremacist ideals across the country. These photographs, often depicting the victim’s suffering body amongst a crowd of people, were then placed in family photo albums, hidden in attics, or sold in flea markets. It was in these locations that collector James Allen found the photographs depicting lynching events that compose the Allen/Littlefield Collection, which toured the United States from 2000-2005 in the exhibition “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America.” Through the utilization of the accompanying catalog, I discuss the circulation of multiple mailed photographic postcards with handwritten texts on the versos, the reporting of lynching events in newspapers from varying regions of the United States, and the recent exhibitions of the Allen/Littlefield Collection, as well as art works reappropriating lynching photographs. It is my aim to illustrate the impact of context on the viewing of lynching images and how the gaze of the spectator changes over time. 5 INTRODUCTION A critical view of photographs requires awareness of the constantly changing relationship between spectator and object. From the moment of the photograph’s creation there is the gaze of a photographer falling upon a subject, which is followed by the circulation of the resulting photograph allowing for others to view the event and those captured secondhand. As the photographic object remains intact and circulated it is constantly viewed with the distance from the original moment in time expanding. In this thesis, I examine photographs of lynchings dating back to the early twentieth-century and subsequent exhibitions of related imagery to discuss the relationship between the gazes within and outside of a photograph.1 In particular, I will focus on multiple photographic postcards that were circulated via the mail, the reporting of lynching events in newspapers across the country, and the exhibition of these previously collected trophy images in order to demonstrate the impact of context on the viewing of lynching photographs. Hangings first occurred in the American West as a form of capital punishment. However, after the mid-nineteenth-century there was a visible increase in extrajudicial hangings occurring in secret. These events have been romanticized in popular culture and historical texts to paint a mythologized picture of what has become known as the “Wild West.” 2 Consequently, as Leon F. 1 This thesis is not intended to be an in-depth analysis of the topic of lynching in America. I chose to focus specifically on photographed lynchings of black males, with the majority discussed occurring in the South, and utilized Without Sanctuary as my main source of imagery. It is important to note that neither women nor families were excluded from mob violence, nor were other races or regions of the United States. For details of lynchings in the western United States, see Ken Gonzales-Day, Lynching in the West: 1850-1935 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006). For an account of the lynching of Mary Turner, a pregnant, black woman, see Leon F. Liwack, “HELLHOUNDS” (2000) in Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America (Santa Fe: Twin Palms Publishers, 2000), 8-37. I also chose to use the terms “black” and “white,” unless quoted, as Dora Apel used the same rhetoric in her scholarship, which has highly influenced my research and writing. Furthermore, I chose not to illustrate the included figures as many feel that showing atrocity images re-victimizes the victim. The titles for Figures 1-11 on the included List of Figures are taken directly from Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America (Santa Fe: Twin Palms Publishers, 2000). 2 It is rare that these legal and/or unregulated executions are considered connected to the history of black lynchings throughout the United States, but they must be recognized as a precursor. See Gonzales-Day, Lynching in the West. 6 Litwack has argued, hangings evolved into a “participatory ritual of torture and death, a voyeuristic spectacle” performed across the United States.3 With the spread of the extrajudicial violence came the inclusion of acts such as burning and flaying, resulting in the term “lynching” to encompass more than the sole punishment of death by hanging, with an emphasis on multiple people inciting the event.4 In the latter half of the nineteenth-century lynchings became broadcasted spectacles, the dates and
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