Newspaper+Boy

Date: 1869
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1983/1983.95.85_1a.jpg?itok=_WgxRBI1 width="245" height="296" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/newspaper-boy-967"]] || Title: **Newspaper Boy**

Artist: **Edward Mitchell Bannister** Born: St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada 1828 Died: Providence, Rhode Island 1901

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 30 1/8 x 25 1/8 in. (76.6 x 63.7 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Jack Hafif and Frederick Weingeroff

Accession: 1983.95.85 || In 1876, Bannister was the first African American to receive a national art award. The artist does not identify this boy as a specific person and his race seems somewhat ambiguous.
 * Exhibition Label: **

In the 19th Century, newspapers were the primary way people learned what was happening in their cities and country. There were many daily newspapers. In Bannister's painting, the newspaper boy is carrying the Boston Daily Evening Transcript of 1869. Carriers delivered newspapers to homes. Usually they kept the money earned for themselves. Newsboys, however, sold newspapers on city street corners. Their money helped support their families. They might earn twenty-five cents a day.

Newsboys were everywhere so there was lots of competition. They "hawked" their newspapers by shouting out the headlines-- the louder the better. The toughest newsboys got the best street corners. Newsboys could be bullied or run down by a wagon or streetcar. Often they worked until 10 p.m. or midnight.


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * Based on what you see, what do you think this boy's life was like?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Look closely at the boy's expression and pose. What might he be thinking as his picture is being painted?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Why might the artist have wanted to paint a newspaper boy?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Artist Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">SAAM Collections Page
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Links: **