An African American family record chart, 1880.

Designed for post-Civil War African American families who sought to reunite and connect their relatives, this blank chart was printed to help families record their genealogy. The lower images contrast black family and work life before and after emancipation. The central image shows a well-dressed African American family of a mother, father, and two small children in a Victorian-style interior with wallpaper, carpet, fine furniture, decorative objects, toys, and a framed print of George Washington on the wall. The image underscores the broad appeal for marketing Victorian middle-class values and idealized domestic life in the late nineteenth century.