Black Breastfeeding | Breastfeeding...It's a Beautiful Thing

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Part II | Breastfeeding and Men
Wednesday, September 26, 2007

You may remember this photo. I posted it back in June. Seems like ages ago, doesn't it? I remember when I ran across this picture. It struck me because the woman looks so stoic and proud to be a mother. She also looks rather circumspect about some stranger taking her picture. This woman was a cotton picker in the hot fields of Kaufman County, Texas in 1936.

Until yesterday I always assumed this was a Dorothea Lange photo because she took a lot of pictures of wome

n breastfeeding. But it's not. This picture was taken by Arthur Rothstein which puts another spin on breastfeeding in public, men, and how much breastfeeding out in the open was a regular occurrence, one not to be spurned or degraded, at least this seems true for the rural class.

Here is another shot of the mother and her children. While the cotton gets weighed, the mother is standing by with her shirt still open with men, children and a photographer around. This is fascinating to me because I believe there was a moment in our history before sexualized images of women and the huge shift to cow's milk ruined breastfeeding in public for mothers. It is fascinating to me that there was a time and place in the US when nursing in public wasn't reviled.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, Reproduction Numbers: LC-USF34- 005172-E, LC-USF34-005215-D, LC-USF33-011408-M2 DLC

Labels: breastfeeding history, breastfeeding in public

posted by Jennifer James @ 11:54 AM,

9 Comments:

At September 26, 2007 12:47 PM, Zoe said...: That is an amazing photo.
At September 26, 2007 2:18 PM, Rixa said...: Do you have higher res images? I have a hard time making out what's what on the last picture.
At September 26, 2007 5:45 PM, Christine said...: BEAUTIFUL!
At September 26, 2007 7:37 PM, Pixie LaRouge said...: These pictures that you post are so gorgeous! I love seeing "normal" nursing. At a wedding this past weekend, one of my very close friends and I sat with our babies in slings, nursing and chattering away. The best part? Only a couple of people seemed to find it "odd," and they were more curious than freaked. Maybe it can be so socially boring again; you're certainly going a long way toward helping that happen!
At September 27, 2007 12:35 PM, Jennifer James said...: Hi Rixa, No. I sure don't. Sorry about that. You can click the image, though, to get a little better view.
At September 27, 2007 12:36 PM, Jennifer James said...: Yeah, this is a beautiful picture. I love these old photographs.
At September 27, 2007 10:48 PM, JohnsonWoods said...: I would like to introduce to you one of the first Mixed-race Personal Listings Service you may find on the Internet! It is created to balck relationships between Black Men and White Women. This will also serve as a forum for all BM and WW to meet, share, and grow together. As stated in simple terms, this group will serve to provide support, interact, online resource, and up coming events. http://www.interracialfriends.com
At September 29, 2007 5:35 AM, Eve Roth Lindsay said...: Thank you for posting this photo. My father was Arthur Rothstein and he would have loved to see his photographs posted here. He was an amazing man with an incredible talent at seeing real people. I have seen many variations of these photos but not this one.
At September 29, 2007 9:36 AM, Jennifer James said...: Thank you, Eve, for leaving a note. Your father's photographs are quite remarkable. I love going through his collection on the Library of Congress web site. Thank you again for taking a moment to share that about your father.