Untitled (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Casket Drawn by Two Mules in the Atlanta Funeral Procession from the Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College, April 9, 1968)
Harry Benson, Scottish and American, born 1929
negative 1968; print 2014
Archival pigment print
5/35
Image: 13 9/16 × 20 in. (34.5 × 50.8 cm)
Sheet: 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased in memory of Edward A. Hansen, Member of the Board of the Hopkins Center and Hood Museum of Art, through a gift from his wife, Julia, his children, Victoria, Class of 1988 and Christopher, Class of 1985
2014.84.4
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Titled, numbered, and signed, beneath image, in black ink: Funeral Procession, Atlanta 1968 5/35 Harry Benson
Label
The people in the photograph seem too numerous to be contained by its frame; the crowd appears to extend for blocks, if not miles. They surround a simple wagon, drawn by two mules, that carries a casket with an impressive floral spray on it. The photo documents the funeral procession of Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta following his assassination in Memphis. The funeral began at the church in which he had served as pastor and proceeded to Morehouse College, where he was laid to rest. An estimated 100,000 mourners participated in the procession.
From the 2026 exhibition Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, curated by Amelia Kahl (Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programming) and Alisa Swindell (Associate Curator of Photography)
Course History
ANTH 50.17, Rites of Passage, Sienna Craig, Spring 2020
GEOG 72.01/AAAS 67.50/WGSS 66.09, Black Consciousness Black Feminism, Abby Neely, Spring 2022
HIST 10.04/AAAS 20.02, Dartmouth Black Lives, Julia Rabig and Darryl Barthe, Fall 2022
Exhibition History
Art of the Civil Rights Movement, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 23, 2014-March 8, 2015.
Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, Jaffe and Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 20, 2025 - July 11, 2026.
Provenance
The artist (Harry Benson Ltd., New York, New York); sold to the present collection, 2014.
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