Harlem Street Scene
Jacob Lawrence, American, 1917 - 2000
1975
Screenprint on white wove paper
103/150
Image: 24 3/8 × 18 1/2 in. (61.9 × 47 cm)
Sheet: 30 7/16 × 22 1/2 in. (77.3 × 57.2 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Robert A. Levinson, Class of 1946, Tuck 1946
2019.49.1
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Research Area
On view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, below print, in graphite: "103/150" "Harlem Street Scene" "Jacob Lawrence" "1975"
Label
Jacob Lawrence’s print shows Black people of all ages doing a variety of day-to-day activities on a street in Harlem, here presented as a vibrant neighborhood with inhabitants across generations who are artistic, caring, or struggling. This print was the artist’s return, late in his career, to his earlier work on Harlem during the Great Migration, a time when many African Americans moved North in search of lives unconstrained by Jim Crow laws. Harlem became a primarily Black community in the early 20th century; during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, it flourished as a dynamic neighborhood filled with celebrated creatives.
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
AAAS 88.19, Contemporary African-American Artists, Michael Chaney, Summer 2021
Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025
Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025
Exhibition History
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
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York; Robert A. Levinson, New York, New York, 1975; given to present collection, 2019.
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