Untitled (Man Preaching to Crowd with Four Fingers Up)

Inscriptions

Signed, on reverse, in graphite, at center: Gordon Parks; inscribed, on reverse, in graphite, beneath signature: 579 [underlined] / e2 [underlined] / 32 / mo; stamped, on reverse, in black ink, above signature: JUN 17 1952; Stamped, on reverse, in black ink, left center: LIFE PHOTO / BY / GORDON PARKS; Stamped, on reverse, in blue ink, upper left: 36997

Label

A street preacher in Harlem stands on a stepladder giving a fervent speech to the people surrounding him in this photograph staged by Gordon Parks. Parks was collaborating with his friend Ralph Ellison to produce a photo story in Life magazine that illustrated Ellison’s novel Invisible Man. The latter part of the story is set in mid-20th-century New York City and describes many influences on African American life at that time, including the practice of religion, historically Black colleges, a growing Black nationalist movement, and the communist party.

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

ARTH 17, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Spring 2013

ANTH 3, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Winter 2015

ANTH 3, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Winter 2015

ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020

Art History 48.02, Histories of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Spring 2024

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.

Loew Lobby Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, exhibited in conjunction with Reflections in Black: Smithsonian African American Photography: Art and Activism, January 12-March 10, 2002.

Loew Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 26, 2003.

Made in the Middle: Constructing Black Identities across the African Diaspora, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology 3, Winter 2015, Chelsey Kivland, Teaching Exhibition, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 15, 2014-March 15,2015.

Signspotting: Twentieth-Century Photographs, Prints, and Paintings from the Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 30-August 26, 2001.

The Art of Civil Rights, Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, Elevator Vestibule Installation, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 18-26, 2007.

Publication History

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.196, no.224.

Provenance

G. W. Einstein Company, Inc., New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2000.

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