Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
John McCrady, American, 1911 - 1968
about 1937
Lithograph on wove paper
Image: 10 7/8 × 14 13/16 in. (27.6 × 37.6 cm)
Sheet: 13 × 17 5/16 in. (33 × 43.9 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Guernsey Center Moore 1904 Memorial Fund
PR.942.7
Publisher
Associated American Artists, New York
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, in graphite, lower right margin: John McCrady; signed, in stone, lower right: J. Mc. C.; inscribed, in graphite, lower left margin: Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Label
This print is a visual representation of the traditional African American spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” a funeral hymn. In this print, a Black family gathers around a family member who has just died, with a chariot from heaven coming down to carry his soul to the afterlife, as the song promises. The mourning family sits below a procession of otherworldly figures, including an angel wrestling with the devil and a trumpeter. In this melodramatic moment, religious comfort overcomes grief.
John McCrady was born as the son of a Methodist minister in rural Louisiana. He was well known for his prints and illustrations, many of which depicted the daily lives of African Americans.
From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 104, Southern Gothic, curated by Abigail Smith '23, Conroy Intern
Depicting a moment of transition between the earthly and heavenly realms, the print Swing Low, Sweet Chariot was inspired by the spiritual of the same name. As loved ones gather around the dying person’s bedside, a parade of angels descends, their horns trumpeting the Christian reward of the funeral hymn. One angel with a trident holds back a devil entwined with a serpent while dogs watch the encounter. Christian themes allowed enslaved people to preserve African music traditions through spirituals, while the underground railroad also used spirituals to share information in a manner inaccessible to enslavers. Spirituals later gave rise to the blues as well as the gospel music of the African American church.
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)
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 104, Southern Gothic, Abigail Smith, Class of 2023, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 8–February 27, 2022.
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.
Looking for America: Prints of Rural Life from the 1930's and 1940's, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 3, 1994-March 5, 1995
Publication History
Barbara J. MacAdam, Looking for America: Prints of Rural Life from the 1930s and 1940s, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1994, listed no. 42.
Provenance
Associated American Artists, New York; sold to present collection, 1942.
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