Snap the Whip

Winslow Homer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Snap the Whip celebrates the pleasures of childhood in a rough-and-tumble game. Homer’s barefoot boys are in and of nature—determined, rugged, and exuberant—an optimistic symbol of the nation’s future. The teamwork and coordination involved in their pursuit were seen as essential qualities for reuniting the country after war, though Homer hints at the challenges ahead through the child at the end, flung from the chain. The scene is infused with nostalgia, immortalizing the little red rural schoolhouse just as the nation was shifting away from its agrarian past toward a future of increased urbanization.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art