Who Kill Dat Chicken.

Savannah, Georgia: Havens, successor to Wilson & Havens, [ca. 1875]. Albumen print stereoview on orange paperboard mount, printed photographer’s credit and advertisement of verso. CONDITION: Very good, rich tonality.

A striking stereoview by Savannah photographer O. Pierre Havens showing a black woman in her dooryard regarding a dead chicken at her feet, with a gently satirical caption in the image reading “Who Kill Dat Chicken.”

After the Civil War a considerable genre emerged depicting African Americans in stereoviews, often presenting scenes perceived by white audiences as “picturesque” or “comical.” The humor intended here is relatively inoffensive, leaving the viewer free to appreciate the image, which is well-composed, rich in tonality, and has much in common with certain American genre paintings of the period. There is a certain poignance to the narrative, as the chicken, if it was a layer, can be seen as an important source of food for this woman and its death thus an event of some note in her daily life.

Photographer O. Pierre Havens (1838–1912) was born in Ossining, New York and first partnered with J. N. Wilson (Wilson & Havens) in Savannah, Georgia. In 1888, Havens relocated the business to Jacksonville, Florida and became an award-winning Florida photographer who wrote articles for American Annual of Photography and other publications. He was a pioneer of platinum photographs in 1895; introduced a process called the “Carbonnette” in 1896; and was known for his high-quality stereoviews.