A Apple Pie
A Apple Pie, 1880-1920
A Apple Pie, 1880-1920
Handmade
Cloth, Hand stitched
Gift of David Miles (T-3202)
A slice of apple pie is the iconic dish of American childhood.
In the nineteenth century, this dish was used to teach children the alphabet through a popular nursery rhyme, “A was an Apple Pie.” This handmade book is an example of a “rag-book” which was invented to be durable in the hands of children.
The humble drawing of an apple pie appears innocent and sweet. Then as you turn the page…
…A more gruesome history is revealed.
In this version, a caricature of an African American child is paired with each letter. Racial ideologies were reinforced through imagery and minstrel shows depicting damaging stereotypes, including physical appearance and manners of speech, stressing “difference.”
Racist imagery was pervasive in nineteenth and twentieth-century children’s literature and educational materials. This imagery imprinted white supremacy in the minds of children.
Curator: Roxanne Holder-Kumer
A Apple Pie is a homemade children’s alphabet book that offers a historical look into white supremacy. It contains offensive visual culture that may be hard to see and to digest.
The images in A Apple Pie are based on blackface minstrelsy, which was prominent in the United States for over a century. The book is included in the exhibit to illustrate the proliferation of racist imagery in American popular culture and the extension of blackface minstrelsy beyond the stage into the home.
In developing the added content for “A Apple Pie,” this group drew on research from a wide range of articles and books, which are listed below as recommended readings. We also extend special thanks to Dr. Nicole Ivy of GW’s Department of American Studies for her intellectual contributions to the exhibit’s historical framing.
If you’re interested in learning more about the history of blackface minstrelsy in the US, we recommend the following articles:
Terry Gross, “This historian dug up the hidden history of ‘amateur’ blackface in America” (Interview/Feature), National Public Radio, March 9th, 2026: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/09/nx-s1-5738478/darkology-blackface-rhae-lynn-barnes
Dwight Garner, “Blackface: A Shameful History as American as Apple Pie”, (review of Darkology), The New York Times, March 23rd, 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/books/review/rhae-lynn-barnes-darkology-blackface.html
Rhae Lynn Barnes, “Yes, politicians wore blackface. It used to be all-American ‘fun.’” (perspective article,)The Washington Post, February 8th, 2019: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/yes-politicians-wore-blackface-it-used-to-be-all-american-fun/2019/02/08/821b268c-2b0d-11e9-b011-d8500644dc98_story.html
We also recommend the following books:
“Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment” by Rhae Lynn Barnes (2026)
“Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights” by Robin Bernstein (2011)
“Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class” by Eric W. Lott (1993)
“Burnt Cork: Traditions and Legacies of Blackface Minstrelsy” by Stephen Johnson (2012)For more information around racist material culture and handicraft work as teaching objects, check out: “‘Take me Back to the Good Old Days’: Racism, Berlin Wool Work, and Comfort” — Center for Material Culture Studies
https://cmsmc.org/publications/take-me-back
As an important counter to the imagery in “A Apple Pie,” take a look at the way black families and children were able to define themselves through projects like “The Black ABC” (1970s project archive)
https://moazedi.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-is-for-afro-b-is-for-beautiful-c-is.html