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The Collection

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A steam locamotive travels through the dark with the bell ringing.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 5: Migrants were advanced passage on the railroads, paid for by northern industry. Northern industry was to be repaid by the migrants out of their future wages. (between 1940 and 1941)

The sun beats down on a field of dead crops.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 13: The crops were left to dry and rot. There was no one to tend them. (between 1940 and 1941)

A person sits alone, bent over in sadness. A single branch reaching across the image with a noose.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 15: There were lynchings. (between 1940 and 1941)

Two black tenant farmers bring crops to be weighed to a white foreman.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 17: Tenant farmers received harsh treatment at the hands of planters. (between 1940 and 1941)

Five people wait at a train station with their belongings. Two stand, while three sit.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 21: Families arrived at the station very early. They did not wish to miss their trains north. (between 1940 and 1941)

A group of people boarding train cars.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 23: The migration spread. (between 1940 and 1941)

An empty room with the window covered by a green curtain.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 25: They left their homes. Soon some communities were left almost empty. (between 1940 and 1941)

A white man has three black men sign a contract.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 29: The labor agent recruited unsuspecting laborers as strike breakers for northern industries. (between 1940 and 1941)

A woman reads a letter from a relative to a child.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 33: Letters from relatives in the North told of the better life there. (between 1940 and 1941)

A group of travelers with their belongings.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 35: They left the South in great numbers. They arrived in the North in great numbers. (between 1940 and 1941)

Molten steel pours from one container, down into another.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 37: Many migrants found work in the steel industry. (between 1940 and 1941)

A traveler sits alone on a train platform crowded with luggage.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 39: Railroad platforms were piled high with luggage. (between 1940 and 1941)

The white hands of a labor agent grab onto the bars of a jail cell window.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 41: The South was desperate to keep its cheap labor. Northern labor agents were jailed or forced to operate in secrecy. (between 1940 and 1941)

A white man leans on a table in the foreground, with two white men and two black men seated behind him.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 43: In a few sections of the South leaders of both Black and White communities met to discuss ways of making the South a good place to live. (between 1940 and 1941)

Passengers on a train look out the window at Pittsburgh's smokestacks from the steel mills.

Jacob Lawrence

The Migration Series, Panel no. 45: The migrants arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North. (between 1940 and 1941)

Collection Highlights

Collection Highlights Images
Collage of figures on abstract green and yellow patterned background with ornate gold frame
image for 2019-09-15-family-program
image for 2017-09-07-phillips-after-5
image for 2017-12-07-phillips-after-5
placeholder - Laib Wax Room
Collection Highlights Recent Acquisitions
Collection Highlights The Migration Series
Collection Highlights The Rothko Room
Collection Highlights Luncheon of the Boating Party
Collection Highlights The Wax Room
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