Collection is open for research.
Collection donated by Sarah Hoskins.
Collection is arranged into one series. Each folder contains three photographs.
Series 1: Photographs, 2002
Sarah Hoskins (b. 1961) is a documentary photographer and lecturer based in the Midwest. She attended Columbia College Chicago (BA, 1983), graduating with a degree in photography. The photographs are from a larger series, "The African-American Hamlets of Kentucky's Inner Bluegrass Region," a fourteen year project that was featured on National Public Radio in 2010 and awarded by the White House News Photographers Association in 2011. Hoskins has been awarded many honors, fellowships, and exhibitions throughout her career.
"Bio" Sarah Hoskins Photography. (Accessed August 08, 2016. http://www.sarahhoskins.com/bio/.)
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago. http://www.mocp.org/collection/mpp/past/hoskins_sarah.php (Accessed September 22, 2016)
Sarah Hoskins New Zion, Kentucky Photoprints, 2002, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of the artist.
Collection processed by David Haberstich, 2002 and Holly Nelson, 2016.
Collection consists of fifteen black and white images of hog slaughter in New Zion, Kentucky.
The subject of the photographs is hog slaughter. The series is part of a larger group by the photographer entitled "The African-American Hamlets of Kentucky's Inner Bluegrass Region." Of this subgroup, Hoskins writes:
"I suppose many people will say, "hog killing, how barbaric" and the thing I remember most from that night is a gentle voice, "let go piggy, let go, come on pig let go" coaxing a hog to die.
"How I was allowed into this group I still do not know. It seemed a club to me, all these men working as a team probably not talking as much as they normally would since I was there, me a strange white woman from the city there to photograph
Photographer holds copyright. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Duke University Libraries
Sarah Hoskins photographs, 2000-2014
The collection contains images related to two photography projects by Sarah Hoskins: The Rosenwald Schools and The Homeplace
The barn where the hog killing is to take place. Empty tub and table. "There has to be frost on the ground." Ernest Talbert tells me in order to kill hogs.
The barn before the hog killing begins
Derek Talbert, Ernest Talbert, Regind Happy, Leroy Talbert, Gary Talbert, Bobby "RJ" Hayes, Rodney Talbert, Amos Coma
Leroy Talbert has just fired the shot, Gary Talbert on left, Rodney on right
The hog had been shot, but had not died yet. Leroy was tring to quicken the process using a knife. RJ Hayes and Regind Happy hold the hog back as Rodney Talbert leans in
Leroy Talbert, Regind Happy, and Gary Talbert rinse off the hogs before they come out of the shoot into the tub of hot lye
Leroy Talbert, Amos Coma and Rodney Talbert pull the hog out of shoot and are about to put hog in tub.
Gary, Rodney Talbert, Amos Coma, RJ Hayes, and Regind Happy lift the hog out of tub
Gary, Leroy Talbert, Amos Coma, RJ Hayes, and Regind Happy. The smell, the steam, and the heaviness in the air were so thick you could cut them with a knife
The hog has now been scalded in the hot tub of lye. This makes it easier to scrape the bristles off the hog
Derek Talbert hoses the hog
Derek Talbert cleaning and saving liver
Derek Talbert sharpening knife