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17 stunning photos of black Victorians show how history really looked.

These are photos you won’t find in history books.

Thomas Dunn
By Thomas DunnOct 16, 2018
Thomas Dunn
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When you think about America's Gilded Age, what do you imagine?

Perhaps you see images of “Little House on the Prairie”? Or photos of dapper gentlemen and women dressed in frilly lace, riding steam engine trains across the country?

Most of us equate the fashion and social norms of that time period with the latter Victorian era that occurred in the U.K. around the same time. And that’s not in-accurate, per se ... except for the part where we tend to assume that everyone was white.

Yes, Jim Crow laws were in effect. But there were still plenty of black Americans rockin' those cravats and wide-brimmed hats, too. You just don't see them in most history books.

So I dug up 17 of my favorite historical photos of black people in Gilded Age fashions. Believe it or not, they were easily accessible through public archives — which means they've been there all along, waiting to show us what history really looked like.

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