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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Cream of Wheat He Sho' Thinks He's Hidin'

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09779.01 Author/Creator: Cream of Wheat Place Written: s.l. Type: Adveritsement Date: 1920 Pagination: 27.4 x 20.4 cm. Order a Copy

One undated tin plaque advertising Cream of Wheat. Image contains minstrel imagery of a black chef with a small white child hiding. Tag line reads, "He sho' thinks he's hidin.'"

Cream of Wheat used the image of "Rastus" a perjorative term, stereotypically an African American man who always appears happy. IN the 1920s, they replaced the illustration with the photograph of Frank L. White (1867-1938). White immigrated from Barbados in 1870 and became a U.S. citizen in 1890. He was working as a master chef in Chicago in 1900 when Cream of Wheat took his photograph to be used on products and advertisements.

White, Frank L., 1858-1938

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