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A Dead Rabbit

Also entitled Study of an Irishman, George Henry Hall’s 1858 painting was rendered shortly after the July 1857 Dead Rabbit–Bowery Boy Riot, a conflict in New York’s Five Points between rival Irish working-class street gangs. The painting subtly conveyed a sense of the fear and fascination that poor Irish immigrants provoked in many native-born, middle-class Americans—including, unusually straightforward for the era, a note of homoeroticism.

Source: George Henry Hall, 1858, oil on canvas, 32 × 40 1/2 inches—National Academy of Design, New York.

Who Built America? An Open Educational Resource has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and funding from The Ford Foundation, Digital Scholar, and the City University of New York Central Office of Library Services. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Open Educational Resource, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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