Genre paintings, or scenes from everyday life, were popular in America during the nineteenth century. Favorite genre topics were sentimental images of children and narrative scenes featuring true-blue American characters such as cowboys. Southern genre scenes are easily recognized by their use of Southern character types, such as the Southern belle and the African American laborer. Particularly popular were picturesque scenes of the rural South.

Highlights (Click on an image for object details)
A Bright Future By Harry Roseland 1906	Candidates for the Horse Show By John Martin Tracy 1893	Crossing the Ferry—Scene on the Peedee By William Tylee Ranney c. 1846
Newsboy Selling the Baltimore Sun By William Aiken Walker 1871	Opossum Snout, Haralson County, Georgia By Lyell E. Carr 1891	The Potato Pickers By Alfred Heber Hutty c. 1930 or 1940
The Price of Blood By Thomas Satterwhite Noble 1868	Watching for the Train By Alfred Wordsworth Thompson 1880	Weighing the Cotton By Hal Alexander Courtney Morrison 1885–1890