Four racist lithograph prints of Follitt’s Black Lectures. Published by 'John Follit [sic], importer of French prints to the trade, 22 St Martin's Court, St Martin's Lane', 1830-1869. The lectures relate to phrenology, mesmerism, the cold water cure, and astronomy. All four show the title above a lithograph image of a smartly dressed, caricatured black man giving a lecture. The letterpress below each image purports to be the text of the lecture, using language and style that mocks perceived black ways of speaking.

These four offensive caricatures use ethnicity as the context for ridiculing contemporary pseudo-science. By making the lecturer black and using racist language and style in the accompanying ‘lecture’ text, the series attacks the fashion for scientific lectures and the subjects being presented, some of which were also more widely discredited. They play on attributes then stereotypically seen as being inherent to the black population, including drunkenness, dirt, thieving, lechery and lack of education.