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Category: African American History

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Letterpress Artist Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.’s Rosa Parks Series

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

This guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division, highlights posters that complement the New York Poster House exhibition “The Letterpress Posters of Amos Kennedy” (October 8, 2020–January 3, 2021), curated by Angelina Lippert. Detroit-based letterpress artist Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. wields wood type and ink in ways that can …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Reflecting on Roland Freeman’s African American Expressive Culture in Philadelphia Project

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Victoria Bankole, an Archives, History, and Heritage Advanced Intern in the Prints & Photographs Division in spring 2020. “Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.” — Octavia E. Butler Just as author Octavia Butler created herself through writing, photographers such as Roland Freeman use their …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Born in Slavery: Portraits and Narratives of Formerly Enslaved People

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. One way to commemorate this anniversary might be to explore the online collection Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938. More than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of formerly enslaved people are available online. These narratives were collected in …