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Category: African American History

Widening the Research Path

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

From the most recent Library of Congress blog post for the Library intiative Of the People: Widening the Path, we learn about the work of visual artist Maya Freelon, and her visit to the Library of Congress to explore the collections for her current project, Whippersnappers: Recapturing, Reviewing, and Reimagining the Lives of Enslaved Children in …

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

African Americans in the Military: In Pictures

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

Images from the Prints & Photographs Division’s collections help to illustrate the sustained contributions of Black Americans to the United States through military service over the course of the nation’s history. We hope you can join us for one of two “Finding Pictures: African Americans in the Military” webinar sessions this month (details at the …

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

Exploring Black-Owned Businesses from the Turn of the 20th Century

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

August was designated as National Black Business Month in 2004. Just about a century earlier, visitors to the Paris Exposition of 1900 also had an opportunity to appreciate the entrepreneurial endeavors of African Americans. The Exposition included a display devoted to the history and “present conditions” of African Americans. W.E.B. Du Bois and special agent …

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

Discoveries through Pictures: African Americans in the Civil War Era

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Anastasia Sotiropoulos, the Prints & Photographs Division’s Stanford in Government Liljenquist Fellow. I came into my time as the Library’s Prints & Photographs Division Intern unsure of what cartes de visite were, let alone the big stories these tiny 3.5-by-2.5 inch photo cards hold. As I explored the …