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This summer, our Program in African American History Mellon Scholars Internship Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, went virtual. Working largely with the collection at the Library Company, the five student-curators put together an online exhibition on the history of medical racism from Yellow Fever to Covid-19. 

Click here to view "Déjà Vu, We’ve Been Here Before: Race, Health, and Epidemics." 

Today is Juneteenth, the anniversary of the end of slavery. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1862, slavery effectively continued until the end of the Civil War in 1865. To commemorate we wanted to highlight a group portrait of the first African American senator and representatives, which currently on display in our exhibition, From Negro Pasts to Afro-Futures: Black Creative Re-Imaginings.

Currier & Ives, The First Colored Senator and Representatives (New York, 1872). Lithograph.

Attributed to James F. Queen after Henry L. Stephens, “Free!,” “Make Way for Liberty!,” “The Lash.,” and “Blow for Blow” from Journey of a Slave from Plantation to the Battlefield (Philadelphia, 1863). Chromolithographic collecting cards.

Turning the Tables on the Overseer (New York, 1863). Wood engraving.

The depictions in “The Lash,” “Blow for Blow,” and “Make Way for Liberty” chromolithographic collecting cards and in the larger wood engraving present a stark contrast between the necessary violence perpetrated by the slave and the punitive and arbitrary violence of the white master.  

Arabic Fragment, a West African Gris-Gris, 1773.

A gris-gris or wanga is a traditional West African talisman consisting of transcribed prayers, roots, herbs, and other objects used to ward off evil. An enslaved Islamic priest wrote this snippet of Arabic calligraphy. It was written in Leyogan in colonial Saint-Domingue (now Ayiti/Haiti). Translation: “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Say: He is Allah, the One and Only! Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him.”

Fan, late 19th century. Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders Venning Collection.

This fan is a keepsake from the Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders-Venning family papers. The whole collection documents the development of a prominent middle-class mixed race family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

C. Shoosmith, “A Free Negress and Other Market-Women,” in James Henderson, A History of Brazil: Comprising Its Geography, Commerce, Colonization, Aboriginal Inhabitants, &c. &c. (London, 1821). Lithograph.

This image of Black Brazilian market women selling goods shows the importance of women entrepreneurs in the marketplace. Their presence demonstrated how savvy and creative Black businesses were in the 19th century.

John Sartain, Cinque: The Chief of the Amistad (Philadelphia, 1841). Mezzotint.  Painted by Nathaniel Jocelyn; engraved by J. Sartain.

This engraving depicts Joseph Cinque, the leader of the Amistad uprising, standing against a lush African landscape. The toga and walking cane in his hand imbue Cinque and the scene with an air of stateliness and power that was unusual in contemporary depictions of Africans in the U.S. This allusion to a regal and empowered Cinque functions as a reclamation of the African Diaspora’s past and future