Fine Arts Donors

Painting of John W. Hoffman (undated)

donated by Gilbert and Leslie Wilson

Elizabeth Catlett in Mexico City, circa 1962.

This April marks the centennial of the birth of artist and activist Elizabeth Catlett, who was born on April 15, 1915, in Washington, D.C. The Amistad Research Center is proud to be the repository of Catlett's personal papers, as well as 13 works of art by the artist. To commemorate Catlett's life and career, the Center is currently hosting the exhibition "Art in Service to Her People: Celebrating Elizabeth Catlett," which includes numerous photographs of the artist at work, letters with fellow artists, sketchbooks, exhibition catalogs, and more, as well as selections from Amistad's fine arts collection. The exhibition is on view through April 24, 2015. 

In addition to the exhibition, the Center is pleased to welcome Shelby Santiago, a student intern from Xavier University in New Orleans, who is currently organizing the most recent addition to the Elizabeth Catlett papers, which was received in November of 2014 from the Catlett family. The addition to the papers consists of photographs, exhibition and event ephemera, and certificates. Events covered within the materials include the creation and installation of commissioned Catlett sculptures at Terrell Place in Washington, D.C. (2003); presentation of The Sharecropper print to the University of Iowa Museum of Art (2002); Elizabeth Catlett's birthday weekend exhibition celebration at the Stella Jones Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana (2003); photographs by Roy Lewis for a Catlett exhibition at the Washington, D.C. Public Library (undated); and Catlett's receipt of an honorary doctorate from Howard University (1996). Of interest is a photograph album of the Cultures exhibition, highlighting the works of Elizabeth Catlett and Francisco Mora. Also included is print documentation for Catlett's Three Women in America by Workshop, Inc. (1990).

In addition to her personal papers, Amistad has also received a small collection of books and catalogues owned by Catlett, which detail her interest in art and includes many signed and inscribed works by artists and writers such as Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, and Faith Ringgold.

Dr. Ronald Mickens' notes for a presentation at Florida A&M University in 1985.

Jessica Perkins Smith began work as a Project Archivist at Amistad on January 5, 2015. Smith was hired as part of the Center's Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant to process African American STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) collections. She received her Master's in Library and Information Science, with an Archives concentration, from Louisiana State University, and previously worked as the archivist and records manager for the City of Decatur in Georgia. She completed internships at Auburn Avenue Research Library and Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta, and has experience processing large archival collections. Smith's undergraduate and graduate history studies focused on Civil Rights in Mississippi, and she is excited to have the opportunity to work at a place with such a rich history and focus on African American and minority collections. She is from New Orleans, previously taught at Lusher Charter School, and is a member of Beta Phi Mu library honor society.

As part of Amistad's IMLS grant to process African American STEM collections, Amistad is excited to announce that the papers of physicist Dr. Ronald E. Mickens are currently in process. Mickens donated his papers over a period of several years and has been a long-time supporter of Amistad. Mickens is currently a Distinguished Professor of Physics at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, where he has taught for over thirty years. Mickens received his B.A. in physics from Fisk University in Nashville, and his PhD from Vanderbilt University. He won a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, and spent the two year fellowship studying at the Massachusetts Center for Technology's Center for Theoretical Physics. He has served as scholar in residence/visiting lecturer at many universities, participated in numerous summer physics institutes, and presented papers at hundreds of national and international conferences. Mickens has published over 200 scholarly articles and several books in the areas of difference equations, mathematical epidemiology, and nonlinear oscillations. He has also conducted extensive research on African American PhDs, and published a history book, Edward Bouchet: The First African-American Doctorate.

Mickens' papers include correspondence with scientists from around the world; conference papers; book manuscripts; papers documenting his teaching, committee, and other university responsibilities; scientific calculations; and photographs. In addition to his extensive research and prolific publishing in areas of physics and mathematics, Mickens' collection documents his commitment to encouraging African American students to pursue further education and careers in STEM related fields. From his leadership in the National Society of Black Physicists, to his work in the 1970s and 80s compiling a directory of African Americans with PhDs in the sciences, to his mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students, to his correspondence with school age children focused on African American contributions to science, Mickens' career shows his dedication to furthering African American achievements in the sciences. Once the Ronald E. Mickens Papers are complete and open to the public, researchers will find a wide variety of rich topics of interest within the collection.

The Amistad Research Center is pleased to include this report from Dr. Nina Reid-Maroney, Associate Professor in the Department of History at Huron University College in Ontario:

Records of the American Missionary Association (AMA) are at the center of a community-based research project exploring Canada's antislavery past, led by students in American History at Huron University College in London, Ontario. The class began the project with a search for information about London's African Methodist Episcopal Church (British Methodist Episcopal after 1856.) The church was central to London's black community, and had ties to antislavery communities across the Great Lakes region.

The signatures of Chambers' congregation, April 1861.

One starting point for a recovery of the church's early history is the correspondence of  the Reverend Lewis C. Chambers, who ministered to the congregation in London in 1860-61, with support from the AMA. His letters offer important new perspectives on the religious, social, and political life of Canada's black communities on the eve of the American Civil War.  The document, "Presentation and Address of the B.M.E. Church Sabbath School, London" written to Chambers in April, 1861, has been particularly useful because it was signed by 18 members of Chambers' congregation. Using the names from this document, student researchers have been able to map new information about London's black community through census records, city directories, and cemetery records. 

The class has connected its research to the current Beth Emmanuel BME congregation in London, led by the Reverend Delta McNeish, and to the members of the Fugitive Slave Chapel Preservation Project, a group that recently saved the original church building (circa 1848) from demolition.  As History student Travis Hubble notes, "the research project has given me a chance to not only learn about the history of slavery, but to see how it impacted the black community that lived in my local area. I have had the opportunity to see and learn about the B.M.E. church and it's early founding, as well as hear more about the members of the church and some of the stories surrounding their lives. This project has tied slavery to our everyday life, and showed the impact it had both internationally and nationally. This project has put the scope of slavery into perspective."

The work on Lewis Chambers is the second community-based research project in which Huron History students have benefitted from access to AMA records.  In 2013, funded by a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Huron students completed a two-year effort to digitize letters of the AMA missionary Hiram Wilson.  The project results include transcriptions of Wilson's letters held in the AMA collections, and a group of Wilson letters held at the Oberlin College Archives.  

To learn more about the project and to view the transcriptions produced by Dr. Reid-Maroney's students, visit the Hiram Wilson Project blog.