WBUR.org: Cambridge Black History Project shares the histories of 23 Black Trailblazers

The Cambridge Black History Project’s bookmarks at the Cambridge Public Library. (Solon Kelleher/WBUR)

By Solon Kelleher Arts Reporting Fellow

Visitors at any of Cambridge’s seven public libraries will have something extra to read inside their books this month. The library partnered with the Cambridge Black History Project, the city and the school system to distribute bookmarks with the histories of 23 influential Black Cantabrigians.

Those featured have achievements in art, sports, medicine, business and civil service. Individuals include Joyce London Alexander, the country’s first African American to be appointed chief magistrate judge, accomplished saxophonist Johnny Hodges and Saundra Graham, the first Cambridge woman of color to be elected to city council.

President of the Cambridge Black History Project James Spencer is the fifth generation of his family to grow up in the city. He remembers the Cambridge Public Library as a place where he got his first library card at the age of five and then, as he grew older, where he went to read up on local history. He and the project’s other volunteers created the bookmarks to help inspire a new generation.

A closeup of some of the bookmarks designed by the Cambridge Black History Project, (Solon Kelleher/WBUR)

“There was so much of an excitement about national figures,” said Spencer. “And we’ve heard them all, whether it’s Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King [Jr.], but we thought at the Cambridge Black History Project, the people weren’t hearing about our own local heroes.” He added, “What we wanted to do was to let our kids and our neighbors know about the great accomplishments of Black people who walk the same streets that they’re walking now.”

The project put together a Cambridge Black History Trail back in the 1990s and used the bookmarks project to expand beyond the nine stops on the walking tour. One of the trailblazers, 94-year-old retired graphic designer Frank Lucas, helped design the bookmarks. In the 1950s, Lucas became the first African American illustrator and photographer in Boston’s advertising industry, according to the project. By the mid-1960s, Lucas was hired at Ginn and Company to supervise art editors in the selection of art and photography for school textbooks. He worked at the firm for 31 years before retiring and doing consultant work for organizations such as Sesame Street.

Paula Paris is one of the volunteers who helped research and write the trailblazers’ biographies. She said that as much as she was familiar with many of the names, the research led her to new and exciting discoveries. She recounts the story of Katherine “Kittie” T. Knox, a seamstress born in 1874 with a passion for cycling. “There’s actually a bike trail in East Cambridge’s Kendall Square area that’s named after her,” Paris said. “She was a cyclist, and she was scandalized for wearing bloomers.” Knox spoke out against discrimination in the cycling community and was expelled from a convention of the League of American Wheelmen when the organization began barring African Americans.

The Cambridge Public Library’s main branch. (Solon Kelleher/WBUR)

For Spencer, the bookmarks are a way to help inspire a younger generation. “I was very concerned about our high school students and especially our high school students of color,” said Spencer. He had read an article in the Cambridge Chronicle about a report of increased discrimination within the Cambridge Public School systems. “I experienced discrimination back from 1961 and 65 … I wanted to be able to let students in Cambridge know, ‘listen, there are so many role models for you to look to right here in your own city. And we’re, we’re going to make that open to you.’”

The bookmarks include footnotes citing sources, so if people want to learn more beyond what could fit in a condensed biography they can find other materials. People can also find more information on each trailblazer on the project’s website.

The Cambridge Black History also teamed up with artist Elisa Hamilton to record oral histories for The Foundry’s Jukebox in Cambridge. They recently received a grant from MassHumanities to continue their oral history work with 25 additional interviews which will also be archived and available to visitors at the Cambridge Public Library.

Jukebox Featured on WBUR’s Morning Edition

By Solon Kelleher

Artist Elisa Hamilton retrofitted a vintage jukebox with stories of Cambridge. (Solon Kelleher/WBUR)

Elisa Hamilton needed a jukebox.

The Boston-based artist had a concept for a public art installation — and what it would sound and look like — but first she required a piece of classic Americana to make it happen.

WBUR is a nonprofit news organization. Our coverage relies on your financial support. If you value articles like the one you’re reading right now, give today.

The search brought her to Garnick’s in Lowell. It’s a small shop that has sold many things since it opened in 1934, but nowadays it sells mostly records and retro jukeboxes. Dave Garnick, who had been working on jukeboxes since he was a child, sold her a 1960 Seeburg.

The machine was inoperable, and the inner cabinet had been emptied. “And that was perfect for me,” said Hamilton, who rebuilt the jukebox inside and out. She customized it to create Jukebox, a public art project commissioned by the Cambridge Arts Council for the Cambridge Foundry.

This jukebox operates like many others — press a combination of letters and numbers to select a corresponding track — but this jukebox differs from other music-playing machines in one significant way. Most jukeboxes play music. This one plays 100 stories from interviews conducted by Hamilton and the Cambridge Black History Project. “I never saw it as an oral history project until I was already making this. I came at this as an artist, creating a project about stories,” said Hamilton.

Each of the stories on Jukebox features the voice of someone from Cambridge throughout the decades. “[Listeners] can expect to hear stories about neighborhoods, about communities, about places that aren’t in Cambridge anymore,” said Hamilton. “Joys and struggles … discrimination and overcoming discrimination … what it means to be a young person growing up in the world; in many cases, a young Black person growing up in the world.”

Each of the stories on Jukebox features the voice of someone from Cambridge throughout the decades. (Solon Kelleher/WBUR)

Hamilton added the latest installment of tracks to Jukebox last month and marked the occasion with a celebration at the Cambridge Public Library, which is where all of the interviews will be archived in their entirety.

People who lent their voices traveled from across the country for the event. One of the attendees, Linda Jackson Ezell, came all the way from Georgia.

In her Jukebox track, Ezell talks about the role school played while growing up in Cambridge. “I didn’t want to miss a single thing going on in school,” her story plays. “And so, I was in the 7th grade, I got the whooping coughs, and I missed a whole week of school and I nearly died. The whooping cough might have been the thing to kill me, but missing school was surely going to kill me dead.”

In an interview with WBUR, Ezell spoke of the personal significance of knowing her story would be archived for future generations. “My mother was born in 1908. I am the genealogist in my family. And I just found her great-grandmother. And I know her name is Millie and she was a slave,” she said. “Now, wouldn’t I love to be able to go online and just even see her face and hear her voice?  I would love that. And I think that for my kids, my kids’ kids,   …  I just want them all to know their grammy.”

Jukebox is a free, permanent art installation at The Foundry in Cambridge. The stories featured on Jukebox can also be played online at FoundryJukebox.org.

This segment aired on January 31, 2024.

All Cambridge High School Yearbooks Now Available Online

H.P. Garrity, Cambridge High and Latin Class of 1913.

All the Cambridge High School Yearbooks in our Collection are now freely available online.

Cambridge High and Latin School
(Yearbooks available: 1913-1977)

Rindge Technical School
(Yearbooks available: 1929-1977)

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
(Yearbooks available: 1978-2022)

Cambridge Black Trailblazers Bookmarks Available Now

The Cambridge Black History Project has unveiled eight new Black Trailblazer Bookmarks in honor of Black History Month. The eight individuals featured are:

Emory Clark, A Self-Made Man of Many Talents
Edward Collymore, A Champion Both Off and On the Track
Dr. Mary Crutchfield Wright Thompson, Community Dentist, Health Equity Advocate, Humanitarian
William Lewis Hazelwood, Jr., Award Winning TV Producer/Director, Athlete, Scholar
Charles Lenox, Harvard Entrepreneur and Cambridge Financier
Dorothy Fowler Richardson, Celebrated Contralto, Choral Director, Devoted Church Woman
Takako Grace Sato Salvi, Trailblazing Black Nurse, Family Advocate
Rowena Easterling Taylor, Trailblazing Attorney, Community Service Leader

Pick yours up today at the Main Library or any of our six branches.

Exhibit: Audubon’s Birds of America

Main Library
Lobby Display Case & Second Floor Display Case

John James Audubon is most well-known for his double elephant folio editions of The Birds of America, the four-volume set published between 1827 and 1838 on paper sized approximately 26 1/4 x 39 1/2 inches, the largest sheets available at the time.[1] 

Audubon produced a smaller and more affordable seven volume edition with the lithographer J. T. Bowen in 1844.[2]  After Audubon died in 1851, his family authorized several more editions in the smaller format, known as the royal octavo, including George Lockwood’s version that is on display.[3]

Lockwood printed eight volumes instead of seven and used as many as he could of the original stereotype and stone plates made for the 1840 and 1850 editions.  The Lockwood edition is the last octavo edition printed from the original stones as they were destroyed sometime after 1870 in a warehouse fire in Philadelphia. [4]

The Lockwood edition of The Birds of America is part of the Rare Book Collection of the Library’s Archives and Special Collections.

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[1] From Friends of the Audubon:  https://friendsofaudubon.org/2020/07/the-double-elephant-folio-where-did-it-come-from/

[2] From Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_of_America

[3] From Christie’s Auction: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5963347 Cites Ayer/Zimmer pp.25-26; Nissen IVB 52; Wood p. 209.

[4] From Christie’s Auction: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5963347 Cites Ayer/Zimmer pp.25-26; Nissen IVB 52; Wood p. 209.

The Kenneth E. Reeves Papers and Digital Collection is Now Available

Photo of Ken Reeves’ first campaign office, 1983

We are pleased to announce that the Kenneth E. Reeves Papers, 1982-2019 is now available for research. A selection of digitized material is also available.

Biography
Kenneth E. Reeves was born in 1951 in Detroit, Michigan and first moved to Cambridge to study at Harvard University as an undergraduate. He graduated from Harvard in 1973. After attending law school at the University of Michigan, Reeves returned to Cambridge and practiced as a lawyer while becoming involved in local politics. In 1990, Reeves was elected to the Cambridge City Council and later served as the city’s mayor between 1992-1995 and 2006-2008. When first elected mayor, Reeves became the first openly gay African American mayor in the United States.

During his time on the city council, Reeves was a member of the Cambridge Civics Association Slate and the Working Committee for a Cambridge Rainbow.

Collection Overview
Ranging from 1982-2019, this collection contains documents, photographs, and ephemera from Kenneth Reeves’ campaigns, terms as councilor and mayor, and personal life. The first two series of this collection contain a large range of campaign material, clippings and stories from local and national magazine and newspapers about Reeves, a small number of agenda from meetings, and a small number of photographs. The third series, composed of Reeves’ personal items, contains a large number of photographs of St. Paul AME Church’s Christmas performance of the Messiah from 1982 and 1983, as well as two portraits of Reeves, one painted by local citizen Al Sayles and one by acclaimed artist Gale Fulton Ross.

Artist Talk with Constantia Thibaut

Artist Talk:  Hierosgamos: From Requiem to Revival
Wednesday October 18, 2023
6:30 pm
Main Library, Lecture Hall
REGISTER HERE

Join us for a reception and gallery talk by Constantia Thibaut as she discusses her latest artwork, Hierosgamos:  From Requiem to Reunion.

When Thibaut’s partner, Bill, died in 2018 after a long illness, she created a series of portraits that represent his struggle with his fatal illness during the last months of his life when he was in hospice.  Thibaut based these portraits on the many hundreds of photographs she took of Bill with her cell phone and digital camera.

“I have been through a profound experience as a witness to my partner Bill’s illness and death, and these artworks are my visual testimony,” writes Thibaut.  At the hospital, where Bill spent the last months of his life, a great drama unfolded.  I attempted to catch fleeting images of it with my camera.  Bill died with tremendous gravitas, seeming to transcend the condition of a helpless victim of a dread and fatal disease.  It was as if I, in witnessing this event, as a mere conduit, a mere medium, were transported to another and a greater, though mysterious, dimension of existence.  It was a humbling experience.  I wondered at how it could be at once so sorrowful and at the same time so beautiful.”

This exhibit complements Thibaut’s recent donation of Bill Noble’s papers.  Noble was a staunch advocate for rent control and worked tirelessly on behalf of Cambridge tenants in the 1970s and 1980s.  He was a founding member of the Cambridge Tenants Union (CTU) and its predecessor, the Cambridge Rent Control Coalition (CRCC) and was an active opponent of the expansion of Harvard, MIT and other large Cambridge institutions into city neighborhoods.  Thibaut’s tribute to Bill in this exhibition shows the deeply personal side of such a public figure so well known in Cambridge activist circles.  Both Noble’s papers and some of Thibaut’s photographs for Hierosgamos are now available at the Library’s Archives and Special Collections.

Connie Thibaut is a graphics and mixed-media artist who studied painting for five years at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where she was exposed to the Surrealist painters whose work became a strong inspiration. Later, at Massachusetts College of Art, where she graduated with a BFA and a MSAE (Master’s of Science in Art Education), she learned about the Surrealist women painters and created a Surrealist reinterpretation of an Old French romance for her thesis show. She has studied with and been influenced by Boston area artists such as the late Conger Metcalf (Neo-Romanticism) and more recently Adria Arch (Abstract Expressionism). Although she has retired from teaching, she continues to create art that is informed by her life experiences and which reinterprets the traditions of the Renaissance, Fantastic Art, and Expressionism.

Hierosgamos: From Requiem to Revival

October 16 – 30, 2023
Main Library, L2
Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday, 5-9 pm
Saturday, 9-5
Sunday, 1-5

When artist Connie Thibaut’s partner, Bill, died in 2018 after a long illness, she created a series of portraits that represent his struggle with his fatal illness during the last months of his life when he was in hospice.  Thibaut based these portraits on the many hundreds of photographs she took of Bill with her cell phone and digital camera.

“I have been through a profound experience as a witness to my partner Bill’s illness and death, and these artworks are my visual testimony,” writes Thibaut.  “At the hospital, where Bill spent the last months of his life, a great drama unfolded.  I attempted to catch fleeting images of it with my camera.  Bill died with tremendous gravitas, seeming to transcend the condition of a helpless victim of a dread and fatal disease.  It was as if I, in witnessing this event, as a mere conduit, a mere medium, were transported to another and a greater, though mysterious, dimension of existence.  It was a humbling experience.  I wondered at how it could be at once so sorrowful and at the same time so beautiful.”

This exhibit complements Connie’s recent donation of her partner, Bill Noble’s papers.  Noble was a staunch advocate for rent control and worked tirelessly on behalf of Cambridge tenants in the 1970s and 1980s.  He was a founding member of the Cambridge Tenants Union (CTU) and its predecessor, the Cambridge Rent Control Coalition (CRCC) and was an active opponent of the expansion of Harvard, MIT and other large Cambridge institutions into city neighborhoods.  Connie’s tribute to Bill in this exhibition shows the deeply personal side of such a public figure so well known in Cambridge activist circles.  Both Bill Noble’s papers and some of Connie’s photographs for Hierosgamos are now available at the Library’s Archives and Special Collections. 

Join us for an opening reception and gallery talk on Wednesday October 18 at 6:30 pm.

Connie Thibaut is a graphics and mixed-media artist who studied painting for five years at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where she was exposed to the Surrealist painters whose work became a strong inspiration. Later, at Massachusetts College of Art, where she graduated with a BFA and a MSAE (Master’s of Science in Art Education), she learned about the Surrealist women painters and created a Surrealist reinterpretation of an Old French romance for her thesis show. She has studied with and been influenced by Boston area artists such as the late Conger Metcalf (Neo-Romanticism) and more recently Adria Arch (Abstract Expressionism). Although she has retired from teaching, she continues to create art that is informed by her life experiences and which reinterprets the traditions of the Renaissance, Fantastic Art, and Expressionism.

Exhibit: Cousins

Thai Tea, from Kristen Emack’s Photography series, Cousins

Exhibition:  Cousins
September 11 – October 12, 2023
Main Library, L2
Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday, 5-9 pm
Saturday, 9-5
Sunday, 1-5

Kristen Emack has been photographing her daughter and nieces for over a decade.  “There is something sacred about the lives of girls, and their innocent, confident relationships to themselves, their world and one another is gravitational,” explains Emack.  She has captured the girls’ childhood in an unfiltered way as they move with confidence throughout Cambridge and their environment.  Her work is an undeniable celebration of Black girlhood.  “There are notable bodies of work about girlhood, but Cousins is unique.  It chronicles the lives of girls of color, which is a perspective that still remains under-embraced,” writes Emack.  “Additionally, each frame is wholly female.”  Angst or distraction does not enter the frame.  Instead it’s their connection that stays in focus, their adolescent changes are organic, subtle and unprovocative.” 

Emack is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Mass Cultural Council Fellow. Her work has been featured in Vogue Italia and National Geographic and has been exhibited across the United States, Northern Europe and the UK. This exhibit, Emack’s first in Cambridge, features the Library’s newly acquired photographs from Cousins and celebrates Emack’s work in the community.  View these exciting new additions to the permanent collection of Library’s Archives and Special Collections on display at the Main Library on L2.

Visit kristenjoyemack.com.

The Civil War Nurses of Mount Auburn Cemetery by Bill McEvoy

Civil War Nurse, Emily Elizabeth Parsons, founder of Mount Auburn Hospital

Independent Researcher Bill McEvoy has recently finished a series highlighting ten Civil War nurses buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery:

Adeline Tyler
Dorothea Lynde Dix
Emily Elizabeth Parsons
Mary Sullivan Felton
Mary Phinney von Olnhausen
Anna Cabot Lowell Woodbury
Harriet Ann Jacobs
Annie Frances Kendall Freitag
Hannah Elizabeth Stevenson
Mary McKinnon Tate

Enjoy the articles from the Watertown News here. You can also read about Bill McEvoy’s work here. He has published three books, all freely downloadable:

• Catholic Mount Auburn Cemetery, at East Watertown
• Rainsford Island, A Boston Harbor, Case Study of Public Neglect and Private Activism, edited by contributing author, Robin Hazard Ray
• The biography of Alice North Towne Lincoln