About This Exhibition:
In the 20th century, Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a writer, poet, journalist, activist and champion of preserving her story. For most of her life, she was known for her marriage to poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, so she took intentional steps to document her life – creating scrapbooks, collecting clippings and writing in diaries – to ensure her legacy would be more than “wife.”
In Alice Dunbar-Nelson and the Legacy of Black Women's Archives, visitors will learn about the incredible life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson through her own papers and collected materials. They also will discover the women who helped share Dunbar-Nelson’s story by bringing her personal archive into public view, including Pauline A. Young, Dunbar-Nelson’s niece, and Akasha Gloria T. Hull, UD professor and Black feminist scholar. After browsing what’s on view, visitors will be inspired to reconsider how they document and preserve their own stories for future generations.
The exhibition is on view February 6 - August 9, 2024, in the Special Collections Gallery in Morris Library. The Special Collections Gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Credits
The exhibition is curated by Monet Lewis-Timmons, a doctoral candidate from UD’s Department of English and Museum Studies Program. She is also an African American Public Humanities Initiatives Fellow (AAPHI) at UD. The materials on view are drawn from the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press and the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.
