Curated African American artifacts with historical context.
Showing 1-12 of 87 resources
This first-edition copy of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Boston, 1861) is an exceptional presentation copy given by Harriet Jacobs’s daughte…
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl stands as the most important slave narrative written by an African American woman…
This is the original WBC Heavyweight Championship belt awarded to Muhammad Ali following his legendary victory over George Foreman in the “Rumble in…
This belt is tangible evidence of one of the most famous matches and comebacks in sports history, marking Ali’s triumph…
This is the official USA track jacket worn by John Carlos during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where he joined Tommie Smith in…
The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute became a transformative moment in sports and civil rights history. On October 16,…
This is the authentic Milwaukee Braves road grey jersey custom tailored for Hank Aaron during his historic 1954 rookie season, with Aaron's iconic “B…
Worn by the last active former Negro League player, this jersey embodies Aaron’s first big league steps toward a barrie…
"Untitled" (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat is a monumental neo-expressionist painting featuring a raw, mask-like skull rendered in vivid colors agains…
The painting is widely regarded as Basquiat’s masterpiece and a touchstone of postwar art. When it sold for $110.5 mill…
Jacob Lawrence’s “The Migration Series” consists of 60 vividly painted panels completed in 1941, documenting the mass exodus of African Americans fro…
Lawrence's series is a touchstone for Black heritage preservation, embodying the resilience, ingenuity, and determinati…
This original, white glove, lavishly studded with Swarovski crystals and designed by famed costumer Bill Whitten, was personally worn by Michael Jack…
The crystal glove is one of the most iconic pieces of Michael Jackson’s career and global pop culture—a visual signatur…
This powerful archival group features three original James Baldwin-related manuscript items. The centerpiece is a handwritten page from Baldwin’s ess…
These are primary working documents from one of the most eloquent and fearless voices in 20th-century American literatu…
From Slavery Through Reconstruction (1934) is one of four large murals in Aaron Douglas’s Aspects of Negro Life series, painted for the 135th Street…
This mural is a cornerstone of Harlem Renaissance visual culture and one of the most ambitious attempts of the era to c…
“The Banjo Lesson” (1893) by Henry Ossawa Tanner is an intimate genre painting depicting an elderly man teaching a young boy to play the banjo inside…
“The Banjo Lesson” is widely regarded as Tanner’s signature masterpiece and one of the most important images of African…
The Yellow Cloud Guitar is one of the most iconic instruments associated with musician and cultural innovator Prince. Designed by Minneapolis luthier…
The Yellow Cloud Guitar is closely tied to Prince’s explosive rise to global fame during the mid-1980s, a period when h…
Romare Bearden’s The Block is a monumental collage composed of six panels that depict everyday life along a Harlem street. Using a combination of pai…
Romare Bearden transformed collage into a powerful medium for storytelling in modern art. His work helped bridge Africa…