Devil's Backbone

The Barlow Road ascended the south flank of Mt. Hood and descended the watersheds of the Zigzag and Sandy Rivers. Emigrants entered the valley below by following the long ridge to the east, called the Devil's Backbone, and then descended ...

Fountain of the Pioneers- Bronson Park

Alfonso Iannelli and the Fountain of the Pioneers Design

The Fountain of the Pioneers is a rare cement fountain and sculpture located in Bronson Park in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan. The fountain was built in 1939 by ...

Wrought Iron Gate created by Philip Simmons

Local artisans crafted many of Charleston’s famous ornamental gates, like the gate pictured above by Philip Simmons. Decorative wrought-iron gates, fences, and railings are an integral part of Charleston’s identity, and the city’s African American craftsmen played a strong role ...

Watches and locket belonging to Harry and Harriette Moore

These watches and locket belonged to Civil Rights activists Harry and Harriette Moore and were inside their Mims, Florida home the night they were murdered for civil rights activism. This couple’s personal items serve as a stark reminder that those ...

Walking plow owned by Joshua Lyles

The small community of Lyles Station, near the southern border of Indiana, 40 miles north of the Ohio River, offers a window into the largely unknown story of free black pioneers on the American frontier. African American farmers have been ...

Vest Worn by Jimi Hendrix

On June 18, 1967, Jimi Hendrix and the Experience electrified festival goers at the Monterey Pop Festival. Images of Hendrix, setting his Fender Stratocaster guitar on fire, quickly circulated through the media and their inspired concert performance catapulted Hendrix to ...

Training aircraft used by Tuskegee Institute

This PT-13D Stearman Kaydet biplane once flew the skies above Moton Field in Alabama as a training aircraft for the Tuskegee Airmen, the Army Air Corps’ first African American aviators. One of the few remaining aircraft utilized by original pilots ...

The Texas Western College Miners 1966 Basketball Team

On Saturday, March 19, 1966, riot police in El Paso, Texas, struggled to calm mobs of people moving through city streets. The residents had not taken to the streets in protest, but rather to celebrate. Just hours earlier, the Texas ...

Shawl Given to Harriet Tubman by Queen Victoria

In 1897, Queen Victoria of England, sovereign of the largest empire in the world, presented this silk, lace, and linen shawl to formerly enslaved Harriet Tubman. Victoria’s immense display of respect and admiration underscored Tubman’s amazing life, her pursuit of ...

Playbill for Ira Aldridge at the Theatre Royal

One of the most celebrated Shakespearean actors of the 19th century, American-born Ira Aldridge achieved fame on the stages of Europe, where he found professional opportunities that did not exist for black actors in the United States. This 1857 playbill ...