"You see black men and women depicted as they wanted to be and … it’s such a stark contrast to what we know is happening in this country at the time, that it’s very, very poignant."

The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research is hosting this fall a photography exhibition that displays previously buried archival photographs of black subjects in late 19th century Britain.

“Black Chronicles II,” as the exhibition is called, is the continuation of a similar project looking to address the absence of cultural diversity in the Victorian historical narrative.

“Guess who was the most photographed American of the nineteenth century.” Fletcher University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Studies, prepares for the surprise on my face.

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As an author, designer, and professor, Calderin was invited to speak on 19th-century black fashion as part of the Cooper Gallery’s new exhibit, “Black Chronicles II,” which feature photographs of various subjects from artists to royalty. Prior to his Nov. 15 talk, Calderin spoke with the Crimson about his thoughts on the exhibit and his experiences as a leader in fashion.

When the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art opened last fall in Harvard Square, just behind Peet’s Coffee, I was overjoyed, since there’s now somewhere in the square one can enter and leave with rich takings without being followed out the door by some officious busybody pestering you about “private property.” Read more about Artscope: A Critical Look at Black Photographic History

A collection of archival photographs (all taken prior to 1938) has surfaced as the result of a British research project called the Missing Chapter, which aims to “redress persistent ‘absence’ within the historical record.”

19. “Black Chronicles II” @ The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery, Harvard University | Cambridge, Mass. First shown in London at Autograph ABP, this exhibition examines images of blacks in 19th and 20th century Britain and features a recently discovered cache of more than 200 photographs, most of which have never been exhibited or published before. The portraits include diverse subjects, from well-known figures and dignitaries to traveling performers, missionaries and unidentified black Britons. All of the images were taken in British photography studios prior to 1938.

If we close our eyes and recall images of black people from earlier centuries, what is imprinted in our memories?  Do we see elegance, dignity, refinement, beauty, intelligence—all facets of human subjectivity—among those used to tell the story of history and art in the West?

Frederick Douglass in the 19th century, and W.E.B. DuBois in the 20th, grappled with the constructed role of race and the long established visual representation of black people prevalent throughout the culture. They deployed photography in strategies to re-define black humanity in both perception and...

Read more about International Review of African American Art: 'All Too Human, Victorian Swag in Tow'