Black Pioneer History Told Through Quilts

     The James Museum of Western Art has become our favorite museum in the Tampa Bay Area, and there are quite a few great museums in the area. We are proud to be members, and we have no hesitation about telling visitors to the area that a visit to the James is a must. Currently, the James is hosting a fabulous new exhibit until January 8, 2023 before it moves on to another location. ( I think I overheard the Chicago Art Institute being the next stop, but I am not positive.) Webpage: https://thejamesmuseum.org/blackpioneers/

    "Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West" combines history and art. The premise is unique, and the exhibit was organized by the James Museum in conjunction with Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, curator, historian and artist. The 50 art quilts in the exhibition were created by the Women of Color Quilters Network especially for this exhibition. Founded by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi in 1985, Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN) is a non-profit national organization whose mission is to educate, preserve, exhibit, promote and document quilts made by African Americans. Each artist chose a particular person or event significant in black history - of course, making it American history as well - of the American West.

    The quilts are beautifully done, and they display a wide variety of skills and techniques used by quilters, like appliques, mixed materials, stitching styles, and 3D effects, and each one tells an important story that one is not likely to have been told. I was familiar with several featured people like Bass Reeves, the black lawman who served as the inspiration for The Lone Ranger, Madam C.J. Walker, one of the first hugely successful black entrepreneurs, Stagecoach Mary, one of the most famous teamsters in the West, and cowboys Nat Love and Bill Picket, to name a few, but I learned about so many more people that I want to go and research now. 

Stagecoach Mary

    The quilts also capture events like the Watts Riots of the 1960s and 1990s and the Greenwood (Tulsa) Massacre of 1921. 

Greenwood (Tulsa) Massacre

    

    It's one of the best exhibits we've seen. If you have an opportunity to see it, in St, Petersburg, or another city on its itinerary, I urge you to go see it.

If "Virginia is for Lovers," Philadelphia is Definitely for History Nerds, part 2

     Not all of Philadelphia's history is related to colonial history or the history of America's early government.  There's much more to see.

    For example, one of America's most historic prisons is open for visitors, the Eastern State Penitentiary (https://www.easternstate.org/ ). It opened in 1829, and it represented a radical new approach to incarceration.  The architecture of the prison itself was innovative, designed like a wheel with seven spokes, allowing guards to keep an eye on the hallways from a central location. In the beginning, the way the prisoners were treated  was based on the philosophy of isolation. The idea was that prisoners should be confined separately to allow for self-reflection and to prevent them from falling under bad influences. Prisoners were kept in single cells, each one with a small walled off outdoor exercise yard, and whenever they left their cells, they were masked. This solitary confinement system became known as the "Pennsylvania system" and influenced penal systems around the world before it was abandoned in 1913. ESP itself continued as a prison until 1971, housing more than 75,000 prisoners, including some famous inmates like Al Capone. It's a really interesting, and eerie, site to tour during the day, and they offer night tours during the summer as well.

    

    Located near Independence Hall is the National Museum of American Jewish History ( https://www.nmajh.org/ ) established in 1976, the only museum in the country dedicated "to exploring and interpreting the American Jewish experience."  The museum has a collection of over 30,000 artifacts, from the colonial period to the present day, that are used to create enlightening exhibits. 

By Beyond My Ken - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26378465

    Belmont Mansion (https://www.belmontmansion.org/index.html ), built in the mid 1700s, is a historic mansion that hosted such illustrious guests as George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. In the 1800s, the heirs of the builder were prominent abolitionists, and they allegedly played a role in the Underground Railroad. Philadelphia had quite a number of abolitionist groups, and it was a prominent terminal, the home of many free blacks and escaped slaves. Since 2007, a museum dedicated to the history of the Underground Railroad has occupied the mansion. Honestly, I wouldn't say that it's a must-see, but if you have time, go for it.

    For black history in Philadelphia, I would recommend Mother Bethel AME Church (https://www.motherbethel.org/ ), founded in 1794 and the oldest African Methodist Episcopal congregation in America. The site is the oldest property in the United States continuously owned by black Americans. Originally founded as Methodist Episcopal, Reverend Richard Allen, considered the founder of the AME denomination, made it the denomination's "Mother" church in the early 1800s. The church is open for tours during the day, and, when we visited, we were lucky to have an older gentleman give us a private tour of the church that had been his home for his entire life. He was extremely knowledgeable, and it was a great tour.