The HCAC public history focused digital archive cataloging is an ongoing process, and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. We welcome your comments and feedback if you have more information to share about an item featured on the site, please contact us at: HCAC-DigiTeam@si.edu
Calvin Burnett was a graphic artist, illustrator, painter, designer, and art teacher from Cambridge, MA. Marcus Garvey is a portrait of its namesake, a Jamaican political activist. Marcus Garvey was a renowned Black nationalist and Pan-Africanist.
Jewell Woodard Simon was an internationally acclaimed artist, teacher, and poet from Houston, TX. Margaret is a plaster bust of a Black woman. Like her other sculptures, Simon details the subject's features, including her nose, mouth, eyes, ears, and hair texture.
Jewell Woodard Simon was an internationally acclaimed artist, teacher, and poet from Houston, TX. Marine Land Fantasy is an underwater landscape drawing of fish and plants. Simon uses a variety of colors that illustrate aquatic biodiversity. Her use of lines evokes the depth of open water.
John Arterberry was an artist who worked in the art department at Langston University from Tallahassee, FL. Martyr shows a woman wearing a top with a cross and standing barefoot in a natural setting. The woman looks straight ahead, slightly smiling as a small fire sits behind her.
Calvin Burnett was a graphic artist, illustrator, painter, designer, and art teacher from Cambridge, MA. Merry-Go-Round depicts a young Black girl smiling in a park. Burnett overlays a limpid red merry-go-round over the girl's face.
Charles McGee was an artist and educator from Clemson, SC. Moods of Martha is a portrait of a young Black woman sitting with her head down hiding her face. Her hair and skin are black and almost blend in with the black chair she sits in. She wears a bright flower dress that is mostly green with orange flowers.
Frank H. Alston, Jr. was an artist and teacher from Providence, RI. Morning on Cape Cod illustrates a cloudy morning along the coast of a peninsula on the Massachusetts Coast. The image depicts a boy standing at the shoreline, boats sailing across the water, a house on top of a hill, and a residential area in the distance.
John Woodrow Wilson was a famous painter known for his creative portraits and stylistic approach to social justice. Mother and Child is a black-and-white depiction of a mother embracing their child. The mother has a solemn expression as she looks away from the viewer; her child is tucked into her arms, facing the viewer.
Herman "Kofi" Bailey was an artist from Chicago, IL. Mother and Child is a sepia-toned depiction of a Black mother holding her child in her lap. The mother looks down at the child as a blanket covers them.
John Woodrow Wilson was a famous painter known for his creative portraits and stylistic approach to social justice. Mother and Child is a black-and-white depiction of a mother embracing their child. The mother has a solemn expression as she looks away from the viewer; her child is tucked into her arms, facing the viewer.
Marion Perkins was a sculptor from Marche, AK. Mother and Child is a limestone bust of its namesake. The mother is placed behind the child as she holds his head. The mother looks toward the viewer as the child looks away.
John T. Biggers was an educator, painter, and muralist from Gastonia, NC. Mother and Children depicts a woman sitting with her legs crossed and a baby in her lap. The baby’s face is hidden as they are turned downward in the woman’s lap. The woman hunches over the baby, folding her arms while looking down.
John N. Robinson, born in Washington, D.C., was a self-taught painter. Mr. and Mrs. Barton is an oil painting of an elderly black couple inside their home. The husband is standing in a suit, while the wife is sitting in a sweater and gray dress. Behind them are two framed portraits, a vanity, and the doorway to the kitchen.
John Payne was an artist from New Orleans, LA. Mr. Mardi Gras is an abstract depiction of a male figure in the midst of the euphony of colors that represent the vibrance of Mardi Gras.
James H. Green, Jr., was an artist from Orangeburg, SC. Mrs. Pepper depicts a woman with a textured bob hairstyle chiseled into stone. Her head is titled in a expression of inquiry.
James H. Malone was a graphic artist, cartoonist, writer, and painter from Winterville, GA. My Classmate is a portrait drawing of a young Black boy in a school uniform. He sits in a chair with his hands on his lap, looking at the bottom left corner.
Irene V. Clark was a diasporic folklore artist from Washington, D.C. My Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather's Cousin is a cubist portrait of a Black string musician wearing a cape and turban. Clark creates a symmetrical arch framing the subject and a perched hummingbird.
Dr. Eddie Jordan, Sr. was a Southern artist from Wichita Falls, TX. Negro Girl Skipping Rope depicts a young Black girl in the process of playing jump rope. The rope is positioned over her head as she prepares to hop over the rope with one leg lifted.
Robert Blackburn was a notable printmaker from Summit, NJ who grew up in Harlem, NY. Negro Mother depicts a Black woman with a sorrowful expression. Balckburn uses geometric shapes to emphasize her features adn the details of the background.
Elizabeth Catlett was an artist and educator from Washington, D.C., who repatriated to Mexico. Negro Woman is a wooden sculpture of a Black woman. Catlett crafts the woman with an intense stare through careful sculpting and inlaid onyx eyes.
Elizabeth Catlett was an artist and educator from Washington, D.C., who was repatriated to Mexico. Negro Woman is a print depicting a dark-skinned woman looking off into the distance. The piece is in Black and white, aside from her brown face. The woman is wearing a jacket pinned at the collar, an undershirt, and a straw hat.
John Woodrow Wilson was a sculptor, painter, printmaker, and educator from Roxbury, MA. Negro Woman depicts a Black woman looking toward the distance from the side of her eyes. She is standing outside in a peach-colored shirt with the sun reflecting off of her face. Behind her are large buildings and a dark blue sky.
Alvin Smith was an artist from Brooklyn, NY. Neshoba Spectre is a collage that memorializes the Freedom Summer murders in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The piece displays the names of the victims: James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.
Geraldine McCullough was a renowned painter and sculptor from Kingston, AR. Of Hope depicts three figures picking flowers along a picket fence. In the foreground are two women and a man; one of the women is bent over in a red dress and holds a yellow flower. In the background is an urban skyline.
John Arterberry was an artist who worked in the art department at Langston University from Tallahassee, Florida. Of the Soil is a print depicting two farmers working the land. The two workers, dressed in overalls and straw hats, are bent over, picking crops to place in their wagons.
Lois Mailou Jones was an artist and art educator known for her costumes, textile designs, watercolors, paintings, and collages. Old House Near Frederick, Virginia depicts a slightly dilapidated house near Frederick, VA, a county about 50 miles from Washington, D.C., in watercolor. There are two children on the porch and two children and a chicken.
Dr. Eddie Jordan, Sr. was a Southern artist from Wichita Falls, TX. Old Slave is a granite sculpture depicting an elderly Black man. The subject has a full, long beard and is smoking a pipe.
Frank W. Neal was a multidisciplinary artist born in Texas but raised in New York City. Oppression depicts a child watching a weary woman sitting at a table. The woman is at the table, resting her head in her hands in a yellow shirt. The child and the house's interior, including a vanity, is sepia-toned.
Frederick D. Jones, Jr. is a mid-twentieth-century African-American artist from South Carolina. Our Lady of Peace is a surrealist painting utilizing nature and religious symbols. The painting depicts a veiled Black woman with an elongated neck holding a flower and feeding a bird in a church with broken stained-glass windows
