Ohio's Black Artists: A History of a Trailblazing Museum and Resources to Engage Students Today

The 2024 theme of Black History Month in the United States is “African Americans and the Arts,” and, in that spirit, this month’s Resource Roundup discusses the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center’s (NAAMCC) influence on the art world. Be sure to read on for resources on teaching art in the classroom and a list of where to find the work of several of the artists whose work has been featured at NAAMCC. Special thanks to Kevin Lydy at NAAMCC for writing this month's blog.

The National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center opened its doors on April 16, 1988.  It was the product of a passionate political campaign, the battle against institutional racism, and a desire to document the rich history of Black excellence at Wilberforce in Ohio, where the museum is located.

Until the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in Washington, D.C. in 2016, NAAMCC carried the torch as the only institution of its kind.  The museum quickly became a major influence on Ohio and on American society.  NAAMCC influenced the art world in three major ways.  The first was to be a home base for Black artists by bringing local and national artwork to the museum.  The second was to generate world-renowned exhibits that traveled all over the world, bringing Black art to the people.  Third, NAAMCC was one of the first institutional collectors of Black protest art.

Over the years, NAAMCC has hosted some of the most renowned Black artists. With funding from the NEA, NEH, Honda of America, the Rockefeller Foundation, and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the museum opened its second major traveling exhibition in 1999 called When the Spirit Moves: the Africanization of American Movement. The celebration of art and dance brought together several major players and institutions, including the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) and the Springfield Museum of Art.  DCDC debuted a dance performance called When the Spirit Moves: African American Art inspired by Dance. Eventually, the exhibit traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

In 1991, The Ford Foundation granted the NAAMCC $50,000 to purchase art associated with the Black Protest and Black Nationalist movements of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.  This includes work by Calvin Burnett, Dana Chandler, Bing Davis, Jeff Donaldson, Tom Feelings, Reginald Gammon, Eddie Jack Jordan Sr., Jon Onye Lockard and Betye Saar.  In 1993, the museum received a second grant and thus added Claude Clark, Valerie Maynard, Cedric Adams, and Richard Wyatt Jr. to the NAAMCC collection.

Through these grants, as well as donations and other purchases of art, the museum has become a pioneer in collecting art of this style and period. For example, since the acquisition of Gammon’s Freedom Now, it has traveled to major exhibitions in Paris, London, and New York. The Smithsonian currently has NAAMCC’s Betye Saar and Barkley Hendricks pieces on exhibit.  All the pieces mentioned in this blog have traveled to shows outside of their permanent home at the NAAMCC, bringing Black art to the people worldwide.

For more information on the NAAMCC Black Art Collections, contact Linda Collins, NAAMCC Manager of Collections, at [email protected].

Resources

Black Artists’ Work Available Online

  • Jacob Lawrence, known for his dynamic cubist style, had three shows at NAAMCC and visited in person in 1990 for the opening of Paintings and Drawings. You can find his work at MoMA, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Phillips Collection.
  • Reginald Gammon was an exceptional artist whose work often focused on the civil rights movement, including Freedom Now, a world-renowned piece of protest art acquired by NAAMCC. You can find his work here, available from his estate, as well as a primary source activity from the National Humanities Center centered on Freedom Now.
  • P. Ball, a photographer, and Robert Duncanson, a painter, worked together from roughly 1845 to 1855 in Ball’s studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. Their work is featured in NAAMCC’s “Rhythm of Revolution” exhibit, which features Black artists who transformed our nation by interpreting contemporary challenges and finding a way forward into a better future. Discover the work of these trailblazers at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  • Emma Amos, a provocative artist who attended college in Ohio, introduced her exhibition Paintings and Prints at NAAMCC, in collaboration with Antioch College in March 2004. You can find some of her work on her website, as well as from the Ryan Lee Gallery.
  • Kojo Kamau, a Columbus, Ohio photographer, documented the importance of African American culture and accomplishment for over fifty years. His work was featured at NAAMCC in a retrospective entitled Kojo: Eyewitness to History in 2016. He passed away a little over a month after the opening but expressed to his peers that this was his best exhibit to date. You can find a collection of his work at the Columbus Metropolitan Library and at Art Makes Columbus.

 

Blog image citation: Wall text, Rhythm and Revolution, National Afro American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio.

A large group of school children gathered at the entrance into the Great Circle Earthwork.

Save the Dates!

A few times a year, visitors are invited to fully experience all three segments of Newark’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks. Inscribed as an UNESCO World Heritage site in 2023, these massive artifacts of creative genius served social, ceremonial and astronomical functions for their builders. The 2024 Open House dates are:

Details on daily program offerings are currently being developed. But until then, here are some interesting earthwork tidbits!

 

By Wendy Korwin, Archives Services Manager

Within large archival collections, certain names and voices stand out. From 2021-2023, archivists at the Ohio History Connection worked to catalog President Warren G. Harding’s papers and photographs. During this project, we identified thousands of correspondents (another blog post explores some of Harding's early letters). There were close, distant and hopeful family members; business partners; political rivals and allies; and lots of regular folks. One woman’s name has stayed in my brain, though, many months after the project’s formal conclusion: Elvira Johnson.

Elvira Johnson wrote her first letter to Warren G. Harding in August 1906 as a fresh graduate of the Inland Printer Technical School:

Graduates of the Inland Printer Technical School, 1906

In the school’s Machine Composition Branch, the machine in question was Ottmar Mergenthaler's Linotype. It's like... if a typewriter had a baby with a pipe organ. Linotypes transformed the newspaper business by replacing the process of setting text by hand, one metal letter at a time, with a clanging contraption that could cast and set an entire “line o’ type” with a few keystrokes. They debuted in the printing office of the New York Tribune in 1886. Warren G. Harding, who had become a co-owner and editor of the Marion Daily Star just a few years before, ordered his first two Mergenthaler Linotypes in 1897.[1]

In 1906, Elvira Johnson left her hometown of Geneseo, Illinois and traveled to Chicago to become “the first Illinois girl” to train on Linotypes at the Inland Printer school.[2] A Mergenthaler company bulletin published that same year boasted that a Linotype operator could set up a newspaper five times faster than someone working by hand, at a rate of 5,000 ems per hour.[3] In her letter to Harding, Johnson explained:

“My speed at present is 3500 per hour, but I have been working on directories and such work almost entirely since finishing the Inland Printer School and for that reason do not know my speed on newspaper work, but I have gotten up 4000 per hour on one nights’ run on newspaper.... If my speed meets with your approval, I would be pleased to accept your offer, and try to do my best.”

It’s the way she ended her letter, though, that makes it stand out from the ones Harding regularly received from other applicants: “You may not understand what wanting a steady job is, but to me it is everything and at present more-so than I ever thought it could be.”[4]

Elvira Johnson never shied away from telling Harding what she wanted or explaining her position. Two weeks after her first letter, she replied to a question about her gender: “As to working with men entirely, I have done nothing else since I went into the printing business, and find that they are all right to work with. I have never had any trouble with any of them.”

Once again, she ended her letter to Harding by stressing the ways that her position differed from his own: “You may understand how a steady position appeals to me when you know that there is only my mother and myself in the family and I must see that we are kept alive.”[5]

Harding did offer Elvira Johnson a job in the Star’s composing room, as its only female Linotype operator. A few years later, health concerns appear to have taken Johnson away from Marion temporarily. She noted in one letter to Harding that she was happy to hear that he had improved the ventilation in the Star’s offices. Once again, the correspondence leading up to her return indicates that she was comfortable advocating for her needs. A 1912 telegram to Harding flatly rejected his initial offer:

 

MSS 345, Box 50, Folder 8

Although Johnson was eager to return to Marion, she would not do so under conditions she considered unjust. The following year, Harding seemed more amenable to negotiating – or maybe just more desperate for good help. Johnson opened a five-page letter to him from a post in Pontiac, Michigan: “Your letter reached me today and in reply I will say that I appreciate your proposition but I’m sure you would not care to have me give up a $23 job for one of $18 with slight bonus.” In her counter offer, Johnson reasoned that her trustworthiness, efficiency and ability to care for his expensive machinery meant that Harding was still getting a good deal: “I’m writing this as man to man and hope you understand what I’m trying to convey."[6]  Harding apparently accepted the terms of her return. Three months later, Elvira Johnson and George Tuttle, another Linotype operator at the Star, “were quietly married” in Marion.[7]

 

Black and White photograph of Marion Star employees, circa 1913

Image courtesy of Marion County Historical Society

Marion Star Composing Room Employees, circa 1913

Back row: W. F. Bull, Lew Miller, George Tuttle, Elvira Tuttle, Fred Buckingham

Front row: Frank Dennis, Royal Boger, Wylie Messenger

Elvira and George Tuttle remained devoted to Marion and to the Star, but perhaps most of all to Harding. In 1923, the year that saw both the sale of the paper and its editor’s death, the couple purchased their own newspaper and relocated to Winnebago, Minnesota. There, Elvira organized the Business and Professional Women’s Club, and with George, she ran the Winnebago City Enterprise for 23 years. George retired in 1946, and soon after, the Tuttles sold their paper and moved to Mason City, Iowa. George died in 1956, but Elvira seems to have remained active in the community, writing for the local Globe-Gazette until shortly before her own death in 1968. They are both buried in Marion.

And that is nearly all I know about Elvira Johnson. Other snippets from census records and digitized newspapers have offered a few more details about her life. One day I might have the pleasure of reading through the Winnebago City Enterprise, or I might drive past the house in Marion where she and George boarded (318 S. State St.; it’s white). But those aren’t aching desires. We have the letters, and that’s where the gold is. I’d like to advocate for myself – I’d like all of us to advocate for ourselves – in the same way that Elvira Johnson did to the future President Harding: kindly, candidly, and with the confidence that you won't accept a job at $18 when you deserve $23.

 

[1] Sherry Smart Hall, Warren G. Harding and the Marion Daily Star: How Newspapering Shaped a President (Charleston: The History Press, 2014), 77.

[2] “Mrs. G. E. Tuttle, Ex-Star Printer, Dies at 90 in Iowa,” Marion Star, 27 April 1968.

[3] Linotype Bulletin 3, no. 1 (Oct-Nov-Dec 1906): 2. Here’s some more nerd stuff about ems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Em_(typography)

[4] Elvira Johnson to Warren G. Harding, 3 August 1906, Warren G. Harding Papers, MSS 345, Box 45, Folder 4.

[5] Elvira Johnson to Warren G. Harding, 14 August 1906, Warren G. Harding Papers, MSS 345, Box 45, Folder 4.

[6] Elvira Johnson to Warren G. Harding, 25 March 1913, Warren G. Harding Papers, MSS 345, Box 22, Folder 6.

[7] “Quietly Married at the Porch Residence,” Marion Star, 9 June 1913.

Ever wonder what it takes to run an Ohio History Connection site? Our amazing site staff members work hard to maintain the physical site, create programming, provide customer service and more! Take a peek behind the scenes at Armstrong Air & Space Museum to see what a typical day is like for the staff.

 

 

 

At the start of every day, the museum has a heads-up meeting where all the staff goes around and shares what’s on the day's itinerary.

 

 

 

 

Executive Director Dante Centuori and Communications Director Logan Rex running through the event site plan for the 2024 total solar eclipse.

 

 

 

 

Education staff Jarrod Jones and Ellen Engle working with the museum's telescopes.

 

 

 

The collections staff having their monthly exhibits meeting, this month focusing on the upcoming lobby renovations.

 

 

 

 

Maintenance staff Ben Givens and Scott Walton prepping the store for the museum's lobby renovations.

 

 

 

 

Store Representative Jeff Bowersock is using the penny press to make pre-squished keepsakes for the guests.

 

 

 

 

Historian Greg Brown is changing out the desiccant filters in some of the cases to help maintain safe humidity levels.

 

 

 

 

Curator Logan Rex is cleaning and buffing the plexi-glass of the Gemini VIII, keeping our prized artifact in great shape.

Learn more about the Armstrong Air & Space Museum by visiting yourself!  Click here for up-to-date days and hours of operation, as well as the phone number and address.

Ohio History Connection members enjoy free general admission to Armstrong, as well as our 50+ other historic sites and museums. Visit ohiohistory.org/join to become a member!

Literacy and Social Studies: Interactive Read Alouds

One of the biggest goals in elementary classrooms is to teach students to read. Encompassed in this one goal are so many important skills (phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, phonics, decoding, vocabulary, background knowledge, language acquisition, comprehension skills) that each take time to teach. It is easy to feel like there is not enough time in the school day to accomplish all these goals and get to teaching other subjects. Oh yeah! -math, science, and social studies need to be taught too!

The Fordham Institute recently conducted a study on social studies instruction in elementary classrooms and had some surprising findings about the intersection between reading and social studies: “Increased instructional time in social studies—but not in ELA—is associated with improved reading ability.”

This study is consistent with the Science of Reading that has renewed interest in our schools. Content knowledge (building background knowledge and vocabulary) is one of the most important parts of building comprehension. Language comprehension-one of the large parts of Scarborough’s Reading Rope-builds skilled readers.

Have no fear, this writer has an easy way to incorporate this best practice knowledge without adding one more thing to your already full school day: Interactive Read Alouds. Interactive Read Alouds have so many benefits for readers of all ages. They build community, background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension skills all in one 20-minute lesson. Consider using engaging picture books to connect these reading skills with your social studies content. By getting creative with your reading block, you can successfully integrate social studies standards and ELA standards. The cherry on top? Research shows that this is the best way to improve your students’ reading ability!

Check out these trade books that meet your Social Studies & ELA content standards to use during your read aloud time:

Kindergarten:

S.S Standard: 3. Heritage is reflected through diverse cultures and is shown through the arts, customs, traditions, family celebrations and language.

The book cover for Our World of Dumplings, featuring children in a brick building. Each child is leaning on their windowsill in the building, waving to one another.     A book cover for Lunch Around the World. An image of the globe is in the center of the cover. with four other circles around it, each with a photo of children around the word. The background of the cover is bright orange.    The cover for the book We All Celebrate features a red background with a line of people from all over the world, wearing different clothes and dress.

Grade 1:

S.S. Standard: 3. The ways basic human needs are met have changed over time.

The cover of the book "Transportation." A yellow school bus and blue sedan car are on a road passing one another. The background shows a sign with the author's name, Gail Gibbons, and a sign that says "How people get around."    Book cover for "At the Same Moment Around the World." A child appears to walk around a snow-covered world.     The book cover of Then and Now, featuring a young boy walking along the sidewalk in front of a yellow house and brick building with a basketball hoop.    The book cover of Once Upon a Time There Was and Will Be So Much More," with a green mountainous background and block-shaped buildings in the foreground.

Grade 2:

S.S. Standard: 3. Biographies can show how peoples’ actions have shaped the world in which we live.

Counting on Katherine book cover. A young black woman in a red sweater and orange plaid skirt stands in front of a big moon.    A red thesaurus is open with many objects like a skull, globe, feather and more spilling out from behind it.    A caricature of Jane Goodall is set against a bright green background.    A drawing of Albert Einstein walking across a tan background with a white light in the upper left corner.

Grade 3:

S.S. Standard: 7. Systems of transportation and communication move people, products, and ideas from place to place.

The book cover for Locomotive by Brian Floca. A train appears to be bearing down on the viewer from the flat prairie.     Library on Wheels children's book cover. A black and white photo shows five children stand or sit in front of a car filled with shelves of books.     Book cover of Then and Now, with a bright blue background. A woman pushes a stroller with two children running alongside her as another woman feed birds nearby.

Grade 4:

S.S. Standard: 7. Following the War of 1812, Ohio continued to play a key role in national conflicts including the anti-slavery movement and the Underground Railroad.

Book cover of Before She Was Harriet. An illustrated image of a young Harriet Tubman from a side profile with the moon behind her.    Book cover for History Smashers: The Underground Railroad. The background shows a cabin with a quilt hanging in the front window and a white woman waving a lantern. In the foreground to the left stands a young black man and an adult black woman looking skeptically at the scene. On the right is a black man pointing over his shoulder towards the white woman saying "There's a lot more to this story."    Book cover of The Price of Freedom, showing five men standing against a blue backdrop.     Freedom Over Me book cover. A circle of illustrations of 11 enslaved people surrounds the title. The background is a drawing of a house and wall.

Grade 5:

S.S. Standard: European exploration and colonization during the 1400s-1600s had lasting effects which can be used to understand the Western Hemisphere today.

The book cover of Christopher Columbus and the Age of Exploration for Kids, with an image of Christopher Columbus and a ship in front a page of his diaries.    The book cover for Lives of the Explorers. Several explorers throughout history sit atop the globe.

 

If you are interested in learning more about how the Science of Reading intersects with social studies instruction, sign up for our Professional Development training on the topic! Email us at [email protected].

 

References:

Adam Tyner and Sarah Kabourek. Social Studies Instruction and Reading Comprehension: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Washington D.C.: Thomas B. Fordham Institute (September 2020). https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/resources/social-studies-instruction-andreading-comprehension.

 

“Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2015-2023.” TeachingBooks. Accessed December 12, 2023. https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?wid=79.

 

Okello, Dr. Betsy. “The Power of Read Alouds // How to Perform an Effective Interactive Read Aloud.” The Power of Read Alouds // How to Perform an Effective Interactive Read Aloud | Institute for Educational Initiatives, January 28, 2021. https://iei.nd.edu/initiatives/notre-dame-center-for-literacy-education/news/the-power-of-read-alouds-how-to-perform.

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Blog image citation:

Penn, Kimberly. Shirley Windless sits in front of her morning kindergarten class, Martin Luther King, Jr. School, approximately 1983-1984. Photograph. Toledo, 1983. Toledo Lucas County Public Library Digital Collections.

 

 

Orange block with Road Trippin' with Truda written with the image of a vintage car.

Join me as I visit the sites in the Ohio History Connection network! This month's road trip took me to the Ohio History Center in Columbus.

This month’s road trip wasn’t really a road trip for me! My office is located in the Ohio History Center, so I get to walk past Conway the Mastodon and see our two-headed calf every day. But the Ohio History Center is a road trip for many of our members, so I thought I’d take some time to explore the museum from the perspective of a new visitor. I had a great time and was reminded of how lucky I am to work in this building.

Address: The Ohio History Center is located at 800 E. 17th Avenue in Columbus. We’re right off I-71 at the 17th Avenue exit. Parking is free and easy, thanks to our gigantic parking lot.

How much time: I would plan about 1-2 hours at the Ohio History Center. There’s a lot to see and interact with, so you’ll want to give yourself plenty of time.

 

 

My favorites: I have two favorite exhibits. The first is the Lustron House in the 1950s—Building the American Dream exhibit. The Lustron is an actual, full-sized house, complete with furniture. It’s a great way to really get a feel for what it was like to live in the 1950s. I brought my parents to visit, and they had a ball poking around the Lustron House. They saw a lot of items they had grown up with and loved getting to share stories with me about their childhoods.

My other favorite is the Indigenous Wonders of Our World exhibit, which explores the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, eight ancient earthworks in Ohio that are on the United Nations’ World Heritage List. I’ve lived in Ohio almost my whole life and I knew close to nothing about these amazing earthworks before I started working for the Ohio History Connection. This exhibit is a thorough introduction to these extraordinary landmarks. You’ll learn about the ancient American Indians who built them and their precise knowledge of astronomy and geometry. You’ll be inspired to get out there and visit these sites!

You can check out all of the Ohio History Center’s exhibits here.

The Lustron House is a great, hands-on way to learn about the 1950s.

The Indigenous Wonders of Our World exhibit explores the eight Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks sites.

The History Store has a wide variety of Ohio-related items.

Truda's Tips: Be sure to take a close look at the building itself. It’s hard to miss the unusual architecture. If you want to impress your friends, you can tell them that it’s a prime example of Brutalism. Definitely look up at the ceiling when you’re on the second floor Plaza.

Also make sure to visit our gift shop. We carry a wide variety of books, jewelry, candy, puzzles, posters, mugs and other items. I LOVE the locally made t-shirts we offer. It’s the first place I look when I’m shopping for a unique gift for friends and family. You can also check out the store online.

Kid Friendly? Absolutely: The Ohio History Center is very kid friendly. There are a lot of interactives for kids throughout the museum that enhance the information in the exhibits. I especially like Discovery Park in The Nature of Ohio gallery. You can also stop by the Front Desk to pick up a scavenger hunt to turn your visit into a game.

On the practical side, there are bathrooms throughout the museum, lots of snacks and kid-friendly food in the Plaza Café and some fun toys in the gift shop. And you know how some museums make you feel like you should whisper and tiptoe around? Well, you won’t find that here. Kids can be kids–we want them to feel welcome and comfortable.

The Discovery Park area is a fun place for kids to explore.

Lunch: If you visit the museum between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Wed.-Fri. or 12 p.m.-4 p.m. Sat.-Sun., you can get a bite to eat at the Plaza Café on the second floor. The Café offers a variety of grab and go sandwiches, wraps and salads, as well as bagels, chips, cold drinks, coffee and tea, and cookies. I may see you there! I’m a little addicted to the cookies, so I often pop up to the Café to see what flavors we have.

For more information: To learn more about the Ohio History Center, you can visit our website. The Center will be closed for cleaning and maintenance from January 2-12, 2024, but will reopen on Saturday, January 13 at 10 a.m. You can also call our Front Desk at 800.686.6124. Our Visitor Services Associates are always happy to answer your questions! We’re normally open Wed.-Sun., 10 a.m.–5 p.m., but are open certain holiday Mondays, such as MLK Day and Presidents' Day.

Want to make a day of it? Discover everything Central Ohio has to offer at Experience Columbus.

Ohio History Connection members enjoy free general admission to the Ohio History Center, as well as our 50+ other historic sites and museums. Visit ohiohistory.org/get-involved/join-membership to become a member!