Tag: archives
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A Race Against Time: The Quest for a Living Descendant
Vincent Flowers at Messiah Academy, Courtesy of Messiah College Archives Vincent Flowers, Rachel’s brother passed away in 2002. Edna Wiggins, Rachel’s sister-in-law, died in 2004. About seven years later, Paul Stevenson passed away in 2011. He was Rachel’s nephew. A great amount of history is lost with each death that occurs within the Flowers’ family. I…
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BHM 2015: Findings in the Geraldine Wilson Papers Collection
Today marks the beginning of Black History Month for 2015. As this day approached, I was thinking of ways to honor BHM; however, it hit me–I always and, at this point in my life, only write about black history. Then I thought perhaps I could focus on the Flowers family and their role in black…
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Victims of Hate, Part II
Image Source Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn, July 1964 People commit crimes like this because they are ignorant. They need to be educated. Georgia Penn, wife of Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn In the summer of 1964, Lt. Col. John D Howard, Major Charles E. Brown, and Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn travelled from Washington, D.C. to Fort…
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The Family Poet: Mrs. Geraldine Wilson
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture holds the largest archival holding of information regarding the Flowers family, particularly letters between Rachel and her niece, Geraldine, and documents and artifacts Geraldine collected throughout her lifetime. This includes her academic writings, personal collection of newspapers, personal writing, and even her poetry collection. The next few…
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What Became His Wife’s War: The Battle for Civil War Pension
I am a researcher, yet some days I wish I were not. You see, I dive into multiple topics within African American history from slavery to the present encountering countless historical figures and seeking to learn their stories. The issue comes with time, a luxury I do not have. Despite this fallback, there exist a few stories and historical…
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Findings in the Archives: Sharing Research Interests with Those You Are Researching
As I slowly, but surely work my way through my findings from a recent archival research trip, I came across the following piece of paper. Photo taken from the Geraldine Wilson Papers located at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture It states the following: Arthur Schomburg Puerto Rican of African Descent Inspired by bad…
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Findings in the Archive
I enjoy doing research, at times a bit too much, but I truly am a researcher. This past Thanksgiving, I spent time at the Museum of American Indians in New York City, Broadway shows (Pippin and Motown…where I met Phylicia Rashad and Bobbi Jones performed on stage!), and I also spent two days at the Schomburg…
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Slave Schedules, Take Three: Harry Flowers
What do we know about Harry? Well, he was born on February 23, 1845,at times I list his birth year as 1846 because of his Civil War enlistment record, but I need to start using the date from his death certificate completed by his daughter, Rachel, in 1928. For all other information, I use the 1880 United States Federal…
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His Story Continues: Meshach Krikorian (Part II)
At the opening of the winter term of 1912, through the kindness and instrumentality of Bishop S.R. Smith, then the president of the Messiah Bible School and Missionary Training Home, now a departed saint in glory, myself, and two other Armenian young men were admitted to the school, upon a previous arrangement made by Miss.…
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They Will Be Remembered
I am not an historian. When I went to the deep South for the first time in 1963…I received my first bibliography on the black experience in this country. It came not from a university professor, but from a black SNCC worker. I have made the personal discovery of the history of my people…
Diary of a Historian 