The Resurrection of Henry Ossawa Tanner

The annals of American art are crowded with artists who achieved renown in their life­times, but whose reputations – for a variety of reasons – faded after their demise. No story is more poignant than that of Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), a gifted African American painter who grew up in Philadelphia, but, to escape painful discrimination, pursued his career in France. Henry Ossawa...
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Reviving – and Revising – the Reputation of Ralph Elwood Brock

On May 31, 1966, D. S. Nace of the state Department of Forests and Waters, now the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), scrawled a note to Joe Hill of the Mont Alto Nursery, in Franklin County, and attached it to a stack of documents. “Might find something of interest in these. Don’t Destroy,” he cautioned. Those nine words ultimately proved to be an invaluable...
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“A Corn Song” Musical Score by Henry Thacker Burleigh

Manuscript Group 9, Pennsylvania Writers’ Collection, 1899–1970, at the Pennsylvania State Archives includes nine original musical scores by the noted African American composer, arranger, and baritone singer Henry Thacker Burleigh. Born in Erie, Erie County, on December 2, 1866, he was admitted to the National Conservancy of Music in New York City where he served as a copyist for Antonin Dvorak...
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