Black Panthers
Few twentieth-century political parties are as polarizing, complex, and contradictory as the Black Panthers. They made headlines in the national press throughout the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, but the content of their own newspaper, The Black Panther, is much less famous. It was published from 1967 to 1980 and offers a rare, firsthand insight into the psyche of the Black Panther Party as it established social programs, engaged in protest, challenged international relations, and faced the U.S. court system. My research centers on the artwork in the newspaper, ranging from the photographs that accompanied the articles to the supplementary drawings scattered throughout to the vibrant back covers. I investigate how the artistic culture of the Black Panthers served to support their ideology, and I attempt to determine the stylistic influences of the work, looking at the art of other leftist publications as well as African and African-American artistic and cultural tradition, in order to understand the art of The Black Panther within its global and historic context.
Special Collections Project
An integral part of the exhibition process is its preservation, which allows it to be experienced by the public years after its display. More traditional methods of preservation, such as exhibition catalogues, have their merits, but the hard-copy format has limitations in the digital age, and as a result, online Libguides are often made to chronicle Special Collections exhibitions. As an exhibit design intern in the department, my primary responsibility was the construction of a Libguide for each Fall exhibit. This involved fusing the exhibit catalogs with images of the display space and relevant supporting visuals, as well as secondary research to complement the exhibition rather than merely repeat it, and the addition of related hard-copy and online resources for those interested in learning more about the topics explored in each exhibit.