Picturing Black History

Photographs and stories that changed the world

A collaboration of and

Frederick Douglass

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784). Portrait of American poet seated at a desk writing with a quill pen. Undated hand-tinted color engraving with an original caption which reads: "Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston."

Picturing Early Black Women Leaders

From Phillis Wheatley Peters to Ida B. Wells-Barnett, leading Black women activists defined their public images through their portraits to advance their ideas.

Portrait of African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass

Powerful, Though Silent: Frederick Douglass’ Portraits

Portraits of Frederick Douglass, the most photographed American of the nineteenth century, illuminate his life and career as an abolitionist.

Josiah T. Walls, Black Congressman from Florida

Galvanized by new electoral laws after the Civil War, thousands of Black men ran for public office both locally and nationally.
Josiah T. Walls was one of them.

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