Image: Pura Belpré became the first Puerto Rican librarian at the New York Public Library in 1921. She’s shown above leading a story hour in the 1930s. New York Public Library. Read more about her here.
- Oknoma nikan tinemih: Improving Inclusive Access to the Indigenous Studies Collection at the Newberry Library, Analú María López, Will Hansen, Library Trends, Issue 72(2), 2024
Diversity within Archives
- “Touching each book..”: Demystifying Special Collections in Community, Analú María López, Seeing Race Before Race: Visual Culture and the Racial Matrix in the Pre-modern World, volume editors Noémie Ndiaye and Lia Markey, ACMRS Press (Fall 2023)
- #ArchivesSoWhite: Preparing for the Field (2016)
- Archives for Black Lives: An Interview with Jarrett M. Drake (2016)
Illinois Digital Humanities Hub
- Native Voices in Zhekagoynak, Zhigaagoong, Šikaakonki by Analú María López, Illinois Digital Humanities Hub (2021)
- The Chicago American Indian Photography project by Analú María López, Illinois Digital Humanities Hub (2021)
Newberry Library
- Indigenous Food Sovereignty (2023). The Newberry recently acquired a small pamphlet from the mid-20th century containing traditional recipes from the Native people of the Great Plains. The pamphlet offers a glimpse into how Native communities have maintained their culinary traditions despite centuries of settler colonialism.
- A Wheel of Time, a depiction of a Mexican calendar wheel, now shown in the Wheels exhibition, is shrouded in historical controversy, By Jo Ellen McKillop Dickie and Analú López.
- Let the Chaos Happen: An Interview with Jeffrey Gibson (2021). Responding to a series of late-19th and early-20th century portraits by Eldridge Ayer Burbank in the Newberry collection, Gibson (a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent) refutes the stereotypical imagery that has reinforced pernicious myths about Indigenous people for centuries.
- The Codex Zempoala: Asserting Indigenous Rights (2021). In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Indigenous peoples of Mexico asserted their rights to land in the face of Spanish colonization.
- Letter Regarding Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Chicago (2020). Submitted statement on behalf of the library regarding a proposal to recognize the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
- Tewa Tales of Suspense! (2019). In 2016, the Newberry acquired a suite of seven prints by Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo). The prints, with the collective title Tewa Tales of Suspense!, illustrate the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. In his own words, Garcia (also known as Okuu Pin) uses his art to “blend ancient Pueblo designs, stories and scenery with images taken from Western popular culture.” In the case of Tewa Tales of Suspense!, the important historical event of the Pueblo Revolt is told in the idiom of the comic book.
- Diego Rivera’s Delayed Drawings for the Popol Vuh (2018). The Newberry recently purchased a collection of correspondence, dating from the 1930s to the mid-1970s, related to what would have been the first English translation of the Popol Vuh.
- Satirical Calaveras and the Day of the Dead (2017). The Newberry recently purchased a collection of correspondence, dating from the 1930s to the mid-1970s, related to what would have been the first English translation of the Popol Vuh.aThe Day of the Dead festival has long inspired artists across Mexico and the United States. While the iconography of death is part of celebrations, it has also been used for political satire. José Guadalupe Posada was one such satirist who was influenced by death.
Teaching Undergraduates with Archives
Teaching Undergraduates with Archives, Chapter: Ethically Teaching Histories of Violence, Racism, and Oppression, by Andi Gustavson (The University of Texas at Austin), Analú María López (Newberry Library), Lae’l Hughes Watkins (University of Maryland), Elizabeth Smith-Pryor (Kent State University) and Analyzing 19th – 20th century photographs & exploring racism through photography curriculum, pp. 262-286, 2019
Download Teaching Undergraduates with Archives, Edited by Nancy Bartlett, Elizabeth Gadelha, and Cinda Nofziger
The Chicago History Museum
The Museum of Contemporary Chicago*disclaimer: while I worked for many years at this institution, I no longer support them in any capacity. They have done and continue to do great harm to BIPOC staff, artists and community at large.
