F E A T U R E D A R T I F A C T S
u
Am I Not A Woman And A Sister glass embossing seal by unidentified artist after Josiah Wedgwood, 19th century? Anti-slavery coins and emblems like this, most often of a male figure, were common in Great Britain and the U.S. at the time. Photo credit: John A. Andrew artifact collection from Massachusetts Historical Society
u
Dungeon doors from Cape Coast Castle, where captive Africans were housed under lock and key, sometimes for months at a time, awaiting ships that would take them to the New World. Referred to as “The Door of No Return” this is the final door they were led through before boarding ships departing Ghana. Photo credit: African American Museum in Philadelphia
u Jail
Cell Door Key from the Birmingham cell where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was held following the 1963 Birmingham campaigns. His Letter from Birmingham Jail was authored from this cell. Photo credit: Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
u
Rosa Parks Fingerprint Card In 1955, Rosa Parks was riding on a crowded bus in Montgomery, Alabama. When she refused to give up her seat to a white man, the bus driver had her arrested. At the police station, she was fingerprinted. Her arrest triggered the Montgomery bus boycott and the civil rights movement. Photo credit: Mark Lyons
u
Omar Ibn Said Manuscript Omar Ibn Said was a highly-educated man from the Senegambia region of West Africa who was sold into slavery at Charleston, SC, in 1807. He later escaped to North Carolina but was recaptured. His final owner recognized his education and treated him well. He wrote his autobiography in 1831. Written in Arabic, the manuscript was found in a trunk in Virginia, purchased by a private collector, and has been displayed at Harvard University and other venues. Photo credit: Mark Lyons
u
Muhammad Ali Robe This is the robe that Muhammad Ali wore as he trained in Kinshasa, Zaire, leading to the “Rumble in the Jungle� fight Oct. 30, 1974. Arguably the biggest upset in boxing history occurred when Ali defeated world heavyweight champion George Foreman to reclaim his former title. Photo credit: Mark Lyons
u
Shackles Captive Africans were shackled from the moment of capture until sale in the Americas. Even afterward, enslaved people who were regarded as troublesome or rebellious were shackled. One of set of shackles shown here is African, while another was used during the Middle Passage. Photo credit: Mark Lyons
u
Prince Guitar American music icon Prince played this guitar during the memorable half-time show of Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Florida, in 2006. Photo credit: Erin de Jauregui
u
Traffic Signal Garrett A. Morgan, born in Paris, Kentucky (1877-1963), was a self-educated inventor who started out as a sewing machine repairman. His experience driving in Cleveland, where he later lived, and witnessing an accident between an automobile and a horse-drawn wagon, led him to invent this manually operated stop signal. His device, which was patented in 1923, was used nationwide and served as the basis for the modern-day traffic signal. GE eventually purchased the patent for $40,000.