Amistad is committed to collecting, preserving and providing open access to original materials that reference the social and cultural importance of America's ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations and civil rights. |
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Kathe Hambrick Joins Amistad as Interim Executive Director |
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The Amistad Research Center (ARC) is pleased to announce that effective February 24, Kathe Hambrick will assume the role of interim executive director at Amistad. ARC’s current deputy director and interim executive director Christopher Harter is departing Amistad for a new position at the University of Cincinnati.
“On behalf of Amistad’s board of directors, staff, donors, and friends, I would like to sincerely thank Chris for his tremendous work and commitment to ARC for the past sixteen years. Chris has worked tirelessly in a number of roles. While we will truly miss Chris on a professional as well as a personal level, we wish him all the best in his new role at the University of Cincinnati,” says Kim M. Boyle, Chair of the Amistad Research Center. “In addition, we want to take this opportunity to welcome Kathe to ARC as the new interim executive director. Her years of experience guiding cultural heritage institutions and her deep love of expanding outreach to the general public will be tremendous assets to Amistad. The board and staff look forward to working with her to move ARC forward.”
Hambrick is the founder and former executive director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American museum. She is a past president of the national Association of African American Museums and served as the chief curator and director of interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Her relationship with the Amistad Research Center dates to the founding of the RRAAM. “Amistad was the first archives that I used before opening the RRAAM. The Hogan Jazz Archives at Tulane University and the archives of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem were next,” says Hambrick.
Considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americas in communities along the Mississippi River, she is a public historian with a passion for collecting, preserving, and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretive planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising and board governance. An author of several books and curator of over 100 exhibitions, Hambrick established the consulting firm 2PRESERVE in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Christopher Harter joined the staff of the Amistad Research Center in 2007 as reference archivist. As director of library and reference services and later as deputy director, he led efforts to increase technology resources at the Center, emphasized the cataloging and organization of collections, and developed its digitization and exhibition programs. He oversaw numerous successful grant proposals that expanded access to Amistad’s collections over the past 16 years. Harter is a past president of the Greater New Orleans Archivists, served on several local arrangements committees for professional conferences and currently serves on the Advisory Council of the Digital Public Library of America.
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Thank You to Our Preserve the Legacy | Preserve Your Legacy Donors |
In late November 2022, Amistad launched its Preserve The Legacy | Preserve Your Legacy giving campaign. We send a special note of thanks to those who have contributed to this successful effort. To date, we have raised over $43,000 toward this campaign, but it is not too late to contribute! Through the end of this month, help us continue to preserve and tell the stories of the individuals, families and organizations who have sought to ensure that equality, freedom and social justice are not just topics of the past, but the way forward in the future.
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Unrestricted support through this campaign assists Amistad in fulfilling its mission, making our collections accessible to the public, and creating dynamic programming for all. Please consider making an online financial contribution to the Amistad Research Center here. Other options for support are available here. |
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2022 Donor Honor Roll Now Available |
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With giving in mind, the Amistad Research Center’s board of directors and staff would like to recognize those individuals, organizations, businesses, and foundations who donated to the Center in 2022. Whether through financial support or by contributing materials and collections to be preserved and made accessible at the Center, your donations are truly valued. From all of us at Amistad, we say thank you to our 2022 donors. To view our lists of 2022 donors, click here.
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Amistad’s Collections Depend on Your Support |
Amistad’s mission to collect, preserve and provide access to historical documents is made possible by generous donations from individuals, families and organizations. Please consider becoming a recurring donor through our Network for Good page.
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Do You Have Materials to Donate? |
Interested in donating personal papers, organizational records, works of art, books or other materials to Amistad? Please visit our collection development policy available here to learn more about how you may donate, or contact us at 504.862.3222 (ext. 3) or info@amistadresearchcenter.org.
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Amistad Joins New Orleans Pelicans for HBCU Night |
As a community-facing institution, it is always fun to find new ways to engage with the public, which is what happened on January 28, when the New Orleans Pelicans celebrated HBCU Night with their game against the Washington Wizards. To honor the universities and schools that comprise HBCU athletics, the Pels asked the Amistad Research Center to set up a pop-up exhibition and selfie station featuring reproductions of materials from the collection of former sportswriter Russell L. Stockard, Sr. The Stockard Collection focuses on athletics at historically black colleges and universities and collegiate athletic conferences. We highlighted media guides of men’s and women’s basketball from the following universities and colleges: Grambling University, Southern University, Dillard University, Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, North Carolina A&T University, and a host of others. |
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Members of the Alcorn State University band pose in front of Amistad's HBCU selfie station during the New Orleans Pelicans game on January 28, 2023. |
Amistad staffers Jade Flint, Felicia Render, and Melissa Smith chatted with attendees about the mission and the collections of Amistad and handed out materials highlighting our work. Even though the Pels lost the game to the Wizards, people had a great time, showing off their university colors, learning about the rich HBCU collections of Amistad, and taking a selfie or two. |
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Digital Outreach Highlights Black History Month |
In recognition of Black History Month, Amistad’s social media platforms are highlighting its online resources for teaching and learning. The Center’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts are featuring information and links to its digital collections and exhibitions. Online exhibitions include those on slavery and abolition, African American civil leadership in New Orleans, the Free Southern Theater, and print culture of the civil rights movement, among other topics. Digital collections are available through the Louisiana Digital Library and include digitized letters related to the 1841 Supreme Court case on the Amistad Incident, filmmaker Ed Pincus’ footage of civil rights activities in Mississippi, oral histories on civil rights and the Treme neighborhood in New Orleans, African American Carnival films, and New Orleans hiphop and bounce music.
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Amistad is also highlighting its online educational platform, Amistad on the Go!, an interactive and digital education program designed by the Amistad Research Center to support the Common Core standards of grades 6 through 12 by providing humanities and arts-centered activities on themes such as Slavery & Abolition, the Reconstruction Era, and the modern Civil Rights Movement. Each unit includes a curriculum guide, first-person narratives and selections from primary sources, interactive worksheets, and visual or audiovisual resources.
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New Orleans Music History Preserved Thanks to Community Partnership Grant |
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Thanks to a Community Partnership Grant in the amount of $2,022 provided by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, Amistad will begin digitizing important footage of New Orleans' musical heritage. The project, led by Brenda Flora, Curator of Moving Images and Recorded Sound, will digitize twelve Umatic videotapes from the Jason Berry collection at Amistad. The videos were recorded in the 1970s, with the bulk related to Berry’s book Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II, published in 1986. Tapes include footage of the Neville Brothers, interviews with members of the Lastie family, footage of New Orleans’ 9th Ward in the 1970s, and footage from the Dew Drop Inn. We thank the Jazz & Heritage Foundation and look forward to sharing news about this project.
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Art Conservation Funded in Part by The Keller Family Foundation |
Support from The Keller Family Foundation of New Orleans will assist the Amistad Research Center to begin conservation work on some of the most important works in its fine art collection. The 41 works comprising Jacob Lawrence’s famed Toussaint L’Ouverture Series are being conserved and reframed in anticipation of a future traveling exhibition. The Keller Family Foundation has graciously provided a grant in the amount of $11,000 toward the anticipated $30,000 cost of conserving and reframing the Series. Individuals or foundations interested in supporting this project are encouraged to contact Paula Allen, Curator of Fine Art and African Collections, for more information.
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Jacob Lawrence. General Toussaint
L'Ouverture. Tempera on paper, 1938.
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Amistad Receives Support from The Greater New Orleans Foundation |
General operating support is tremendously important to nonprofits as they strive to meet their mission and conduct daily operations. Realizing the value of such work, The Greater New Orleans Foundation has provided a grant in the amount of $10,000 from its Dorothy Jean and Peter L. Hilbert Fund. “The Greater New Orleans Foundation is proud to support the Amistad Research Center through the Hilbert Fund,” said Andy Kopplin, President and CEO of The Greater New Orleans Foundation. “Organizations like the Amistad Research Center are critical in not only preserving the rich history of the African diaspora but ensuring that the public has access to educational opportunities to understand the importance of our nation’s social and cultural history. As The Greater New Orleans Foundation celebrates our 100th anniversary this year, it’s more critical now than ever to support efforts to preserve and celebrate the cultural contributions of African Americans.”
The board and staff of the Amistad Research Center thank The Greater New Orleans Foundation for its continued support of the Center!
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Amistad would like to welcome Anna LeBlanc-Mulder as our new Reference Archivist. Anna was born and raised in New Orleans. She graduated from Smith College in Northampton, MA, with majors in history and french studies. She recently completed her master’s in library and information science at Louisiana State University. Anna has worked in library services most of her career, including the New Orleans Public Library and most recently as an intern for the Library of Congress. She also received a graduate certificate in archival studies, and she is happy to work in the field of archives at the Amistad Research Center.
We also welcome Elijah Smith, who is joining our staff as Archives Assistant to assist with the organization of the records of Alternate ROOTS, an organization devoted to Southern arts activism. A former high school intern at Amistad in 2017, Elijah graduated from Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA, where he studied museum and heritage studies, as well as religious studies. Through his studies he has found an understanding of the importance of preserving places and items of historical or cultural significance. Elijah developed this understanding into an interest through working on projects related to the history of the Randolph College campus’ oldest buildings and their importance to both the past and present college community. Elijah has also worked on projects for the Maier Museum of Art in Lynchburg and the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
Archivist Melissa Smith has also joined Amistad's staff on a temporary basis to assist with various grant projects. A former project archivist at Amistad, Melissa has also worked at the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Louisiana State Museum, and in the special collections departments at Tulane University and Louisiana State University. She was also recently named to the Board of Directors of the Abita Springs Trailhead Museum.
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