Exhibit at Historic Deefield – Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North

This coming week is the last remaining days to see a special exhibition called “Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North” at Historic Deerfield. I recommend it before it closes Thursday August 4. The show, curated by the American Folk Art Museum, is a “corrective to histories that define slavery and anti-black racism as a largely Southern issue.” It is unknown to me if the curators or interpreters or docents (ours was excellent) know about Ancestral Bridges here in Amherst. However, in just under 100 artifacts that range from paintings to needlework, to photographs and sculpture, the show “offers a new window onto Black representation in a region that is often overlooked in narratives of early African American history. “

The exhibit focuses on Black figures who appear in – or are omitted from – early American images through to the early 1800s. This exhibition makes clear that historical records do show that African Americans, both enslaved and free, lived and worked in the North in the pre-Civil War era. One of the real discoveries for me was the display of wares by Thomas W. Commeraw, a free Black potter in early colonial New York whose ceramics included pickled oyster jars and larger vessels like three-gallon jugs with fancy decorations. Researched by on-site artist in residence Mark Shapiro, these specific exhibits create an identity for people ‘hidden from history’ in the past. One of the more remarkable objects in the exhibit is a powder horn decorated with designs by a named artist called John Bush, an African American carver from Shrewsbury, MA.

Entry to Historic Deerfield’s historic houses on “The Street” and to the Flynt Center (where the Unnamed Figures exhibit is held) is by entry fee at their Visitor Center opposite the post office and Deerfield Inn. Many of our public libraries in this area have free passes to Historic Deerfield. This specific exhibit is made possible by the generosity of the Americana Foundation, that “supports sustainable development of agriculture and community food systems, the protection of natural resources and an inclusive narrative of early American art and history.”