On March 1, 1843, Naomi Bowman Talbert Anderson was born in Michigan City, Indiana, to Elijah and Guilly Ann Bowman. She was a writer, speaker, and advocate for women’s rights and racial equality. Her mother encouraged her education, and at twelve years old her poetry caught the attention of the mostly white community and she was invited to attend the previously More
In February 1853, a new law took effect that prohibited African Americans from settling in Illinois. The law was spearheaded by Democrat John A. Logan and passed by Illinois’s all-white legislature. This exclusion of Black Americans was one of the most egregious stipulations in a series of anti-Black laws passed in Illinois that relegated free More
Amethyst is the birthstone for February. The word “amethyst” is derived from “amethystos” in Greek, with the prefix a-, meaning “not,” and methyein “to be drunk with wine,” because the ancient Greeks believed that the stone could prevent or cure drunkenness in its wearer. This watch fob (c. 1910) was made by Carence Crafters, a Chicago-based design firm that specialized in Arts and Crafts–style products. It has a pyramid-cut amethyst in a silver Celtic More
“The design style was so inspiring, and I remember it just kind of hit me while I was looking at how to make a turban, and I remember I actually had tears.” — Omar Northern This Black History Month we recognize Omar Northern, a Chicago native and Sufi, who is featured in our exhibition American More
February is both Black History Month and American Heart Month. The latter was established in 1964 to urge people to recognize the nationwide problem of heart and blood vessel diseases. Treating certain heart conditions with surgery began in the nineteenth century. One of the first documented successful pericardium (the sac covering the heart) surgeries to treat a wound More