Day 6 of Black History Month we Salute: Edmonia Lewis

Today we are Saluting Edmonia Lewis (1844 - 1911) for her work in the field of Art.

Edmonia Lewis
Photo Courtesy of wikimedia.org

Ms. Lewis was the first professional African-American and Native-American sculptor, Edmonia Lewis earned critical praise for work that explored religious and classical themes.

Edmonia Lewis was born around 1844 in Greenbush, New York. Her first notable commercial success was a bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Sales of copies of the bust allowed her to sail to Rome, Italy, where she mastered working in marble. She quickly achieved success as a sculptor. The circumstances of her death, which occurred circa 1911, are unclear.(Biography.com)

After college, Lewis moved to Boston in early 1864, where she began to pursue her career as a sculptor. The keeps wrote a letter of introduction on Lewis' behalf to William Llyod Garrison in Boston, and he was able to introduce her to already established sculptors in the area, as well as writers who then publicized Lewis in the abolitionist press.^[14] Finding an instructor, however, was not easy for Lewis. Three male sculptors refused to instruct her before she was introduced to the moderately successful sculptor Edward A. Brackett who specialized in marble portrait busts.^[15][16] His clients were some of the most important abolitionists of the day including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Llyod Garrison, Charles Sumner, and John Brown.^[15] To instruct her, he lent her fragments of sculptures to copy in clay, which he then critiqued.^[16] Under his tutelage, she crafted her own sculpting tools and sold her first piece, a sculpture of a woman’s hand, for $8.^[17] Their relationship did not end amicably as was mentioned by Anne Whitney, fellow sculptor and friend of Lewis', in a letter she wrote to her sister in 1864. The reason for the split, however, was never mentioned.^[15] She opened her studio to the public in her first solo exhibition in 1864.^{[18](Wikipedia.org)}

http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053

Day 5 of Black History Month we Salute: Mr. Howard P. Grant

Today we are Saluting Howard P. Grant (1925 - 1947) for his work in the field of Engineering.

Howard P. Grant
photo courtsey of cenews.com 

Howard P. Grant was born in Houston in 1925, but moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was a young boy. After high school, he began studying engineering at UCLA and later transferred to University of California, Berkeley to complete his degree. In 1948, he became the first black student to graduate from the Berkeley College of Engineering, and this same year also became the first known black member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 

Grant went on to become the first African-American civil engineer for the City and County of San Francisco and the second African-American civil engineer to be licensed by California. He worked in the San Francisco water department until 1984, and also held the position of president and treasurer of the California Society of Professional Engineers. (www.cenews.com)

Work Cited:

Zweig, Christina. "Engineer from History: Howard P. Grant." Engineer from History: Howard P. Grant. N.p., May 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

Day 4 of Black History Month we Salute: Mrs. Ruth Carol Taylor

Today We are Saluting Mrs. Ruth Carol Taylor (1931– ) for her contrubution in the field of Avaition.

Ruth Carol Taylor
photo courtesy thesavvysistah.com

Ruth Carol Taylor was the first African-American airline flight attendant in America. She made the historic mark back on February 11, 1958.

After working as a nurse, Taylor challenged the discriminatory practices of the airlines industry by applying for a stewardess position at Trans World Airlines (TWA). When she was rejected, Taylor filed a complaint.

When upstart regional carrier Mohawk Airlines said it would hire minorities, she applied and was selected out of 800 applicants. But just six months later, Taylor’s career ended due to another discriminatory barrier: the airline’s marriage ban, a common practice among airlines of the day of dismissing flight attendants who  either married or became pregnant.(blackamericaweb.com)

Becoming unfulfilled, Taylor decided to break the color lines that existed in the airline industry, and in 1958 she decided to apply for a flight attendant position (known then as a stewardess) at Trans World Airlines (TWA). Taylor was rejected merely based on her skin color and ethnicity. Angered by the injustice, she filed a complaint against the company with the New York State Commission of Discrimination.

It was around that time that Mohawk Airlines—a regional airline carrier—expressed interest in hiring minority flight attendants, and she applied for a position. Selected from 800 black applicants, Taylor was hired in December 1958 and became the first black flight attendant on a flight from Ithaca to New York City on February 11, 1959.(thesavvysistah.com)

Taylor was later significantly involved in covering the 1963 March on Washington and as an activist for consumer affairs and women's rights.^[3]

In 2008, fifty years after her historic flight, her accomplishments were formally recognized by the New York State Assembly.^[3](wikipedia.org)

Work Cited:
"Little Known Black History Fact: Ruth Carol Taylor, First Black Flight Attendant." Black America Web RSS. N.p., 05 June 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

"Ruth Carol Taylor : First African American Female Flight Attendant." The Savvy Sistah. N.p., 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

"Ruth Carol Taylor." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

Day 3 of Black History Month we Salute: Mr. John A. Lankford

Today We are Saluting Mr. John A. Lankford (1874–1946) for his work in the field of Engineering. 

Mr. John A. Lankford
Photo from netlibrary.net

Mr. Lankford was an American architect. He was the first professionally licensed African American architect in Virginia in 1922 and in the District of Columbia in 1924. He has been regarded as the "dean of black architecture".[1] (wikipedia.org)

Lankford was born in Missouri and educated at Missouri State College, Lincoln University (Missouri), and then Tuskegee Institute. He earned multiple degrees in the sciences, and also studied architecture and mechanical drawing. His early professional work was in engineering and mechanics.

Lankford arrived in Washington in 1902 where he had been hired by the Richmond-based United Order of True Reformers to complete the design and supervise construction of its Washington headquarters. The large size and complexity of the building is impressive because it was the first substantial professional commission in Lankford's career.(www.culturaltourism.org)

Work Cited:

"John A. Lankford." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

"www.culturaltourism.org." John A. Lankford Residence and Office, African American Heritage Trail -. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

Day 2 of Black History Month we Salute: Ms. Marie M. Daly

Today we are saluting Ms. Marie M. Daly (1921–2003) for her work in the field of Science.

Marie Maynard Daly

 Queens College Silhouette Yearbook, 1942. Courtesy Queens College.

Marie M. Daly was born on April 16, 1921, in Queens, New York. She was raised in an education-oriented family, and Daly quickly received her B.S. and M.S. in chemistry at Queens College and New York University. After completing her Ph.D. at Columbia—and becoming the first African-American woman to obtain a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States—Daly taught and conducted research. She died in New York City on October 28, 2003. (Biography.com)

Daly’s first job was as an instructor in physical science at Howard University from 1947 to 1948. She also worked on research projects with Dr. Herman R. Branson, a physicist and chemist who studied protein structure. Daly then went to the Rockefeller Institute of Medicine, now Rockefeller University, in New York City, where she was the only black scientist. She told CBB that this was the highlight of her career because of the interesting work she was doing at that time and because of the distinguished faculty with whom she worked.

These notable scholars included Francis Peyton Rous, who won the Nobel Prize in 1966 for his discovery of a virus that caused sarcoma in chickens, and Leonor Michaelis, the co–inventor of a famous equation for studying the kinetics of enzymatic reactions. Daly worked at the Rockefeller Institute for seven years.

She received a grant from the American Cancer Society and worked as a research assistant for Dr. Alfred Ezra Mirsky, a well–known biochemist and physiologist who is credited for being one of the first scientists to isolate messenger RNA in mammals.  Mirsky and Daly studied how proteins are constructed within cells of the body. For example, Daly altered the protein metabolism in mice to study variations in the activity of cytoplasm, which plays an important part in the creation of proteins.(encyclopedia.com)

Work Cited:

Marie M. Daly. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 01:42, Feb 02, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/marie-m-daly-604034.

Stamatel, Janet. "Daly, Marie Maynard 1921–." Contemporary Black Biography. 2003. Retrieved February 02, 2015 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2873900020.html

Day 1 of Black History Month we Salute: Mr. James Van Der Zee

Today we are saluting Mr. James Van Der Zee (1886-1983) for his work in the field of photography.

James Van Der Zee, Self-Portrait, photograph, 1918

Born on June 29, 1886, in Lenox, Massachusetts, James Van Der Zee developed a passion for photography as a youth, and opened up his own Harlem studio in 1916. Van Der Zee became known for his detailed imagery of African-American life, and for capturing celebrities such as Florence Mills and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Following hard financial times, Van Der Zee enjoyed a resurge in his career during his later years. He died in 1983 in Washington, D.C.

Couple in Raccoon Coats, 1932

Future Expectations, 1925

Harlem Renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee is celebrated for his pioneering, glamorous portraits of the emergent African-American middle-class during the ’20s and ’30s. He also captured the thriving celebrity, arts, and music culture of the time. Through the use of ghostly double exposures, the artist portrayed deceased family members or imaginary figures (suggesting the future children of a happily married couple, for example) in his photos. The influence of his unique retouching techniques and sensitive, poetic approach has been frequently understated.

Work Cited:

James Van Der Zee. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 12:25, Feb 01, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/james-van-der-zee-9515411.

James Van Der Zee. (2015). The flavorwire.com website. Retrived 12:30, Feb 01,2015, from http://flavorwire.com/475131/10-essential-african-american-photographers

Photo Cited:

Van Der Zee, James. Self Portrait. 1918. Museum/Collection Name, City. Art History 497 C Survey of African-American Art. Photograph. 02/01/15. https://www.courses.psu.edu/arth/arth497c_jhr11/hrenphotos.html

Van Der Zee, James. Couple in Raccoon Coats. 1932. Van Der Zee, Donna Collection, Unknown. Exploded Essay. Photograph. 02/01/15. http://www.fgcu.edu/hum2510/manuscript/picexp1.html

Van Der Zee, James. Future Expectations. 1925. Encyclopedia Britannica. Photograph. 02/01/15.

Benjamin Banneker - Mathematician, Astronomer

Photo from Africawithin.com
1731 - 1806

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), an African American mathematician and amateur astronomer, calculated ephemeredes for almanacs for the years 1792 through 1797 that were widely distributed.

On Nov. 9, 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born in Baltimore County, Md. He was the son of an African slave named Robert, who had bought his own freedom, and of Mary Banneky, who was the daughter of an Englishwoman and a free African slave. Benjamin lived on his father's farm and attended a nearby Quaker country school for several seasons. He received no further formal education but enjoyed reading and taught himself literature, history, and mathematics. He worked as a tobacco planter for most of his life.

In 1761, at the age of 30, Banneker constructed a striking wooden clock without having seen a clock before that time, although he had examined a pocket watch. The clock operated successfully until the time of his death.

At the age of 58 Banneker became interested in astronomy through the influence of a neighbor, George Ellicott, who lent him several books on astronomy as well as a telescope and drafting instruments. Without further guidance or assistance, Banneker taught himself the science of astronomy; he made projections for solar and lunar eclipses and computed ephemeredes (tables of the locations of celestial bodies) for an almanac.

In February 1791 Maj. Andrew Ellicott was appointed to survey the 10-mile square of the Federal Territory for a new national capital, and Banneker worked in the field as his scientific assistant for several months. After the base lines and boundaries had been established and Banneker had returned home, he prepared an ephemeris for the following year, which was published in Baltimore in Benjamin Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord, 1792; Being Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and the Sixteenth Year of American Independence, which commenced July 4, 1776.

Banneker forwarded a manuscript copy of his calculations to Thomas Jefferson, then secretary of state, with a letter rebuking Jefferson for his proslavery views and urging the abolishment of slavery of the African American, which he compared to the enslavement of the American colonies by the British crown. Jefferson acknowledged Banneker's letter and forwarded the manuscript to the Marquis de Condorcet, the secretary of the Academie des Sciences in Paris. The exchange of letters between Banneker and Jefferson was published as a separate pamphlet and given wide publicity at the time the first almanac was published. The two letters were reprinted in Banneker's almanac for 1793, which also included "A Plan for an Office of Peace," which was the work of Dr. Benjamin Rush. The abolition societies of Maryland and Pennsylvania were largely instrumental in the publication of Banneker's almanacs, which were widely distributed as an example of the work of an African American that demonstrated the equal mental abilities of the races.

The last known issue of Banneker's almanacs appeared for the year 1797, because of diminishing interest in the antislavery movement; nevertheless, he prepared ephemeredes for each year until 1804. He also published a treatise on bees and computed the cycle of the 17-year locust.

Banneker never married. He died on Oct. 9, 1806, and was buried in the family burial ground near his house. Among the memorabilia preserved was his commonplace book and the manuscript journal in which he had entered astronomical calculations and personal notations.

Banneker's memory was kept alive by writers who described his achievements as the first African American scientist. Recent studies have verified Banneker's status as an extremely competent mathematician and amateur astronomer. "n.p. Africa Within. www.africawithin.com, n.d. Web. 16 May20 11."