This Chilling Photo Collection Captures Fascinating Black History Artifacts

Included: a lock of Frederick Douglass' hair.
"Manifest" is a collection of photos of historical black artifacts.
"Manifest" is a collection of photos of historical black artifacts.

For over nine years, Wendel White has been venturing to countless museums throughout the U.S. to photograph historical black artifacts for his “ Manifest” photo series.

From a lock of Frederick Douglass’ hair and FBI files on Malcolm X to a tambourine once played by Prince, White’s collection of nearly 100 photos allows for continual consumption of black history.

“[The title] ‘Manifest’ evokes the complicated notions of slavery as cargo or inventory and the notion that these objects are also a collection or reliquary of African-American experience and memory,” White, who currently resides in New Jersey, told The Huffington Post last week.

He said that historical black artifacts are often overlooked by most museums.

“My photographs are meant to describe and materialize the experience of encountering objects that have been traveling through time stored in cabinets, on shelves and in warehouses for centuries or just a few years,” White said.

“I am increasingly interested in the residual power of the past to inhabit these material remains,” he continued. “The ability of objects to transcend lives, centuries and millennia suggests a remarkable mechanism for folding time, bringing the past and the present into a shared space that is uniquely suited to artistic exploration.”

Wendel ― who’s been collecting for the “Manifest” series since 2008 ― finds his subjects through research and suggestions from friends. While some of his material is gathered from private archives, the majority of it comes from public collections.

“Manifest” was first exhibited at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and has since been on display at museums across the country. A number of the collection’s newer additions are from exhibits at the highly buzzed-about National Museum of African American History and Culture, including a piece of stained glass destroyed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama, which killed four young girls.

White said the remnant was “one of the most painful objects” he’s photographed.

Take a look at some of the most striking images from the “Manifest” portfolio below:

Decorative Coin Bank
Cape May Museum, Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey
Bible Owned By Former Cape May Slave Ishmael Armour
James Hand Collection, Cape May Museum, Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey
Portrait
Brownville History Museum, Brownville, Nebraska
Stained Glass, 16th Street Baptist Church
National Museum of African American History, Washington, D.C.
Button
Cleaver for President, Douglas County Historical Society, Omaha, Nebraska
Frederick Douglass Hair
Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2012
Patsy Flanagan Carter
State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa
Little Black Sambo (1921)
Paul R. Schopp Collection, Riverton, New Jersey
Father Flannigan And President Coolidge At Boystown
Douglass County Historical Society, Omaha, Nebraska
Tape Recorder Used By Malcolm X At Mosque #7
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
Baby Dolls, Kenneth and Mamie Clark
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
Afro-American Sentinel, 1899
Great Plains Black History Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, 2012
Mirrored Casket, Ferguson
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
18th Or 19th Century Slavery Shackles
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
Frederick Douglass Jr. Hair
Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska
FBI Files On Malcolm X
Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska
Rev. And Mrs. Loguen
Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, New York
Rossetta Douglass Hair
Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska
Postcards
Printed in Germany, Paul R. Schopp Collection, Riverton, New Jersey
Confederate Shell Fort Sumter 1861
Alexander Library, Special Collections, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Clarkson's Abolition Of The Slave Trade 1808
Salem County Historical Society, New Jersey

Before You Go

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