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A photograph of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Washington, D.C. 1915. Photo by Addison Scurlock. (Courtesy of University of Delaware Library, Museums, and Press, Special Collections & Museums, Alice Dunbar-Nelson Papers)
The Rosenbach Library and Museum in Philadelphia is elevating a little-known Black Victorian-era writer and activist, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, with an exhibition of her life and work.
“I Am an American!” was planned for the museum’s exhibition space in its Rittenhouse Square building. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the exhibit is instead entirely online. Given Rosenbach’s plethora of rare books and manuscripts, the exhibit features digital scans of books, manuscripts, letters, pamphlets, fliers, poems and journals of the Black literary scene circa 1920.