Southern Memory News Today

More than 600 McDaniel College students celebrated their graduation Saturday during college’s 153rd commencement ceremony.

Smithsonian Associates offers a slate of engaging and entertaining programs this month

Digital Scholarship and Initiatives (DSI) engages and collaborates with library partners, campus, and community to support new scholarship in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

, published this month by Coach House Books. Thompson, a Ryerson University assistant professor in the School of Creative Industries, specializes in 19th century Black history and visual culture. In Uncle , she traces the social, cultural and political tendrils of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin , exploring how the figure of Tom morphs from a heroic enslaved man into a trope, an insult and the inspiration for generations of theatrical interpretations, fil...

The Racial Symbolism of the Topsy-Turvy Doll The uncertain meaning behind a half-black, half-white, two-headed toy: An Object Lesson K. Tait Jarboe / Zak Bickel / The Atlantic The doll is two-headed and two-bodied—one black body and one white, conjoined at the lower waist where the hips and legs would ordinarily be. The lining of ones dress is the outside of the other’s, so that the skirt flips over to conceal one body when the other is upright. Two dolls in one, yet only one can be played ...

What Was Christmas Like for America’s Enslaved People? For some, it was a rare time of respite; for others, an opportunity for resistance. Author: For some, it was a rare time of respite; for others, an opportunity for resistance. How did Americans living under slavery experience the Christmas holidays? While early accounts from white Southerners after the Civil War often painted an idealized picture of owners’ generosity met by grateful workers happily feasting, singing and dancing, the...