"Library Company of Philadelphia - New & Noteworthy "
"Erica Armstrong Dunbar Named PAAH Director"
"Erica Armstrong Dunbar, an associate professor of history at the
University of Delaware, has been named the first Director of the
Library Company's Program in African American History. Dunbar
specializes in 19th-century African American and Women's History. She
received a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a
doctoral degree from Columbia University. Her book A Fragile Freedom:
African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City from
Yale University Press is based in part on research she conducted in
the Library Company collections as a fellow."
"The Program in African American History, established in 2007 with a
grant from The Albert M. Greenfield Foundation, brings together
scholars and interested members of the public to explore every aspect
of the experience of people of African descent in the Americas from
the beginnings of European colonization through 1900. Curator of
African American History Phil Lapsansky, who has been with the Library
Company for forty years, has made significant contributions to the
development of the larger discipline over that time, as well as
helping to shape the Library Company's acquisitions, exhibitions, and
programming. Mr. Lapsansky will retire in 2012."
"Professor Dunbar will provide direction for the fellowships,
conferences, exhibitions, publications, public programming, teacher
training, and acquisitions through which the Library Company advances
scholarship in African American History and shares this knowledge with
the broader public."
http://www.librarycompany.org/about/news.htm#race
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Best, Karen Weaver, MLS, Duquesne University, Gumberg Library, Pittsburgh PA