Reviewed by:

• The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition by Ida B. Wells et al
• Anna Gasha (bio)

Despite the demands by the authors of The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition, there was no separate or Black-led exhibition material about Black histories or achievements at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. It would not be until the 1960s when the first explicitly African American museum opened in the Chicago metropolitan area. The Ebony Museum of History and Art opened in 1961 (renamed in 1968 and known today as the DuSable Museum of African American History), founded by Margaret Burroughs in Bronzeville. Burroughs took inspiration from existing “ethnic museums” for other groups, and created a space that would be about Black histories, told by Black communities. In starting up a collection, Burroughs advertised in local Black newspapers, both convincing neighbors that their personal objects were worthy of being in a museum collection and attempting to foster a relationship of trust within the institution’s neighborhood.

The museum was originally located in Burroughses’ own home, the John W. Griffiths Mansion at 3806 South Michigan Avenue. Before the Burroughs purchased it, this building had previously been in the hands of members of the Quincy Club, a private club for Black railroad porters, often serving as a place for the organization’s social gatherings and functions since their purchase of it in 1938. While the museum has since moved out of the John W. Griffiths Mansion, the residence remains and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Interestingly, the Statement of Significance devotes a paragraph each to the mansion’s use under the Quincy Club and as the first home to the DuSable; however, its period of significance is confined to its date of construction (1893–94), which excludes the noted episodes of Black histories associated with the site. Considering the minimum of fifty years that is typically recommended for a building to qualify for the National Register, these events may simply have been too “recent.” In any case, this example offers an interesting comparison with the building that housed the Hamitic Hotel, whose National Register nomination included two periods of significance, one of which dealt specifically with the building’s use as a hotel for Black patrons. Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication (“CCO 1.0 Dedication”).

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Within a typical overview of architectural history, the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago is often used as an example of late nineteenth-century American Beaux-Arts tendencies and civic grandeur. The event is also of historical interest, as the United States vied to demonstrate on an international stage its accomplishments and values of cultural and technical progress. The exposition was an opportunity for American power brokers to fashion a self-congratulatory image of itself, on a gargantuan scale.

This issue of representation is central to the excerpts below, from a pamphlet entitled The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition, co-authored by Ida B. Wells (1862–1931), Frederick Douglass (1817 or 1818–1895), Irvine Garland Penn (1867–1930), and Ferdinand L. Barnett (1852–1936). Wells played a large role in directing the content of the pamphlet, and imagined the dissemination of the text as an act of protest, asserted squarely in the public sphere, against Whiteness. In this sense, Wells’s public-facing activism connected her with the overt Black feminism of Anna Julia Cooper. Wells also prefigured the more modern concept of intersectionality by speaking to the ways in which White feminism—as embodied by the (exclusively White and predominantly elite) Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition that supervised the representation of and exhibits about women at the event—was still exclusionary and harmed Black women.¹ The final section of the pamphlet, “The Reason Why,” directs vitriol specifically toward the Board of Lady Managers...

审核人：

• 有色美国人不在世界哥伦比亚博览会上的原因艾达·B·威尔斯等人
• 安娜加莎（生物）

尽管有色美国人不在世界哥伦比亚博览会的原因的作者的要求, 在 1893 年哥伦布博览会上，没有关于黑人历史或成就的单独或黑人领导的展览材料。直到 1960 年代，第一家专门针对非裔美国人的博物馆才在芝加哥都会区开放。乌木历史与艺术博物馆于 1961 年开放（1968 年更名，如今被称为 DuSable 非裔美国人历史博物馆），由玛格丽特·巴勒斯 (Margaret Burroughs) 在布朗兹维尔创立。Burroughs 从现有的其他群体的“种族博物馆”中汲取灵感，并创建了一个空间，讲述黑人社区讲述的黑人历史。在开始收藏时，巴勒斯在当地黑人报纸上做广告，既说服邻居他们的个人物品值得被博物馆收藏，又试图在该机构的邻里间建立信任关系。

该博物馆最初位于 Burroughses 自己的家中，位于南密歇根大道 3806 号的约翰·W·格里菲斯大厦 (John W. Griffiths Mansion)。在 Burroughs 购买它之前，这座建筑之前一直在 Quincy Club 的成员手中，Quincy Club 是黑人铁路搬运工的私人俱乐部，自 1938 年购买以来，经常用作该组织社交聚会和活动的场所。虽然博物馆已经搬出约翰·W·格里菲斯大厦，该住宅仍然存在并于 1982 年被添加到国家历史名胜名录中。有趣的是，重要性声明分别用一段话说明这座豪宅在昆西俱乐部的使用情况以及作为DuSable 的第一个家；然而，它的重要时期仅限于其建造日期（1893-94），其中不包括与该网站相关的著名黑人历史剧集。考虑到建筑物通常建议至少 50 年才能获得国家名录资格，这些事件可能只是太“近期”了。无论如何，这个例子提供了与 Hamitic 酒店所在建筑的有趣比较，该酒店的国家名录提名包括两个重要时期，其中一个时期专门针对该建筑用作黑人顾客的酒店。知识共享 CC0 1.0 通用公共领域贡献（“CCO 1.0 贡献”）。这个例子提供了与哈米特酒店所在建筑的有趣比较，该酒店的国家名录提名包括两个重要时期，其中一个时期专门针对该建筑用作黑人顾客的酒店。知识共享 CC0 1.0 通用公共领域贡献（“CCO 1.0 贡献”）。这个例子提供了与哈米特酒店所在建筑的有趣比较，该酒店的国家名录提名包括两个重要时期，其中一个时期专门针对该建筑用作黑人顾客的酒店。知识共享 CC0 1.0 通用公共领域贡献（“CCO 1.0 贡献”）。

[第 62 页结束]

在典型的建筑史概​​览中，1893 年在芝加哥举行的哥伦布博览会经常被用作 19 世纪晚期美国美术倾向和城市宏伟的一个例子。该事件也具有历史意义，因为美国力争在国际舞台上展示其文化和技术进步的成就和价值。博览会为美国的权力掮客提供了一个机会，让他们可以在庞大的规模上塑造一个自我庆幸的形象。

这个代表性问题是以下摘录的核心，摘自一本名为《美国有色人种不参加世界哥伦比亚博览会的原因》的小册子，由 Ida B. Wells（1862-1931）、Frederick Douglass（1817 或 1818-1895）、Irvine Garland Penn（1867-1930）和 Ferdinand L. Barnett（1852-1936）合着。威尔斯在指导小册子的内容方面发挥了重要作用，并将文本的传播想象成一种抗议行为，在公共领域直截了当地断言，反对白人。从这个意义上说，威尔斯面向公众的激进主义将她与安娜朱莉娅库珀公开的黑人女权主义联系起来。威尔斯还通过谈到白人女权主义的方式来预示更现代的交叉性概念——由哥伦比亚博览会的（完全是白人和主要是精英的）女经理委员会所体现，该委员会负责监督女性在活动中的代表和展览- 仍然排斥并伤害了黑人妇女。^1个 小册子的最后一部分，“原因”，专门针对女性经理委员会进行了刻薄的批评……