Carl Cotton
Carl W. Cotton was born in 1918 in Washington Park, a section of Chicago’s South Side that confined most of the African American...
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Sophie Lutterlough
Sophie Lutterlough began working at the Smithsonian as an elevator operator. In the course of her duties, she developed a rapport with...
Margaret S. Collins
Dr. Margaret Collins (1922-1996) was a termite expert and field biologist. Graduating high school at fourteen years old, she continued...
Barry B. Hampton
Barry B. Hampton began working at the Smithsonian in 1912 as a mail clerk. As he delivered the mail, he became enamored with the natural...
Robert Gilbert
Very little information exists about nature photographer and naturalist, Robert A. Gilbert. As is often the case with Black historical...
John Widgeon
John Widgeon described himself as a “collector” for the Maryland Academy of Science, now the Maryland Science Center. Today he would...
Solomon G. Brown
Imagine having to prove you were born free of involuntary servitude – and living with the possibility that freedom could be revoked at...
John Edmonstone
John Edmonstone was born into slavery in the late 18th century in British Guyana. Charles Waterton, a friend of the plantation owner,...
John Tyley
John Tyley was an Antiguan artist who worked as a botanical illustrator in the late 1700s, but not much is known about his life. He was a...
Graman Kwasi
Graman Kwasi was a healer and collector with extensive botanical knowledge whose many accomplishments include descriptions of medicinal...
Edward Bartar
Edward Bartar was an Anglo-African man employed by the Royal African Company (RAC) in the 17th century. Some sources report he was a...
Majoe
Natural history museums and the collections within them are tied to the transatlantic slave trade which means that there were many...