Abstract
In Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History, historian and archivist Laura E. Helton tells the story of six individuals – Arturo Schomburg, Alexander Gumby, Virginia Lee, Dorothy Porter, Vivian Harsh, and Lawrence Reddick – whose practices of radical collecting revalued and recast the importance of Black history. Helton combines innovative methodological readings of previously undervalued archival sources with a keen understanding of archival practice to illuminate Black archives as a site of radical collecting, intellectual inquiry, and community empowerment. Compellingly written with insights about the theory of their curation and the story of their archival labors, this monograph builds on her existing work examining Black print culture, its collectors, and its creators. Helton’s monograph will have a broad appeal to historians, archivists, and scholars of print and material culture.
Recommended Citation
Uchida, Kai H.
(2026)
"Review of Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History,"
Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol. 13, Article 1.
Available at:
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/1
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Africana Studies Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Archival Science Commons, Social History Commons