Abolitionist Harriet Hayden’s photo albums show 19th-century Black lives

By Arielle Gray
Published on WBUR.com on April 24, 2024

Excerpt:

For many Black people of the diaspora, the archive can be a place of intrigue and frustration. Racism, sexism and colonialism have historically dictated who has been documented and in what ways. There are gaps in how many traditional archives record Black life. Sometimes, with luck, something is uncovered that provides depth and nuance beyond a name on a page. “Framing Freedom: The Harriet Hayden Albums,” on view at the Boston Athenaeum through June 22, does just that.

“Black history is often a part of the urban fabric, the nation’s fabric, but we don’t necessarily have evidence of those things,” says Makeda Best, who co-curated the exhibit. Through “Framing Freedom,” “we are able to visualize and materialize a sense of connection.”

This is the first major exhibition featuring the contents of two 19th-century photo albums owned by Black activist Harriet Hayden. Harriet and her husband Lewis Hayden self-emancipated from slavery in 1844 with their son Joseph and eventually made their way to Boston, where they settled in the then predominantly Black Beacon Hill neighborhood by 1849.

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