This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Valued for its practical union of art and utility, the weather vane has long been considered a classic form of…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Among the pantheon of deities worshipped by the ancient Greeks, Artemis of Ephesus stands out as one of the most…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. No more self-assured statement of middle-class domesticity could be imagined than this charming tableau of maternity and childhood bliss set…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. In the coming year, one of the more nuanced anniversaries of the enduring struggle against slavery is slated to occur.…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Lacking the austere grandeur usually associated with the art of ancient Egypt, the truncated body and staring eyes of this…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Once an ardent foe of Christianity, Paul the Apostle went on to provide the new religion with a creed firmly rooted…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. The contribution of people of African descent to the performing arts of Peru has followed a long and varied arc.…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Tucked away at the base of a distant mountain, a tightly knit group of black figures await their destiny as the…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Though it would hardly seem likely at first glance, this pallid image of slavery directly addresses the condition of black bondage. To…

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Commanding a low rise in a verdant park in Rochester, N.Y., the monolithic figure of Frederick Douglass stands in eloquent testimony to…