Princeton NJ Events Calendar

"These Are Our Stories": Confronting Racial Stereotypes with Family Photographs

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Saturday May 9, 2026
2:00 PM

The Trent House Association presents a talk by Professor Mary Shelley Trent on family photograph albums of 19th-century African American women. This talk will be held via Zoom on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 2 pm. More information and the registration link HERE.

Family photograph albums are often overlooked in studies of national and cultural history, often deemed inconsequential. However, these objects have been important tools for asserting identity and preserving family history. ?For 19th century African American women living in an era of racial oppression and derogatory popular imagery, controlling their and their family's representation was important. In this presentation, Professor Mary Shelley Trent will show images and discuss stories from two nineteenth-century photographic albums created by African American women: Ellen Craft and Arabella Chapman. Craft, who famously escaped enslavement, and Chapman, born free, used their albums to challenge stereotypes and document their families' respectability and stability. Passed down through female descendants who added their own annotations, these albums became living documents of intergenerational memory.