The travelling exhibition features archival material from the personal collection of Professor Karen Sands-O’Connor from Newscastle University. Professor Sands-O’Connor has been working alongside Dr Aneesh Barai from the School of Education, developing collaborations with local Black-owned businesses, and helping to share the archival material with researchers, educators and librarians.
The exhibition spans the Victorian era through to the 21st century. It features well-known texts like Robinson Crusoe, a Government committee report on The Education of West Indian Immigrant Children, and non-fiction books, such as Noble Deeds of the World’s Heroines - a 1904 publication which features one of the earliest biographies of Crimean War-era Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole.
The second case brings us into the past half a century of children's publishing, with books by independent and mainstream publishers. The Story of Afro Hair, published in 2021, is one of K.N. Chimbiri’s history books for children, featuring representations of Afro hair over the past 5000 years, whilst Rocket Rules - featuring a young Black girl who aspires to go into space - was part of the World Book Day £1 book scheme.
The exhibition runs until April 23, and you can read more about the exhibits on display .