History is meant to be remembered. That's why the National Juneteenth Museum and the University of North Texas libraries are working together to preserve a special part of it.
They held their first community harvest to build a digital archive of African American history.
A large crowd gathered Saturday at Ella Mae Shamblee Library in Fort Worth to preserve Black history through what they are calling a History Harvest.
“This is my dad standing up here before it was a college,” participant Dorothea Barbee said, holding up an old photo. “He had a barbershop.”
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Barbee's father was a barber in Fort Worth's southside who eventually opened a barber college.
“This is proof,” Barbee said. “This is better than words.”
Barbee explained why she wanted to share her family’s history to be archived.
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“It’s important to know the history and to have proof of the history of the southside and the businesses we had in this area,” Barbee said.
The National Juneteenth Museum and UNT Special Collections gathered a wide range of documents, pieces of history, and stories.
“Things like family photos, family bibles, documents from their families,” UNT Libraries Head of Collections Morgan Gieringer said. “We’ve had people bring in stories they’ve written about their family history. People are bringing in physical as well as electronic materials that we are able to transfer. It’s just been a wonderful wide range of things.”
These items were handled with white glove care and digitally scanned. They'll be available online through the UNT library and for future display by the museum.
“The way to uncover that representative history is through listening and understanding individual stories,” Gieringer said. “A lot of times in history, we know the big things that happened, but everyone’s history is important.”
Barbee added this history can be an inspiration for future generations.
“It’s interesting to see those pictures just to see how people did come together and work together and accomplished the things they accomplished by working together,” Barbee said.
This was their first History Harvest, and it was such a success that they say there will likely be more. If you have items you would like to have archived, you can reach out to the National Juneteenth Museum or UNT libraries.
