Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Toward an African Methodist Episcopal Aesthetic Idyll: Art and Images at Wilberforce University, 1863-1914
Presented by Melanee Harvey, PhD, assistant professor & coordinator of art history at Howard University. Martha S. Jones, PhD, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential professor, professor of history, and professor at the SNF Agora Institute at the Johns Hopkins University moderated the Q & A.
This presentation will examine how art and strategies of visual representation were used to present Wilberforce University, one of the nation’s first historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU), as an aesthetic idyll shaped by Bishop Daniel Payne and other AME bishops of the late nineteenth century. Denominational leadership marshalled images of the AME’s flagship educational institution as evidence of racial advancement. Specifically, photographs displayed at national expositions and published in the "Christian Recorder" promoted their message. This analysis will also consider the role of art collections and art education at Wilberforce University.
The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the recent passing of Daniel B. Greenberg, whose generosity and that of his wife Susan, makes the Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture possible. The program is hosted by PORTAL, the Portrait Gallery’s Scholarly Center.
Toward an African Methodist Episcopal Aesthetic Idyll: Art and Images at Wilberforce University, 1863-1914
Presented by Melanee Harvey, PhD, assistant professor & coordinator of art history at Howard University. Martha S. Jones, PhD, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential professor, professor of history, and professor at the SNF Agora Institute at the Johns Hopkins University moderated the Q & A.
This presentation will examine how art and strategies of visual representation were used to present Wilberforce University, one of the nation’s first historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU), as an aesthetic idyll shaped by Bishop Daniel Payne and other AME bishops of the late nineteenth century. Denominational leadership marshalled images of the AME’s flagship educational institution as evidence of racial advancement. Specifically, photographs displayed at national expositions and published in the "Christian Recorder" promoted their message. This analysis will also consider the role of art collections and art education at Wilberforce University.
The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the recent passing of Daniel B. Greenberg, whose generosity and that of his wife Susan, makes the Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture possible. The program is hosted by PORTAL, the Portrait Gallery’s Scholarly Center.
