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From This Collection

Oscar Micheaux: First to put black films on the silver screen

Feb 28, 2014
Micheaux incorporated African Americans from casting to funding to production
Wikimedia Commons

Maggie Walker: Banking and civil rights

Feb 27, 2014
Walker was a bank president, newspaper editor, and fraternal leader.

Jackie Ormes: The first female African American cartoonist

Feb 26, 2014
Jackie Ormes used cartoons to talk about the social and environmental issues that mattered to the black community. So why has she been forgotten?

Thomas Jennings perfected dry cleaning as he pushed for abolition

Feb 25, 2014
Thomas Jennings was the first African American to receive a U.S. patent, 44 years before slavery ended.

Love the ice cream truck? Thank inventor Fred Jones

Feb 21, 2014
After Fred Jones lost a truckload of overheated chickens, he invented the refrigerated truck. Jones was self-taught, but took out 60 patents in his lifetime.
Thermo King co-founder Fred Jones at age 55. This photo accompanied a profile on Jones in the Saturday Evening Post with the headline, "Born Handy."
Courtesy of the Refrigeration Research Museum