Diane Isaacs Collection of Black Memorabilia

Object Details

Scope and Contents note: This collection documents various elements of African American history. The Diane Isaacs Collection of Black Memorabilia is arranged into three series: Printed Materials, Audio Visual Materials, and Miscellaneous. Material in each folder is arranged in chronological order from 1800 through 2002.

Biographical/Historical note: Diane Isaacs was a professor of English and a collector of black memorabilia. She earned her Ph.D. from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1982 after she wrote a doctoral thesis entitled "Ann Petry's Life and Art: Piercing the Stereotypes." As a professor at Fordham College, the University of Maryland, and the University of Minnesota, Isaacs taught English courses throughout the 1980s and 1990s. She was a scholar of the Harlem Renaissance and published essays and articles pertaining to the contributions that African-American writers made to U.S. culture. Isaacs married Professor Jay Leon Halio, another professor of English at the University of Delaware, on May 26, 2002 at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Citation: The Diane Isaacs Collection of Black Memorabilia was donated to the Anacostia Community Museum in 2003 by Diane Isaacs.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Correspondence; Postcards; Clippings; Periodicals; Photographic prints; Sheet music; Audiovisual materials; Books

Topic: Stereotypes (Social psychology) in advertising; African Americans; African American authors; Children's stories

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .