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TERRY ADKINS refers to himself as “a sculptor, musician, and a latter-day practitioner of the longstanding African-American tradition of ennobling worthless things.” In this exhibition he focuses on even more anonymous figures in the history of African Americans in Brooklyn: the everyday resi- dents who are now essentially forgotten, save for their listings in city di- rectories. The artist points to these seemingly benign public documents in the Brooklyn Historical Society’s library as evincing a tacit form of racism. Looking at Brooklyn directories from the 1830s, 40s, and 50s, Adkins observed that the names of African American residents were de- noted with asterisks, a means of extend- ing the practice of segregation to the printed page. His installation, the display of a new directory containing only the names of African Americans, turns this archaic practice on its head. With Adkins’ unique, artist-crafted book, these names are given new historic weight and indeed are ennobled.
Mrs. Jenny Schwartz, late 19th century cabinet card, 8 × 6 in. Ramus Family Papers 1978.174, Brooklyn Historical Society.
NORA HERTING similarly uses historic forms of social documentation as a point of departure for her project. A photogra- pher specializing in portraiture, Herting researched the BHS collection of 19th and early 20th century studio portraits and was struck by its homogeneity; it en- compasses images of mostly white, afflu- ent Brooklynites. As a means of question- ing the constructs of traditional studio portraiture, she set up temporary por-
trait studios at several Brooklyn parks—public locales where anyone who was interested could pose for the camera. Herting ultimately produced a
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