History’s Kelley Lecture Featuring Judy Giesberg - Listening to a Very Loud Archive: The Last Seen Project’s 5000 Stories of Slavery and Survival

This talk will highlight the collaborative work of students and scholars to recover and archive the stories of formerly enslaved people’s search for family after freedom.  It will introduce readers to the Last Seen Project Archive of more than 5000 information wanted and lost friends’ advertisements published in Black-owned newspapers after the Civil War.  Each ad tells the story of a family separated in slavery and their search for one another afterwards.  The talk will take listeners along on a journey of discovery of this little-known history and explain its significance to our understanding of the nation’s past—and present.  

Lecture is free and open to the public, no tickets needed. Reception immediately following.