Programs

Current Programs

BMRC FELLOWS 2022_group photo_18 x 12

Summer Short-term Fellowship

A one-month residential fellowship in the City of Chicago, the Summer Short-term Fellowship Program has engaged scholars, artists, writers, and public historians to better formulate new historical narratives of Chicago’s past. The new, original research and art developed through this program illuminates the national and international importance of Chicago’s African American community.

AMAI Alex at CSU Apr2016

The Archie Motley Archival Internship Program

With the mission to develop and create meaningful and educational internship opportunities for upper-undergraduate students, graduate students, and recent graduates in the field of cultural heritage management, the Archie Motley Archival Internship Program provides stipends to students of color. This program provides practical employment experience as a cultural heritage professionals working in BMRC member institutions.

Past Programs

2016 Archie Motley Archival Intern, Sabine Nau, at Chicago Public Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature

Color Curtain Processing Project

Going beyond the accomplishments of the Survey Initiative, the BMRC arranged and cataloged primary resources related to Chicago’s African American heritage. A further objective of the Project was to structure a comprehensive recruitment tool for the archival profession. Undergraduate students seeking careers in history and archival science gained experience working in special collections repositories while processing African American related collections.

Survey Initiative

Survey Initiative

A three-year project intended to identify and assess irreplaceable primary resources of African American and African related archival materials. The BMRC accomplished this by adapting a survey methodology originally developed by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and implemented by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries.