This Week in History, Dec. 29th – Jan. 5th

Last modified date

NASA photo of the NGC 4414 Galaxy

“Art didn’t start black or white, it just started … There have been too many labels in this world: Negro, Colored, Black, African-American … Why do we label people with everything except Children of God?”1   — Selma H. Burke

This week celebrates the Birthday of Selma Burke; sculptor, educator, member of the Harlem Renaissance and winner of the Women’s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award.

Besides being an accomplished artist she was entrepreneurial in that she created art schools, such as the Selma Burke Art Center, as well.

Photo of artist Selma Burke standing next to her work in 1935
Selma Burke circa 19353

Check out, Notable Black American women and learn more about Selma Burke and her life.  It can be found in the Clark Library at E185.96 .N68 1992.

 


“I chucked the law for astronomy, and I knew that even if I were second-rate or third-rate, it was astronomy that mattered”

— Edwin Hubble (attributed)4

Before this week in 1924, astronomers believed that the Andromeda nebula was just that, a nebula that was part of our own galaxy.  Hubble changed that when he announced his discovery that the nebula was actually a galaxy on it’s own, changing the commonly held belief that our own galaxy was the only one in existence in our Universe.

NASA photo of the NGC 4414 Galaxy
NASA photo of the NGC 4414 Galaxy5

Learn more about Edwin Hubble by checking out, Edwin Hubble : mariner of the nebulae, which can be found at  QB36.H83 C48 1995

 


1 http://robertwilliamsofbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2014/03/selma-burke-got-dime.html
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Caucus_for_Art_Lifetime_Achievement_Award
3 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Selma-Burke-WPA-1935.jpg
4 https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble
5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy#/media/File:NGC_4414_(NASA-med).jpg

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment