Nell Irvin Painter: Author, Artist, Historian who recently released “The History of White People”
Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Leshell Hatley in Scholarly Celebrations
Nell Irvin Painter is a noted historian and author who specializes in late 19th and early 20th century American history. She is particularly interested in the experiences of African Americans, women, and the poor and working classes, people who have traditionally been excluded from positions of power. Her books include an examination of African American migration to Kansas during the 1870s, a narrative history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction through World War I, and a biography of legendary feminist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth.
She recently retired as the Edwards Professor of History at Princeton University and has recently released The History of White People, a book that traces characterizations of the lighter-skinned people we call white today, starting with the ancient Scythians. You can find information about this book in the NYTimes.com and the Boston Globe.
Book Portrayal Imagery by Leigh Wells, NYTimes.com
Early Life
Painter was born in Houston, Texas in 1942. When she was an infant, her parents moved to Oakland, California. In the early 1940s, California offered well paying defense industry jobs and was less racially segregated than Texas.
“Overall it was freer and easier. For one thing, we didn’t have to sit on the back of the buses. We went to stores. You could try on hats, or clothes or dresses or anything you wanted to. And that was mostly forbidden in Houston,” Painter’s mother, Dona Irvin, told Randall Kenan in Walking on Water.
Education
As a teenager, Painter attended Oakland Technical High School and was active in youth programs at the Downs Methodist Church. She maintained a good academic record, and welcomed opportunities to augment her formal studies with reading, travel, and visits to museums, concerts, and theatrical performances. As a student at the University of California at Berkeley, Painter majored in anthropology in order to pursue her interest in the culture of Africa and the African Diaspora. She did not take courses in American history, believing that historical approaches of the time failed to adequately address the actualities of American life, especially with regard to racial issues.
Painter spent the summer of 1962 in Nigeria as a part of an American student program that was designed to assist in raising the standard of living in various African countries. From Nigeria, Painter traveled to France and spent her junior year at the University of Bordeaux. She then returned to Berkeley to complete her undergraduate studies.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree, Painter traveled to Ghana to attend a post-baccalaureate program at the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies. While in Ghana, she was exposed to historical scholarship that included studies of imperialism, class consciousness, and the economic aspects of political issues. Painter’s experiences in Ghana sparked a newfound interest in history. She returned to the United States and earned a master’s degree in history at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1967. Painter then enrolled in a doctorate program at Harvard University, in part because her parents encouraged further education and were willing to pay for it. While at Harvard, she gradually shifted her focus from African to American history.
“I don’t think Harvard ever knew just how little history I knew. I’m sure my spotty background has a lot to do with my odd pattern of writing history: I’ve never been properly formed as a historian,” -Painter
Painter’s doctoral dissertation examined the post-Civil War migration of freed African Americans from the South to settlements in Kansas. These former slaves settled in Kansas to escape racist laws that were put in place by state legislatures in the South.
Career
Following completion of her doctoral studies in 1974, Painter accepted a teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania. Specific positions have been (according to her website):
- Ghana Institute of Languages Lecturer in French, 1964-1965
- Harvard University, Teaching Fellow, Afro-American Studies, 1969-1970; Teaching Fellow, History, 1972-1974
- University of Pennsylvania, Assistant Professor of History, 1974-1977, Associate Professor of History, 1977-1980
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Professor of History, 1980-1988
- Hunter College of the City University of New York, Russell Sage Visiting Professor of History, 1985-1986
- Princeton University, Professor of History, 1988-1991; Acting Director, Program in Afro-American Studies, 1990-1991; Edwards Professor of American History, 1991-, Director, Program in African American Studies, 1997-2000
She is currently a BFA student at Rutgers University.
Philosophy
Painter firmly believes that African American women, because they must contend with both race and gender issues, occupy their own special position in American society. According to Painter, African American women have been marginalized by a white-dominated women’s movement and a male-dominated African American civil rights struggle.
“Because black women have been harder than men to fit into cliches of race, we often disappear…Disregarded or forgotten or, when remembered, misconstrued, the symbolic history of black women has not functioned in the same way as the symbolic history of black men. If the reality of the Scottsboro boys and other black men accused of rape showed that the charge was liable to be false and thereby tempered the stereotype, the meaning of the history of black women as victims of rape has not yet penetrated the American mind,”
Painter wrote in the essay “Hill, Thomas, and the Use of Racial Stereotype,” which is included in her 1992 book Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality.
Books By and About Nell Irvin Painter
Fellowships & Honors (from Dr. Painter’s website)
- Dean’s List, University of California, Berkeley, 1960
- Tower and Flame (upper division honor society), University of California, Berkeley, 1962-1964
- Mortar Board, University of California, Berkeley, 1963-1964
- Coretta Scott King Award, American Association of University Women, 1969-1970
- Ford Foundation Fellow (for the writing of a dissertation in minority studies), 1971-1972
- American Council of Learned Societies Fellow, 1976-1977
- Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History Fellow, 1976-1977
- Radcliffe/Bunting Institute Fellow, 1976-1977
- W. E. B. Du Bois Institute (Harvard) Research Associate, 1977-1978
- National Humanities Center Fellow, 1978-1979
- Guggenheim Fellow, 1982-1983
- Graduate Society Medal, Radcliffe College Alumnae, 1984
- Visiting Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation, 1985-1986
- Candace Award, National Coalition of One Hundred Black Women, 1986
- Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Fellow, 1988-1989
- 1989 Alumnus/a of the Year, Black Alumni of the University of California, Berkeley
- Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society, 1991
- National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1992-1993
- Honorary Doctor of Letters, Wesleyan University, 26 May 1996
- Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Dartmouth College, 8 June 1997
- Honorary Doctor of Letters, SUNY – New Paltz, 17 May 1998
- Association of Black Princeton Alumni University Service Award, 1998
- Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award (for graduate teaching), American Historical Association, January, 2000.
- Honorary Doctor of letters, Yale University, 26 May 2003
Awards
Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, 1976-77; John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, 1982-83; Black Alumni Club, University of California, Berkeley, Alumnus of the Year, 1989; American Antiquarian Society, Peterson Fellowship, 1991; National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, 1992-93.
More information can be found on answers.com and on Dr. Painter’s personal website.
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