Arts Playlist: Winterthur Museum brings an imagined Black cultural gallery to life

By Martin Matheny

Published May 9, 2025 at 10:24 AM EDT

Winterthur Museum is bringing a once-imagined gallery focused on Black history and culture to life.

A writer for the New York City-based Black magazine “The Anglo-African” in 1859 detailed an immersive gallery showcasing the history, culture, and accomplishments of African Americans.

But the gallery didn’t actually exist, it was an imagined place that represented both a cultural critique and a call for recognition. More than 160 years later, Winterthur Museum is bringing the imagined gallery to life in the new exhibit ‘Almost Unknown: The Afric-American Picture Gallery.’

In this week’s edition of Arts Playlist, Delaware Public Media’s Martin Matheny catches up with Winterthur’s Director of Collections Alexandra Deutsch and curator and historian Jonathan Michael Square for a closer look at ‘Almost Unknown.’

Winterthur’s Alexandra Deutsch and curator and historian Jonathan Michael Square outline ‘Almost Unknown' with DPM's Martin Matheny

The Winterthur Museum presents a new exhibit looking at a pivotal time in Black history through art.

“Almost Unknown: The Afric-American Picture Gallery” is inspired by an 1859 essay penned by Black journalist William J. Wilson.

“In this essay, he's envisioning how an African-American museum might look in the future," says curator Jonathan Michael Square. "And so what we've done is brought his vision to life in this exhibition.”

The exhibition features an eclectic collection of objects from Winterthur’s collection, including books, a quilt, and more.

Square, who is Assistant Professor in Black Visual Culture at the New School’s Parson School of Design, says the objects - and Wilson’s essay - represent a time in history when African-Americans were still defining their identity as a culture.

“There wasn't a consensus about even nomenclature, which is why the name of the essay is ‘Afric’ - without the N - ‘American Picture Gallery,’” he says.

Square says his goal is to spark curiosity about a pivotal period of Black history and an understudied figure.

“I don't like an exhibition that's a conversation ender. I like an exhibition as a conversation starter," he says. "I don't think someone should leave an exhibition thinking ‘OK, I have all the answers and I don’t have to think about that.’ I think [with] an exhibition you should leave with questions.”

The exhibition is on display at Winterthur through January 6, 2026.

Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.