William Cooper Nell

And she's holding a book, so gesturing at literacy, even just the idea that she would have a merit badge.

These were routinely, or we know at least of instances where in the case of abolitionist william cooper nell in boston as a as a young boy he was denied his um his merit badge um even though he qualified for one because he was black and so just the idea of creating a portrait we don't we don't know very much we don't know the girl's identity we don't know her family we don't know her circumstances but the representation of her as a student and as an award-winning student is so powerful and meaningful so that's really going to anchor the section that we've created on black schoolgirl samplers and the idea of how girls were literally making space for themselves in the educational sphere through this kind of work.

Really excited that we've been able to speak with the descendant of the maker of the Houston family record sampler, which was made by an African American girl in Maine.

And so we will have an interview with descendant Jacqueline Long as part of the interpretation of that object, which is so exciting.