The Overachieving Archivist: Mother's Day Brunch at the Dayton Art Institute and Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

Joy and I with the talking store clerk robot ($)

One of the primary reasons I accepted the archivist position at Payne in January was the opportunity it afforded me to work with local cultural heritage organizations. Since moving to Ohio, I've quickly learned that Wilberforce has a small but extremely rich community of historians who are passionate about the preservation of African American History.
I met Joy G. Kinard, Ph.D. Superintendent, Colonel Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument while attending the Colonel Charles Young Birthday Commemoration at the National Afro American Museum. We spent Mother's Day attending service at my home church, touring the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park where her office is located and dining on delectable candied bacon at the Dayton Art Institute's Annual Mother Day's Brunch.

Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP consists of five sites that tell the stories of Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Coming from North Carolina I was just certain that all that the Wright Brother's history was the legacy of the Tarheel state. Clearly I was misinformed. While walking through the Wright-Dunbar Intrepretive Center, I learned that the Wright Brother's built their aircraft in Ohio where they were born, raised, owned multiple non-aviation related businesses (bicycles!) and died, but traveled to North Carolina to launch due to the favorable humidity and flying weather. The Raleigh-Durham International Airport and all those First In Flight NC license plates are a bit deceptive. Glad I now know the truth!

I'm making it my business to visit the Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial in the next few weeks. I remember first reading Dunbar's poem We Wear the Mask in 5th grade. I don't recall the context in which it was taught but I remember being confused yet deeply comforted by the imagery of the pain in pretending.