Art inspired by the archives

Several years ago, artist Mequitta Ahuja’s genealogy research led her to think that manuscripts held by the Friends Historical Library (FHL) might help her learn more about her ancestors.

She decided to reach out in hope of finding more information, but recalls she thought her request was a long shot and sent her email “with a touch of embarrassment.”

“I am looking for help researching my Black ancestors who I believe were relocated from North Carolina to Indiana by Quakers in 1839. If this was the case, I hope to find documentary evidence such as their names in conveyance notes, lists of relocated Black people, travel receipts, court papers, or any account of their migration out of North Carolina.”

This was the beginning of FHL’s role, expanding on genealogy research Mequitta’s grandmother began in the 1940s, resulting in a breathtaking series of paintings by the artist. FHL Curator Jordan Landes helped Mequitta learn of intriguing details about her great-great-great-grandparents, Henry Knox and Milly Morris, a married couple with seven children in Pasquotank County, NC; he was an enslaved Black man and she was a free woman of color.

Based on details Mequitta had shared, Jordan found information in the Aaron White Family Papers held by FHL. Aaron White, along with members of his family, were active in Quaker affairs, including abolition, in the Pasquotank Monthly Meeting, and were known to have helped free people of color relocate to free states.

With Jordan’s help, initially through correspondence and sharing scans of letters, and later in person on campus in the Special Collections Reading Room in McCabe, Mequitta Ahuja learned more of the extraordinary story of her ancestors. With help from the White family, Milly and the children relocated to Indiana with plans and hopes for eventually buying Henry’s freedom and being reunited.

Learning her ancestor’s story inspired the artist’s subsequent paintings, which formed the exhibition, Black-word, mounted at the Aicon Gallery in New York City early in 2023. The works express the power of holding and reading the letters about her ancestors and integrate quotations (the artist having learned to paint White’s handwriting) from a particular letter written in 1838.

Jordan, along with  FHL Associate Curator Celia Causte-Ellenbogen, had the great privilege of attending the artist’s New York exhibition. Months later, they were able to purchase a study for a newer painting for FHL’s permanent collection, A Study for Shield, a self-portrait of Ahuja holding a letter written by Aaron White. A Study for Shield is on display in the Special Collections Reading Room through May, 2025.

You may read more about this story and see additional images of Ahuja’s paintings in the exhibition catalog, Mequitta Ahuja: Black-Word (New York: Aicon, 2020)  held in print in FHL and also freely available as a PDF.