Hidden History: Exploring Black Women’s Lives through Nellie B. Nicholson’s 1911 Scrapbook

A Family Weekend panel discussion centered on the scrapbook of Brown’s third known Black woman graduate, Nellie B. Nicholson, Class of 1911. She created a scrapbook spanning 1906 to 1917. It features 172 photographs along with invitations, playbills, ribbons, pressed flowers, correspondence, and her own handwritten captions.

More than a century later, the scrapbook illuminates connections between Nicholson and other extraordinary Black women who made early history at Brown. Their lives followed diverse geographic and social paths but shared experiences of scholarship, athleticism, and activism during their time at Brown and beyond. Yet these women’s narratives were scattered by time and suppressed by gender and racial biases.

This panel discussion will explore the significance of primary sources like Nicholson’s scrapbook in Black women’s history and avenues for future research.

Panelists
Laura Helton, Associate Professor of English and History, University of Delaware
Tara Holman ’22 A.M., ’25 Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Hamilton College
Michael Van Leesten, genealogical researcher and descendent of Cora Robinson, Brown University Class of 1909

Moderator
Françoise Hamlin, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History, Brown University

October 23, 2026
Brown University