Selections from 100 Novels project to be displayed at Watson Library

LAWRENCE — The Project on the History of Black Writing and the Center for Digital Scholarship at the University of Kansas will present a showing of selections from the 100 Novels project this week at Watson Library.

The walk-through exhibit will open with a small reception from 12:15 to 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, on the fourth level of the library and will be on display for three weeks. The exhibit is open to the public.

HBW is one of KU’s important but at times overlooked literary and historical resources. It has been at the forefront of research and inclusion efforts in higher education for 25 years. Founded in 1983 at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, HBW has more than 900 novels in its collection published by African-American authors, beginning with William Wells Brown’s Clotel; or, the President’s Daughter (1853). The project is dedicated to archiving every novel ever published by an African-American.

The 100 Novels Project is a new research initiative that uses quantitative research to enhance understandings of black literary history. As part of this initiative, The Black Literary Suite exhibit was designed to engage the public, shed new light on HBW’s holdings and stimulate discourse about the value of studying African- American literature as an entire body of work. The exhibit highlights the significance of Wikipedia when considering African-American novels and authors in our collection.

For more information about HBW, visit the website; the blog; on Facebook, or, follow on Twitter. The Center for Digital Scholarship is located in Watson Library Room 455. That website is here.