Nell Irvin Painter (born Nell Elizabeth Irvin; August 2, 1942) is an American
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
notable for her works on United States Southern history of the nineteenth century. She is retired from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
as the Edwards Professor of American History Emerita. She has served as president of the
Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad inc ...
and as president of the
Southern Historical Association
The Southern Historical Association is a professional academic organization of historians focusing on the history of the Southern United States. It was organized on November 2, 1934. Its objectives are the promotion of interest and research in Sou ...
,
and was appointed as chair of
MacDowell's board of directors in 2020.
Early life
She was born as Nell Irvin in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, Texas, to Dona Lolita (McGruder) Irvin and Frank Edward Irvin.
Her mother held a
degree
Degree may refer to:
As a unit of measurement
* Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement
** Degree of geographical latitude
** Degree of geographical longitude
* Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics
...
from
Houston College for Negroes
Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...
(1937) and later taught in the public schools of
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
. Her father had to drop out of college in 1937 during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
; he eventually trained for work as a laboratory
technician
A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skill and technique, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles.
Specialisation
The term technician covers many different speciali ...
. He worked for years at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where he trained many students in lab techniques.
[ She had an older brother Frank, who died young.
Her family moved to Oakland, California, when she was ten weeks old.] They were part of the second wave of the Great Migration of millions of African Americans from the Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...
to urban centers; from the 1940s to 1970, many migrated to the West Coast for jobs related to the growing defense industry, especially in California. Some of their relatives had been in California since the 1920s.[
]
Education
Painter attended the Oakland Public Schools
The Oakland Public Schools is a comprehensive community state school, public school district serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade from the borough of Oakland, New Jersey, Oakland in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in ...
, including Oakland Technical High School
Oakland Technical High School, known locally as Oakland Tech or simply "Tech", is a public high school in Oakland, California, United States, and is operated under the jurisdiction of the Oakland Unified School District. It is one of six compre ...
, from which she graduated in 1959.
She earned her B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964. During her undergraduate years, she studied French medieval history at the University of Bordeaux
The University of Bordeaux (French: ''Université de Bordeaux'') is a public university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.
It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bordeaux, Dax, Gradignan, Périgueux, Pessac, and Ta ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, 1962–63. As a postgraduate, she also studied abroad at the Institute of African Studies
The Institute of African Studies on the Anne Jiagee road on campus of the University of Ghana at Legon is an interdisciplinary research institute in the humanities and social sciences. It was established by President Kwame Nkrumah in 1962 to encou ...
at the University of Ghana
The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities.
The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...
, 1965–66. In 1967, she completed an M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
at the University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
. In 1974, she earned an M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
and Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.[
After her retirement from Princeton, Painter returned to school at ]Mason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers. Mason Gross offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, Theater, Digi ...
at Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
, where she received a BFA in art in 2009. She next earned an MFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
in 2011. Her first memoir, ''Old in Art School'', reflects on this experience.
Career
After receiving her Ph.D., Painter worked as an assistant professor and then an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. From 1980 to 1988 she was a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
. In 1988 she became a professor of history at Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. In 1990–91 she was acting director of Princeton's Program in Afro-American Studies, and in 1991 she was named the Edwards Professor of American History. From 1997 to 2000 she was director of the Program in African-American Studies.[ She served as a professor at Princeton until her retirement in 2005.
]
Publications
Painter has written the following eight books as of 2018. In addition, she has written many reviews, essays, and articles. Her latest essay (from 2020, called My Corona Occupation) is about her experience with making art and writing during the pandemic. [read more o
macdowellcolony.org
*
*
*
*
*
*
* A New York Times'' bestseller.
* ''Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over.'' Counterpoint Press, 2018. .
In addition to her writing, she creates art revolving around the discrimination against African Americans and displays this work at her annual art events. http://www.nellpainter.com/art.html
Recognition
Painter has received honorary degrees from Dartmouth College, Wesleyan University, and Yale University, among other institutions. In 1986 she received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.
Personal life
In 1989, Painter married the statistician Glenn Shafer, co-creator of the Dempster–Shafer theory
The theory of belief functions, also referred to as evidence theory or Dempster–Shafer theory (DST), is a general framework for reasoning with uncertainty, with understood connections to other frameworks such as probability, possibility and i ...
.Curriculum Vitae for Glenn Shafer.
/ref>
References
External links
Official website
Guide to the Nell Irvin Painter Papers
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
"Nell Irvin Painter"
Department of History, Princeton University
*
''In Depth'' interview with Painter, January 6, 2008
Interview
with Painter on "New Books in African American Studies", January 14, 2011
"There is no such thing as the 'white race' — or any other race, says historian"
''The Sunday Edition
''The Sunday Edition'' is a television programme broadcast on the ITV (TV network), ITV Network in the United Kingdom focusing on political interview and discussion, produced by ITV Productions. The show was hosted by Andrew Rawnsley and Andrea ...
'', CBC Radio, September 17, 2017
*Jeffrey Brown
"This new and 'old' artist offers a self-portrait in starting over", PBS ''News Hour'', July 23, 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Painter, Nell Irvin
1942 births
Living people
20th-century American historians
21st-century American historians
African-American historians
American women historians
21st-century American artists
Harvard University alumni
Historians of the Southern United States
Princeton University faculty
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Wesleyan University people
Writers from Oakland, California
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American women writers
American women academics
American academic administrators
African-American educators
White culture scholars
Rhode Island School of Design alumni
Historians from California
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American writers
21st-century African-American women
21st-century African-American artists
African-American women writers