Books and Catalogues

4 from Providence: Bannister, Prophet, Alston, Jennings: Black artists in the Rhode Island social landscape. Providence: Rhode Island College, 1978.

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Edward M. Bannister Gallery, Rhode Island College, October, 1978. Sponsored by the Bannister Gallery and the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society.

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Adams, R. L., & Winslow, E. Great Negros Past and Present Portfolio of Prints . Chicago: Afro-American Publishing Company, 1969. 

Brief one- or two-page biographies of important persons of African ancestry from ancient to modern times and from many professions including science, education, art, music, and religion. Bannister is discussed.

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African American art: 200 years : 40 distinctive voices reveal the breadth of nineteenth and twentieth century art. New York, NY: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2008.

Exhibition coordinator, Michael Rosenfeld; catalogue essays, Jonathan P. Binstock, Lowery Stokes Sims. Catalog of an exhibition held at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, Jan. 11-Mar. 15, 2008. Exhibited artists include Edward Bannister.

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African-American artists : Bannister to Mitchell : February 6-April 3, 1999. New York : Bill Hodges Gallery, 1999.

Published in conjunction with the exhibition in New York at the Bill Hodges Gallery. Includes bibliographical references. Bannister is mentioned in the forward and a short biography appears on page six.

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African-American artists - III.  New York : Bill Hodges Gallery, 2002.

Includes the works of Charles Alston, Benny Andrews, Edward Bannister, Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Chakaia Booker, Frank Bowling, Eldzier Cortor, Beauford Delaney, Richard Dempsey, David Driskell, Sam Gilliam, Sargent Johnson, Jo Ann Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Samella Lewis, Maceo Mitchell and Charles Sebree. Bannister appears on page 8. Includes bibliographical references.

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Arnold, John Nelson. Art and Artists in Rhode Island. Providence: Rhode Island School of Design, 1905.

Bannister is referenced on pages 37-41.

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Azevedo, Mario J., ed. 2005. Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora. N.p.: Carolina Academic Press.

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Bearden, Romare, & Harry Henderson. A history of African-American artists: from 1792 to the present. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993. Digital copy available at: archive.org/details/historyofafrican00bear/page/n3/mode/2up

A History of African-American Artists -- written by Romare Bearden with journalist Harry Henderson, who completed the work after Bearden's death in 1988. The book gives an overview of African-American art from the late eighteenth century to the present including the works of Edward M. Bannister.

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Bermingham, Peter. American Art In The Barbizon Mood. Washington: Smithsonian Inst. Press, 1975.

Exhibition catalogue. Bannister is mentioned several times.

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Billington, Ray, ed. The Journal of Charlotte L. Forten. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1953.

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Blatt, Martin, Thomas Brown, and Donald Yacovone. Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment. Amherst: University Of Massachusetts Press, 2001.

Bannister's efforts, combined with those of the Boston Colored Ladies’ Sanitary Commission, helped to support the soldiers and their families as they boycotted the pay discrimination for more than a year.  This volume brings together the best scholarship on the history of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Contributors use the historical record and popular remembrance of the 54th as a lens for examining race and community in the United States. The essays range in time from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and encompass history, literature, art, music, and popular culture. Christiana Bannister was present at the presentation of the colors to the 54th.

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Bolden, Tonya. Strong Men Keep Coming: The Book of African American Men. Hoboken: Wiley. 1999.

Washington Post Book World  - Spanning four centuries, Strong Men Keep Coming captures the dynamic essence of the black male experience in America, shedding new light on individuals like Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Malcolm X. Her discussion of Edward Bannister begins on page 110.

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Booth, Phillips D. “Bannister Paintings,” [Typescript of summary leading up to sale of eight Bannister oil paintings and one charcoal drawing owned by the Providence Art Club to be sold to the Missionary Association Museum Collaborative, through the efforts of its curator, David Driscoll. Along with accompanying correspondence.  Providence Art Club, March 1977.

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Boston Art Club,  Twenty-Third Exhibition of the Boston Art Club, Exhibition Catalogue. Boston: Mills, Knight and Co., 1882.

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Brennan, Linda Crotta. Women of the Ocean State: 25 Rhode Island Women You Should Know (America’s Notable Women). Amherst: Apprentice Shop Books, 2013.

Examines the lives of twenty-five famous women from Rhode Island, including Elizabeth Beisel, Anne Hutchinson, Ida Lewis, Jackie Onassis, Princess Red Wing, and Christina Carteaux Bannister: Black businesswoman and community activist.

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Britton, Crystal. African-American Art: The Long Struggle. New York: Smithmark, 1996. 

The author presents a concise overview of artists and movements that are uniquely American. Britton distills the essence of their subjects with authoritative texts and illustrations. The book includes 107 color plates (mostly full-page and double-page), notes, index. Edward Bannister is included.

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Brown, Nikki and Barry M Stentiford. The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008.

This encyclopedia is devoted to the Jim Crow era. The era is captured through more than 275 essays on such areas as law, media, business, politics, employment, religion, education, people, events, culture, the arts, protest, the military, class, housing, sports, and violence as well as through accompanying key primary documents excerpted as side bars. Reference to Bannister can be found on page 43.

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Brown, William Wells. "Edward M. Bannister." in The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements. Boston: James Redpath, 1863.

Originally published in 1863, this is a collection of essays of various notable Black people and the extraordinary things they have done to prove that Blacks were not inferior to whites. The author offers a description of Bannister’s early life, living with the Honorable Harris Hatch, a wealthy lawyer after the death of his mother in 1844.

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Brownlee, Andrea Barnwell. "The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art."  Seattle : Walter O. Evans Foundation for Art and Literature, 1999.

From the Jacket - "The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art features a broad selection of outstanding works from this important private collection. Eighty color plates illustrate the aesthetic legacy created by African American artists over more than one hundred fifty years." Lengthy discussion of the collection with multiple references to Bannister. Includes six images of Bannister works: Streamside, 1870, oil on canvas, 14 x 21; Ledge Off Bailey's Beach, 1890, watercolor, 7 1/2 x 10; The Old Homestead, 1895, oil on canvas, 36 1/2 x 56 1/2 ; Landscape, 1897, oil on canvas, 21 x 25; and Summer Twilight, 1899, oil on canvas, 14 x 19 1/2.

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Frank Leslie's illustrated historical register of the Centennial Exposition, 1876. New York: Frank Leslie, Publisher, 1876.

A description of Under the Oaks by Bannister is given on page 204.

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Burns, Sarah, and John Davis. 2009. American Art to 1900: A Documentary History. Edited by Sarah Burns and John Davis. N.p.: University of California Press.

Along with a broad array of canonical texts, Sarah Burns and John Davis have assembled an astonishing variety of unknown, little known, or undervalued documents to convey the story of American art through the many voices of its contemporary practitioners, consumers, and commentators. Documents referencing Bannister begin on page 602.

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Champney , J.W. and F.D. Millet. Massachusetts Artists' Centennial Album, Boston, J.R. Osgood and Company, 1876.

A description of Under the Oaks by Bannister is given on page vi.

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Cooks, Bridget. Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011. A digital version can be found at: cdn.lbryplayer.xyz/api/v3/streams/free/172626/cfd4e9f3f9409d89f1affb98c8eb111dce1d5b00/6ce4e3

The author offers a critical exploration of the discourse of African American art and culture in American art museums. The author’s goal is to explore the assertions made in the unequal and often contested relationship between African American artists, curators, visitors, and critics in the mainstream art world. Several references to Bannister are made in this context.

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Coughtry, Jay. "Work: Surviving Through Labor and Enterprise." Creative Survival: The Providence Black Community in the Nineteenth Century, Providence, The Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, 1983.

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Cranston, Timothy and  Neil Dunay. We Were Here Too: Selected Stories of Black History in North Kingstown. Scott Valley: CreateSpace, 2015.

“This book is a compendium of essays, stories, and scholarly works which cover a gamut of topics that range from slavery, slave trading and Negro Cloth production to everyday home, hearth, and family. The people you will meet between these pages include freed slaves who went on to do great things, black mariners who sailed the Atlantic during the 19th century, farmers and soldiers, and a remarkable woman whose life spanned 109 years. Their lives, and the lives of countless other black citizens of our community, matter. And that's what this book is really all about - telling a more complete story. Open these pages and share in the tragedy and triumph of the black community in North Kingstown across the centuries." -- back cover. Christiana Bannister is mentioned on page 35.

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Daniels, John. In Freedom’s Birthplace; a Study of the Boston Negroes. United Kingdom: Wentworth Press, 2016. 

Originally published by Houghton Mifflin in 1914, this work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. Edward Bannister is mentioned on page 451.

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Dawson, Charles, “The Negro in Art” in Negro Year Book. Atlanta: Foote and Davies, Inc., G, 1947.

Compiled by the Tuskegee Institute, Department  of Records and Research in Alabama. These were encyclopedic and statistical reports compiled by African-American sociologist Monroe N. Work (1866–1945). Division XVIII, The Negro in Art was written by Charles C. Dawson refers to Bannister (page 413) as one of the two most outstanding Negro artists in American history. Sawson also credits Bannister as being instrumental in the founding of RISD.

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Dewy, Joseph, "Edward Mitchell Bannister." Great Lives from History: African Americans, Salem Press, 2021

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Dover, Cedric.  American Negro Art. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1960.

An anthology of Negro American art which the author calls a "picture book of responses to needs, situations, surroundings and ideas," offering a glimpse of the "shape of Negro things to come." 

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Driskell, David. Two Centuries of Black American Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976.

Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art guest curator David C. Driskell, chairman of the Department of Art at Fisk University and research associate Dr. Leonard Simon.

In 1976 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) opened Two Centuries of Black American Art as its major exhibition for the American bicentennial year. It was the first comprehensive survey of African American art which, following its premier at LACMA, toured three other major U.S. art institutions. The premise was to acknowledge the work of black artists during the period of 1750 to 1950, whose contributions to American art had largely been neglected. Featuring over 200 works and 63 artists, the show included painting, sculpture, drawing, graphics, crafts and decorative arts.

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Driskell, David C. Amistad II, Afro-American Art. Nashville: Dept. of Art, Fisk University, 1975.

Exhibition catalogue with reference to Banister. Exhibition held at Van Vechten Gallery, Fisk University.

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Driskell, David C. Hidden heritage : Afro-American art, 1800-1950. San Francisco: The Art Museum Association of America, 1985.

Exhibition catalog of an exhibition held at Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Washington, and at other galleries, Sept. 14, 1985-Jan. 10, 1988.

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DuBois Shaw, Gwendolyn. “Landscapes of Labor: Race, Religion, and Rhode Island in the Painting of Edward Mitchell Bannister" in Post-bellum, Pre-Harlem: African American Literature and Culture, 1877-1919 edited by Barbara McCaskill and Caroline Gebhard, 50-73. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem, Shaw offers fresh perspectives on the literary and cultural achievements of African American men and women during this period of our nation's past. The authors offer both a reappraisal and celebration of African American cultural production during these influential decades. Alongside discussions of political and artistic icons such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and James Weldon Johnson are essays revaluing figures such as the writers Paul and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, the New England painter Edward Mitchell Bannister, and Georgia-based activists Lucy Craft Laney and Emmanuel King Love.

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DuBois Shaw, Gwendolyn. "Represent : 200 years of African American art in the Philadelphia Museum of Art," Philadelphia, PA, USA : Philadelphia Museum of Art ; New Haven, CT, USA : in association with Yale University Press, 2014.  

This publication highlights nearly 150 objects in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art that were created by American artists of African descent. Introduced with an essay by the distinguished scholar Richard J. Powell, the volume includes paintings, sculpture, works on paper, decorative arts, costume and textiles, and photography by some 100 artists including Bannister. "Published on the occasion of the exhibition 'Represent: 200 Years of African American Art, ' Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 10-April 5, 2015"--Title page verso . Detailed discussion of the challenges Black artists faced.

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Edward M. Bannister, 1828-1901, Providence Artist. March 23 - April 3, 1966 [Exhibition pamphlet]. Newport, RI: Newport Art Museum, 1990, 4p.

Exhibition pamphlet listing 24 works, with 4 black and white plates, by Bannister. Bibliography on Edward and Christiana Bannister by Daniel Brooks.

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Edward M. Bannister: A Rhode Island Master, 1828-1901, September 15 - November 25, 1990 [Exhibition pamphlet]. Newport, RI: Newport Art Museum, 1990, 4p.

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Edward Mitchell Bannister: The Barbizon School in Providence, August 1-15, 1965. [Typescript] An Exhibition Sponsored by the Olney Street Baptist Church, the Reverend Paul F. Thompson, Pastor. Providence, RI: 1965, 5p.

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Edward Mitchell Bannister; The World of the Artist [Brochure]. A Project of the Family of Man Foundation and Rhode Island Black Heritage Foundation. Providence: 1981, 12p.

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The Edward Mitchell Bannister Newsletter [One issue]. 1:1 (Summer 2000).

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Emilio, Luis. A Brave Black Regiment: History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1863-1865. Boston: Boston Book Company, 1894.

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Ferris, W. Henry. The African abroad: or, his evolution in western civilization, tracing his development under Caucasian milieu. New Haven: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press, 1913.

Two volume study of the African diaspora — with observations on the “Color Question” and the “Race Question,” by African American author, lecturer, and scholar William Henry Ferris (1873-1941). Bannister is discussed on page 766. Ferris recalls meeting Bannister on Newport Beach in 1892.

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Fine, Elsa Honig. The Afro-American Artist: A Search for Identity. New York: Hacker Art Books. 1982.

Provides biographical profiles of African American artists and a historic overview of African American artists' quest for identity. The discussion on Bannister appears in the section Attitudes Towards Art.

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Foner, Eric. Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation & Reconstruction. New York, Vintage Books. 2006. 

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Pages 156 - 157 argue that works by Bannister and Edmonia Lewis were the exception to the lack of representation of Blacks in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

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Fontaine, Marie. Puritans, pioneers and pacesetter: Eight people who shaped Rhode Island. Providence: Old Stone Bank, 1986.

A children’s book written by Marie Fontaine and Janice O'Donnell; illustrations by Bill Morrison. Has a section on Edward Bannister.

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Fourteenth Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association,  exhibition catalogue. Boston: Alfred Mudge and Son, 1881.

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Fowler, Cynthia. Locating American Art. Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2020.

Chapter six is an essay by Traci Costa: Edward Bannister and the Aesthetics of Idealism.

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Frank, Lisa Tendrich. Women in the American Civil War. Santa Barbara: Abc-Clio. 2008.

Each essay is an explanation of how women experienced or reacted to the war, which varied depending upon race, economic status, location, or politics, and how, by war's end and the years following, they were afforded new opportunities in American democracy. A chronology integrates women's topics with traditionally discussed Civil War events, and there is an extensive bibliography. Christiana Bannister is the subject of one of the essays.

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Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom, A History of Negro Americans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967.

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Frye, Daniel J. 2001. African American Visual Artists: An Annotated Bibliography of Educational Resource Materials. N.p.: Scarecrow Press.

A guide to resources for use with K-12 students, this selective volume lists substantial, easily accessible resources on African-American visual artists including a limited selection on Banister,

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Gates, Henry Lewis and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, ed. African American Lives. Oxford University Press, 2004.

Biographies of 611 African-Americans, including Bannister, over more than four centuries, of which about 257 were reprinted from the American National Biography.

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Gates, Henry Lewis and  Jarrett, G. A. The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892–1938. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Gene Andrew Jarrett, The New Negro contains more than one hundred canonical and lesser-known essays published between 1892 and 1938 that examine the issues of race and representation in African American culture. Edward Bannister is referred to several times.

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Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Oxford University Press, 1999.

This Encyclopedia includes a brief mention of Edward M. Bannister.

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Gavins, Raymond. Lewis, Edmonia. In The Cambridge Guide to African American History (pp. 166–166), 2015.

"In 1863 she moved to Boston, where the black painter Edward Bannister tutored her. She created a fine marble..."

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Gips, Terry. Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 1998. 

This catalog is intended to be an homage to Driskell. The selected works were created from the mid-1800s to the early 1990s and are grouped into historical periods based on the content of the art and what they say about the social, ethnic, and creative roles of the artists. Unique emphasis is placed on the influence of African American art teachers and institutions in fostering the development of black art. Essays by distinguished scholars provide a background to the collection. Bannister is included as part of this background discussion.

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Gonzalez, Aston. Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2020.

The fight for racial equality in the nineteenth century played out not only in marches and political conventions but also in the print and visual culture created and disseminated throughout the United States by African Americans. Advances in visual technologies--daguerreotypes, lithographs, cartes de visite, and steam printing presses--enabled people to see and participate in social reform movements in new ways. African American activists seized these opportunities and produced images that advanced campaigns for black rights. In this book, Aston Gonzalez charts the changing roles of African American visual artists as they helped build the world they envisioned. Edward and Christiana Bannister are referred to extensively.

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Goodyear, Frank Henry. American Paintings in the Rhode Island Historical Society. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1974.

Portraits, landscapes, marines, and miniatures from the Rhode Island Historical Society's collection are included in the publication. Publication includes images of 128 paintings and drawings (mostly in black and white) including Edward Bannister on page 92 with a black and white image of Governor Sprague's White Horse. Book also includes sidebars on the artist’s lives.

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Hampton, R Kumasi. The Great Migration: The Evolution of African American Art, 1790-1945. Cincinnati: Taft Museum of Art, 2000. 

Exhibit catalog, 35 illustrations including cover plates (27 in color), bibliography, checklist of 49 works. Text by R. Kumasi Hampton. Many lesser-known works from Ohio and Kentucky collections, including numerous women artists. Edward Bannister is included in the exhibition.

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Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. "Edward Mitchell Bannister" in Five Black Artists in Nineteenth-Century America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1985.

Published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by and shown at the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington on 15 January - 7 April 1985. The show included works from Joshua Johnson, Robert Scott Duncanson, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Edmonia Lewis and Henry Ossawa Tanner. The catalog includes an essay by James Oliver Horton, Double Consciousness: Afro-American Identity in the Nineteenth Century.

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Hayden, Robert C. African-Americans in Boston: More than 350 Years. Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1992.

On page 62 Hayden offers a short biographical paragraph about Bannister.

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Hill, Mary Armfield, ed. Endure: The Diaries of Charles Walter Stetson.  Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1985. 

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Holland, Juanita. Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1828-1901. New York: Kenkeleba House, 1992.

"Published on occasion of the exhibition ... organized by Kenkeleba House [and] … presented at Kenkeleba Gallery, May 10-June 27, 1992, and at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, November 19, 1992-January 27, 1993" Catalog essay by Juanita Marie Holland. Includes bibliographical references p. 57-60).

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Holland, Juanita Marie. The Life and Work of Edward Mitchell Bannister: A Research Chronology and Exhibition Record. New York: Kenkeleba House, 1992.

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Holland, Juanita Marie. "Reaching Through the Veil: African-American Artist Edward Mitchell Bannister." in Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1828–1901. New York: Kenkeleba House, 1992.

The essay "Reaching Through The Veil: African-American Artist Edward Mitchell Bannister" by Juanita Marie Holland is part of a catalog that lists 79 works by Bannister and includes a detailed chronology of Bannister’s life. It was published to accompany an exhibition held in Stamford, Connecticut, at the Whitney at Champion on 19 November 1992 to 27 January 1993. A free digital copy is available at: archive.org/details/edwardmitchellba7928bann/mode/2up

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Hodges, Graham Russell and Allen Edward Brown, editors. Book of Negroes : African Americans in exile after the American revolution. New York: Fordham University Press, 2021.

The Book of Negroes was a document written by Brigadier General Samuel Birch, under the direction of Sir Guy Carleton. It records names and descriptions of 3,000 Black Loyalists, enslaved Africans who escaped to the British lines during the American Revolution and were evacuated to points in Nova Scotia as free people of color. The Bannister name appears in this list and may have been Edward Bannister’s father.

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Horton, James Oliver. Free People of Color: Inside the African American Community. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1993.

Free People of Color is a path-breaking historical inquiry into the forces that unified and divided free African Americans in the pre-Civil War North, as they dealt with human issues vastly complicated by the racist character of American society. James Oliver Horton explores the social and psychological interior of free African American communities and reveals the diversity and nuances of free black society in such northern cities as Boston, Buffalo, and Washington, D.C. Bannister is mentioned on page 29.

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Horton, James Oliver. Black Bostonians, Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antibellum North. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1979.

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Hyland, Douglas and San Antonio Museum of Art. The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art. San Antonio: San Antonio Museum of Art, 1994.

This catalogue accompanied a traveling exhibition of the Kelley collection, comprising 124 works by 70 artists, including Edward M. Bannister.

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International Business Machines. Contemporary Art of the United States Exhibited in its Gallery of Science and Art, Palace of Electricity and Communication, Golden Gate International Exposition. IBM, 1940.

IBM asked each state and territory to select works from two local artists which they regarded as representative of the art and character” of their state. Edward Bannister is referred to on page 46 under the heading Rhode Island.

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International Exhibition, 1876, Official Catalogue, Part II, Art Gallery, Annex and Outdoor Works of Art.

Lists Bannister's painting Under the Oaks on page 42, number 935. The painting is listed by Bannister as for sale.

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Jacobs, Donald. Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston. Indiana University Press, 1993.

A collection of ten essays that studies the people and the role of the city in the abolitionist movement. On page 162 Christiana and her role in the abolitionist movement is discussed.

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Jean Francois Millet Exhibition of Etched Work, exhibition catalogue. New York: Frederick Keppel and Company.

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Jennings, Corrine. Edward M. Bannister: a centennial retrospective. Newport: Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, 2001.

Catalog of an exhibition held at Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, Newport, R.I., Oct. 21 - Nov. 30, 2001 and at Kenkeleba House, New York, N.Y., Dec. 12, 2001 - Feb. 9, 2002. Corrine Jennings, director of the Kenkeleba House gallery, wrote the introduction and conceived of the exhibition. She is an excellent source on Bannister and her gallery owns many works.

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Karpel, Bernard. Arts In America: A Bibliography. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980.

Volume 2 catalogues painting and graphic arts, including Bannister.

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Katlan, A. W. & Salmagundi Sketch Club. The Black and White Exhibitions of the Salmagundi Sketch Club 1878–1887. Alexander W. Katlan Conservator, Incorporated, 2007.

An alphabetical listing of artists including the dates of the exhibition, titles and prices paid (where known) in the club’s annual exhibitions. Bannister is mentioned on page 49.

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Kirk, William. A modern city: Providence, Rhode Island and its activities. Chicago: The University of Chicago press, 1909.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. “The book aims to present the physical characteristics, the racial elements, the commercial and industrial growth, the labor conditions, and the governmental, financial, educational, aesthetic, philanthropic, and religious activities of a typical American city.” Edward Bannister, on page 268, is described as “one of the most poetic painters of landscape that America has ever produced.” 

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Laxton, Glenn. Hidden History of Rhode Island: Not-To-Be-Forgotten Tales of the Ocean State. Charlestown: The History Press, 2009.

Rhode Island historian Glenn Laxton writes about citizens that history has forgotten, like Robert the Hermit, a man who endured three escapes from slavery before finding liberty and peace in Rumford; the illustrious Lippitt family, who spearheaded advancements in deaf education; and Christiana Bannister, a Narragansett tribe member, nineteenth-century entrepreneur and wife to the most successful African American artist of the time.

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Leeming, David A. 1998. Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney. N.p.: Oxford University Press.

Excellent biography of Delaney. Refrences Bannister on pages 20 and 60.

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Lewis, Samella Hewitt. African American Art and Artists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

The book looks at the works and lives of artists from the eighteenth century to the present, including new work in traditional media as well as in installation art, mixed media, and digital/computer art. Bannister appears in the section entitled, The Diverse Quests for Professional Status.  

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Locke, Alain LeRoy. Negro art: past and present. Washington, D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1936.

This is generally considered the first substantial study of African-American artists, written by the first African-American Rhodes Scholar and a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. The work of the most important African artists is presented in detail, including descriptions of their principal works in all visual mediums. Discussion of Bannister as “our pioneer painter” begins on page 16.

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Lynes, Russell. The Art-Makers. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1982.

A history of the heroic "art-makers" of the last century—their struggles, their attempt "to change the climate of the arts," their successes. Includes 211 illustrations.

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Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, Catalogue of  the Department of Fine Arts, Fourteenth Exhibition, Boston: By the Association, 1881.

On page 13, number 1560 lists E.M. Bannister as winning a Centennial Medal in 1876 and a a medal in Boston in 1878. The painting The Hill-side Pasture is listed. Copy at the Smithsonian Institution.

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McCaskill, Barbara and Caroline Gebhard, editors. Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem: African American Literature and Culture, 1877–1919. New York: NYU Press, 2006.

Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem offers fresh perspectives on the literary and cultural achievements of African American men and women during this critically neglected, though vitally important, period of our nation's past. Using a wide range of disciplinary approaches, the sixteen scholars gathered here offer both a reappraisal and celebration of African American cultural production during these influential decades. Alongside discussions of political and artistic icons such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and James Weldon Johnson are essays revaluing figures such as the writers Paul and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, the New England painter Edward Mitchell Bannister, and Georgia-based activists Lucy Craft Laney and Emmanuel King Love. Chapter on Bannister begins on page 59.

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McElroy, G., Gates, H. and French, C. Facing history. San Francisco, Calif: Bedford Arts, Publ., 1990.

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Jan. 13-Mar. 25 and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y., Apr. 20-June 25, 1990. The exhibition includes more than 100 paintings, sculptures, and drawings by over 60 artists. The catalogue looks at the work of over 70 artists, including Bannister and attempts to show how their work reflects changing attitudes about Blacks, and examines the efforts of African-American artists to counter old stereotypes.

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Miner, George Leland. Angell's Lane: the history of a little street in Providence. Providence: Akermann-Standard Press, 1948.

A history of Angell’s Lane, now Thomas Street. In Appendix B, Bannister is included in a list of Rhode Island Artists up to the twentieth century.

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Miner, George Leland; Worthington, William Chesley; Atwood, Louis D. Providence Art Club, 1880– 2005. Providence, Rhode Island: Providence Art Club, 2006.

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Nacheman, Elinor, Unveiled: A Directory and Guide to 19th Century Born Artists Active in Rhode Island and Where to Find Their Work in Publicly Accessible Rhode Island Collections, Pawtucket, E.L. Nacheman, 2007. 

Available through the Rhode Island Historical Society Robison Research Center.

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Nell, William Cooper, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution: With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: To Which Is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition and Prospects of Colored Americans. Boston: Robert Wallcut, 1855. 

In an essay about Dr, John DeGrasse, Nell, on Page 318, describes how Bannister’s painting The Ship Outward Bound is hanging on the doctor’s wall in a gilt frame made by Jacob Andrews. Nell says that the painting and the frame was a gift to DeGrase.

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Otfinoski, Steven. 2011. African Americans in the Visual Arts. N.p.: Facts on File.

Provides a somewhat detailed biography with a short list of references.

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Ott, J.K.  Edward Mitchell Bannister 1828-1901: The Barbizon School in Providence. Exhibition Catalogue. Providence: Olney Street Baptist Church, 1965.

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Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans: African American History and its Meanings 1619 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

148 illustrations (110 in color), 4 maps, bibliography, and index. A valuable reference for its images. A historical and cultural narrative that stretches from Africa to hip-hop with unusual attention paid to visual work. However, Painter is a historian not an art historian and therefore deals with the art in summary fashion. Artists named include Bannister.

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Paintings by African Americans from the collection of the National Museum of American Art: A Book of Postcards. Portland: Pomegranate Publishers, 1991.

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Patton, Sharon F. African American Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

This book is illustrated throughout in color and in black and white, with notes, a list of illustrations, timeline, and index. Excellent new survey covering approximately 108 artists from Scipio Moorhead to Dawoud Bey, including 22 women artists. Bannister is included.

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Pease, Jane H. They Who Would be Free, Black’s Search for Freedom, 1830-1861. New York: Atheneum Press, 1974.

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Perry, Regenia. Free Within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art. Portland: Pomegranate Publishers, 1992.

Free within ourselves, drawn entirely from the National Museum of American Art's collection of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by more than one hundred African-American artists, serves as a guide to the art and lives of thirty-one of these artists and an introduction to African-American art of the past two centuries. Chapter on Bannister begins on page 23.

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Perry, Regenia A. 19 Selections of Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976.

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Porter, James A. Ten Afro-American artists of the nineteenth century : an exhibition commemorating the centennial of Howard University, February 3-March 30, 1967. Washington : Gallery of Art, Howard University, 1967.

Contents include Joshua Johnston, Patrick H. Reason, Robert S. Duncanson, Eugene Warburg, Edward M. Bannister, Julian Hudson, Edmonia Lewis, William Simpson, Annie E. Walker and Henry Ossawa Tanner. Contains selected works by 41 artists including Edward Bannister.

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Porter, James. Modern Negro Art. New York: Dryden Press, 1943.

Discussion of Bannister begins with Chapter Three: Transition to Freedom, page 54. Quotes John Arnold as saying, “From the first he [Bannister] followed no master nor any school, nothing but his own instincts.” Online version is available at: 

https://monoskop.org/images/f/fa/Porter_James_Modern_Negro_Art_sm.pdf

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Providence Art Club. First Exhibition, May 11, 1880

Catalogue of the first exhibition of art by the Providence Art Club. Edward Bannister is listed as a member of the Executice Committee. A number of his paintings are also listed in the catalogue.

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Providence Art Club. Edward Mitchel (sic) Bannister Memorial Exhibition, May, 1901. Listing of works included.

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Quarles, Benjamin. Black Abolitionists. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.

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Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1953.

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Ransaw, Lee, and Peggy Blood. 2014. Below the Surface: Ethnic Echoes in America's Modern and Contemporary Art. N.p.: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

Offers an interesting comparison of John Constable and Bannister beginning on page 4.

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Reef, Catherine. 1999. Africans in America: the spread of people and culture. N.p.: Facts on File.

Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art. Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1828-1901, Providence Artist; An exhibition organized by the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design for the Museum of African Art, Frederick Douglass Institute, Washington, D.C. Providence, March 23-April 3, 1966. Providence: 1966.

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Rhode Island School of Design. Catalogue of the Rhode Island School of Design, 1902 - 1903. Providence: Dart and Bigelow, 1903.

Page 41, Isaac C. Bates lent two landscapes by Bannister to the museum.

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State of Rhode Island, Department of Education Division of Development and Operations, The Rhode Island Box, Teacher's Guide. 1976.

Offers a program of study about Rhode Island. A section on the arts include lessons about Edward Bannister starting on page 130.

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Riggs, Thomas, Dodson, H., & Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. St. James Guide to Black Artists. Amsterdam University Press, 1997.

The St. James Guide to Black Artists, published in 1997, contains information on almost four hundred black artists from around the world including Bannister. At the time, the Guide was a unique publication as it covered a significant number of artists and provided short critical essays accompanying each entry. 

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Robinson, William. Blacks in Ninteenth-Century Rhode Island, An Overview. n.p. Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, Providence, Rhode Island.

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Roses, Lorraine. Black Bostonians and the Politics of Culture, 1920–1940. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2017.

In this book, Lorraine Elena Roses uses archival sources and personal interviews to recover this artistic output, examining the work of celebrated figures such as Dorothy West, Helene Johnson, Meta Warrick Fuller, and Allan Rohan Crite, as well as lesser-known artists including Eugene Gordon, Ralf Coleman, Gertrude "Toki" Schalk, and Alvira Hazzard. Black Bostonians and the Politics of Culture, 1920–1940 demonstrates how this creative community militated against the color line not solely through powerful acts of civil disobedience but also by way of a strong repertoire of artistic projects. Bannister is mentioned on page 28.

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Rosenfeld, Michael. African American Art: 200 Years. 40 Distinctive Voices Reveal the Breadth of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Art. New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2008.

Fully illustrated, 156 pages and 62 full-sized color plates, featuring essays by Jonathan P. Binstock and Lowery Stokes Sims.

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Rubertone, Patricia.  Native Providence: Memory, Community, and Survivance in the Northeast. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020.

Patricia E. Rubertone chronicles the survival of the Native people who stayed, left and returned; who faced involuntary displacement by urban renewal; who briefly lived in Provi­dence, or who made their presence known both there and in the wider indigenous and settler-colonial worlds. These individuals reenvision the city’s past through everyday experiences and document the tactics of inequality that erased Native people from most nineteenth- and early twentieth-century history. Christiana Bannister appears on pages 257 - 259.

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Samuels, Linda. An exhibit on the races of mankind. Nashville: Hemphill Press, 1946.

Originally published and distributed by the Isthmian Negro Youth Congress, Acon, Canal Zone, Panama. Edward Bannister is referred to on page 29 as a “painter of international stature.” 

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Schwab, Tess. African Americans: Seeing and Seen, 1766-1916. New York: Babcock Galleries, 2010.

An exhibition catalog with color illustrations and a bibliography. Foreword by John Driscoll. Curated by Tess Sol Schwab. Mostly images of African American subjects by white or unknown artists. Among the few works by black artists are: a photograph of three young girls by James Presley Ball, Scipio Moorhead's frontispiece portrait engraving of Phillis Wheatley, landscapes by Edward M. Bannister, Grafton Tyler Brown, Robert S. Duncanson, a pastel portrait also by Duncanson, and "Midday, Tangiers" by Henry Ossawa Tanner. [Traveled to: Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA, thru May 30, 2010.]

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Schwarz, Robert. Fine American And European Paintings. Philadelphia: Schwarz Gallery, 1991.

Exhibition catalog including works by Bannister.

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Simmons, William and Henry Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. Scott Valley: CreateSpace, 2011.

An anthology of 177 short biographies of African-American men written by Rev. William J. Simmons, a Baptist minister and college administrator. The book has been called the "single most authoritative work on nineteenth-century African Americans." Bannister is discussed in chapter 175.

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Sims-Wood, Janet L., and Lenwood G. Davis. 1980. Black Artists in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography of Books, Articles, and Dissertations on Black Artists, 1779-1979. N.p.: Greenwood Press.

A well researched annotated bibliography with multiple references to Bannister.

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Smith, Jessie Carney. Notable Black American women, Book 3. Detroit: Gale Research, 2003.

Provides brief biographies of business executives, writers, journalists, lawyers, physicians, actresses, singers, musicians, artists, educators, religious leaders, civil rights activists, politicians, aviators, athletes, and scientists including a biography by George Milite on Christiana Carteaux Bannister.

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Smith, Jessie Carney, editor. “Bannister, Christiana Carteaux (1819 - 1902).” Encyclopedia of African Business. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLEO, 2018.

Discussion of Christiana appears on pages 43 - 45.

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Stetson, Charles Walter. Endure; the Diaries of Charles Walter Stetson; ed. By Mary Armfield Hill. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1985.

Numerous references to Edward Bannister who was friend and fellow artist.

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Stewart, Jeffrey C. 1998. 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History. N.p.: Crown.

Offers a short biography of Edward Bannister.

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Taha, Halima. Collecting African American Art: Works on Paper and Canvas. New York: Crown, 1998.

"An informed and persuasive how-to guide to collecting in general and more specifically to collecting African American art... The fascinating and fertile diversity of the many examples illustrated ...colorfully proclaim the visual rewards that await those who follow the authors wise counsel." --Elisabeth Garrett, senior vice president, Christie's There are multiple references to Bannister.

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Taylor, William and Harriet Warkel. A Shared Heritage: Art by Four African Americans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.

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On page 42, the author argues that Bannister was initially influenced by the Hudson River School style and ultimately by the Barbizon School.

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Weber, Bruce, and William Henry Gerdts. In Nature's Ways. West Palm Beach, Fla.: The Gallery, 1987.

Exhibitions catalogue. Exhibitions held at Norton Gallery of Art, Feb. 21-Apr. 12, 1987; National Academy of Design, May 8-Aug. 16, 1987; and Terra Museum of American Art, Sept. 10-Nov. 1, 1987. Bannister is referred to several times in the Introduction. Includes bibliographical references.

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Weintraub, Aileen. How to Draw Rhode Island’s Sights and Symbols (A Kid’s Guide to Drawing America). New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, 2001.

A children’s drawing book focused on Rhode Island artifacts. There is a short biographical essay on Bannister starting on page 8.

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Women in R.I. History Making a Difference, Providence, The Providence Journal Company, 1994.

A collection of short biographical sketches of Woman in Rhode Island history. An article on Christiana by Karen A. Davis appears on page 8. A digital copy is available through the Rhode Island Historical Society.

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Woods, Naurice Frank and George Dimock. Race and Racism in Nineteenth-Century Art: The Ascendency of Robert Duncanson, Edward Bannister, and Edmonia Lewis. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2021.

Author Naurice Frank Woods Jr. provides an in-depth examination of the strategies deployed by Duncanson, Bannister, and Lewis that enabled them not only to overcome prevailing race and gender inequality, but also to achieve a measure of success that eventually placed them in the top rank of nineteenth-century American art.

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Woodson, Carter. Negro Makers of History. Washington, D.C.: The Associated publishers, inc, 2008.

Public school textbook on African-American history. Bannister is mentioned on pages 188 and 189.

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Workman, Robert. The Eden of America: Rhode Island Landscapes, 1820-1920. Providence, Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art. 1986.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, January 24 to April 27, 1986. Short biographies of artists, including Bannister are included.

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Worthington, W. Chesley. There’s This About the Providence Art Club.” Pamphlet of March 2, 1977 address. Bannister Papers.  Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, Providence, Rhode Island.

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Zellman, Michael D. 1986. American Art Analog. N.p.: Chelsea House Publishers, Vol. 1.

Offers a short biography on page 229.