Dorothy Berry

@dorothyjberry

Archives, DH, Museums, African American studies, C19 and early C20. all opinions my own, not my employer's

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Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· 24d

My godmother, Mother Macaria passed away last week It is not usual practice in Orthodoxy to have monastic godparents but I do. M Macaria had various chronic illnesses and sufferings. She was also a romantic, ecstatic poet, always with busy hands and a humble genius. Here is a poem of hers

Page of poem text - first two stanzas
Title: At Monk's Lagoon

Stanza 1:
I will close my eyes to this seaview
To these ethereal, earthly, sunset hues,
Irridesence of rose amid slate on deep blues
Mirrored in the lagoon's waters for a moment,
This halcyon sea with its inhabitants
Undisturbed in their paradise, resting
Upon the ebb tide and fluid evening.

I will close my eyes on all this scene--
On this sea glass reflecting the illimitable serene
Moment-- an eternity which timelessly ride
On the passing flodd tides
And this stillness beside the sussurant inlet,
Still, though the water is cobbled by a breeze,
Still and watching within the wind's breath.

Page of poem text - third stanza
Title: At Monk's Lagoon

Third Stanza:
Let this watchful stillness of earth and sky
Teach me. For I will close mine eye
To this unfathomable earthly round
And sit beneath the white cross on the mound
For the sake of Thy Name, Thy Name,
My Lord,-- To call upon Thy Name

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jul 15

This gives me the opportunity to share the incredibly depressed insights of 6th-grade me, in my worn copy of The Sorrows of Young Werther

A page from the Sorrows of Young Werther with pink colored pencil underlining a depressing passage

A page from the Sorrows of Young Werther with underlined text with the word "labyrinth" and the marginal note quotes the David Bowie/Jim Henson classic film

A page from the Sorrows of Young Werther with underlined text and the very wise marginal note "life is a struggle between the sane and the artists"

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jul 12

What am I doing on a Saturday night? Reading a Jesuit defense of spinsters

A very happy woman on the cover of a pamphlet titled SPINSTERS ARE WONDERFUL PEOPLE in bright green letters.

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jul 7

During lock down, I was briefly able to convince the head of my library that I had given myself a tattoo out of boredom and I'm really glad I took this screenshot before he joined our Zoom check-in

screen shot of me on zoom showing off a sharpie drawing that i told my boss was a home-made tattoo

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jul 4

I have been a bit tender this week, and so I really went for it when planning my floral fireworks at the farmers market.

A thing about me, before I describe, is that I do not know types of flowers. There are 3 tall glass vases in a back row and 2 smaller bud vases in the front. One glass vase has a bunch of eucalyptus and a really tall, like 2 feet or something, really tall stalk with yellow flowers that have orange edges. There are also some little yellow flowers in there. The two other vases have snapdragons and little yellow flowers, and dara and these other orange, pink, red, and yellow flowers. The small vases in the front have snap dragons.

A thing about me, before I describe, is that I do not know types of flowers. There are 2 tall glass vases in a back row and 2 smaller bud vases in the front. . There are also some little yellow flowers in there. The two other vases have snapdragons and little yellow flowers, and dara and these other orange, pink, red, and yellow flowers. The small vases in the front have snap dragons.

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jul 2

The only "archivist at work" picture of any quality I've ever had is this decade+ shot of me showing Danny Glover some stills from the Richard E Norman collection. He came back to the Black Film Center/Archive the next day and told us about SF in the 70s, and the Spook Who Sat By the Door

A 24-ish year old me showing Danny Glover production stills from one of the earlier film companies focusing on race films

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jun 14

In honor of the Feast of All Saints of North America and of the communal joy of the city of New York, I'd like to introduce you to St. Raphael of Brooklyn and the beautiful cathedral he founded www.oca.org/saints/lives...

Photo of a young-ish S. Raphael of Brooklyn- a man wih lots of dark hair and a big beard, wearing Orthodox clergy clothes (not vestments) and a large pectoral cross

Photo of the consecration of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn, 1920 (five years after S. Raphael departed) with a big crowd of all sorts of people and a lot of flag bunting

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· May 31

you can be on the front page of JazzTimes and they still won't call you an academic without a PhD (I entirely jest, it was just a bit directly in front of me)

Screenshot of the home page of Jazztimes with a photo of Saul Williams center stage and me sitting behind, free jazzing

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· May 29

We all know that "back in the good old days" sort of talk is broadly nonsense and "back in my day we didn't have XYZ social concern" is usually incomplete thinking, but sometimes I think that doesn't give enough credit to the ways the past was progressive. This is from a 1959 YMCA teen manners book.

A page from a 1959 etiquette book for teenage girls explaining that prejudice is like a bacteria against which one needs to build up antibodies, and that the finest antibody is a self of self-worth and healthy relationships towards the world you live in

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· May 11

happy 250

Color cartoon of Nancy (a perfect little girl) in a Lady Liberty costume setting free a bunch of smiling dogs who are in the back of a dog catcher van. In the background, the dog catcher is shocked. Nancy is yelling LIBERTY FOR ALL

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· May 5

the only shopping haul i care about is what you got at the yale university press 50% off sale

e-shopping cart with the books i got at the yale university press sale, including a book of maps on the Transatlantic Slave Trade, a book on the early dress designs at Liberty, a book on Harlem Renaissance stuff from the Beineke, a shaker history and a history of Victorian mass entertainment

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· May 4

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Apr 15

and now for puppets

a spiderwoman and pig butcher paper puppet

a small woman and hairy hermit paper puppet

a cat basket carrying woman and prisoner paper puppet

a frog at a knife fight and business rabbit puppet

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Apr 15

I replied in a quote tweet BUT ALSO for my senior seminar in art criticism/performance I did a capstone piece that was an absurdist puppet theater in black and white, based on German expressionist set design, here are some of the puppets and sets I still have (destroyed the theater itself)

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Mar 23

If you're in Atlanta on Friday, consider signing up for the AUC Art Collective's Archival Activism Symposium- I've been invited to talk about work in conversation with two of my fave people/archivists, Derek Mosley (not pictured) and Holly Smith (archival footage) www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual...

Archival (2018) photo of the best archivist crew ever: Elvia, Zakiya, Holly, Stacie, and Andrea. Six women of color with various gradients of Brown skin and curly hair

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 27

This's been a deeply heinous travel week, but a true high-point was being expertly hosted for a day of book talk/archives chatter with the amazing SILS students at UNC-Chapel Hill. Much love to the student SAA and Black Librarians groups, & esp to the rascal who made a bunch of buttons with my face

A diverse group of very cool library students standing around me, a short woman who is gently nestling a bottle of San Pelegrino for some reason

a table with very cool library-themed stickers and big pin-back buttons with my various headshots on them

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 23

Happy birthday to me! (Stuck out of town because of a blizzard)(flight cancelations push return back three days)

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 19

Most mornings, I get myself a latte, a luxury in my life I'm lucky to afford. This morning, a fellow customer stopped me and said "are you an archivist?" I confirmed in shock and they said "I saw a flyer online for your work and thought, wait isn't she always at the coffee shop?"

two panels of a nancy cartoon: in the first she is walking by a storefront with a sign that says "buy something for the one you love" and in the second she is eating an ice cream sundae

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 17

Thanks to @wehere.bsky.social I have this pretty graphic to show my scheduled book events. I will post specifics on each when I have them, and thanks to everyone who has sent me an invite! I'm open to other possibilities so feel free to reach out (more info on how to do that dorothy-berry.com/thab)

Graphic listing book event schedule for "The House Archives Built" book tour. There are stops in Chapel Hill, Baltimore, Atlanta, Bethlehem PA New Haven CT, Baltimore again, Chicago, and Charleston

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 15

Had my first book event of 2026 this year and, for the first time, got to see something I made for sale with other books! Douglass Day at UAlbany was lovely, and getting to take archives shop with pals in the university archives was the icing on the cake (pictured the actual DDay cake, iced)

Endcap book display at a university bookstore, with my book in the upper right!

A big big sheet cake with decorative red and yellow piping surrounded a very well-done rice paper reproduction of a daguerrotype of Frederick Douglass

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 9

This deeply concerned/realizing-the-futility-of-stuff-faced candid from a seminar class I guess hosted captures my general feelings on self-promotion. On the other hand, I have no publicist so needs must! I made a page with all the info you could want about my book! www.dorothy-berry.com/thab

a grimacing lady sitting in the center of a seminar class, she looks like she is slowly melting into herself, like she just realized this is life. it's not the students' fault, they are all great. it's just life, ya know!

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 7

hey Jim? don't subpost me

oscar the grouch and slimey surrounded by very tall piles of books

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 1

My friends did not win the Grammy they were nominated for tonight (complimentary), but what a joy to perform with them and to hear them perform

Four tall men- Terrance Nance, Surya Botofasina, Saul Williams, and Carlos Niño- with one short woman, me

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 1

What time is it? It's the beginning of my favorite month, and I remain dedicated to being excited about Black History Month, Valentines Day, my birthday, even the beginning of the Lenten Triodion

unlabeled Black serviceman circa 1940s-1950s, mid-split, pointing at the camera, showing off. photo from the YWCA USO collection in the Social Welfare History Archive at University of Minnesota

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Feb 1

This is who runs this account

a hand with green nailpolish holding a photograph of a golden tanned little girl proudly fluffing her recently unbraided afro

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jan 27

my most commented upon baseball cap becomes once again relevant (it says LIFE DISINTEGRATING on the back and is my farmers market cap)

a light skinned lady with a bunch of dark hair sticking out under a brown ballcap that reads KOYAANISQATSI

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jan 19

Imagine the shared absurdity laughs when I sat down at my local for a latte, plopped this book out, and MLK Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech came on the aux

a cup of tea with two ping pong players on the mug next to a yellow book titled "Darkology" sitting on a wooden counter

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Jan 14

My first event on the light but a-lot-for-someone-with-a-separate-full-time-job book tour 2026 celebrates the great Douglass Day tradition of celebrating Douglass' birthday with a @digblk.bsky.social transcribr-athon, and a chance to meet Dr. Autumn Womack!

Advertising flier for February 13, 2026 Douglass Day programming at UAlbany. The posted schedule includes an exhibit opening from 10-10:30, a talk with Dr. Autumn Womack and Dorothy Berry (me!) from 11-12:00 and a three hour transcribe-a-thon from 12:00-3:00

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Dec 25

A 3 1/2 year old I am auntie to is completely sure I am 10 years old. She knows I have an apartment, live on my own, and work at a museum, but responded to these data points with "she is a very smart girl, like me!" Today my best pal gifted me this portrait of me, age 10, busy at my job as curator

A black marker drawing of a small girl in a stripey dress holding a large portfolio. She is wearing both glasses and a bow. She has a speech bubble that reads "I have a grant committee meeting after naptime!"

Dorothy Berry@dorothyjberry· Dec 24

most of my professional notes are in the form of a cartoon of a cat