Mythical ‘Afric-American Picture Gallery’ turns into reality in new exhibit at Delaware’s Winterthur Museum

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In 1859, a writer for “The Anglo-American,” a Black magazine published out of New York City, shared his most treasured discovery with his readers: “I stumbled over the Afric-American Picture Gallery, which has since become one of my dearest retreats.”

The writer, identified as Ethiop, describes in detail the objects in that gallery, such as a picture of a slave ship moored in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1609; an image of the first person to be killed in the American Revolution, a Black man named Crispus Attucks; the heroes of the Haitian Revolution of 1804; and a bust of Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman in Boston who was the first Black poet to be published.

“The walls are spacious, and contain ample room for more, and, in many instances, better paintings,” Ethiop wrote. “And many niches yet vacant for busts and statues.”

None of this is true. The gallery never existed.

Ethiop was the pseudonym of William J. Wilson, a writer and schoolteacher who, in 1859, invented what he believed should be real: a place that gathered the history, accomplishments, thoughts and art of Americans of African descent.

Now, Winterthur Museum in Delaware has turned Wilson’s fancy into reality in a new exhibition titled “Almost Unknown: The Afric-American Picture Gallery,” opening Saturday.

Curator Jonathan Square pulled objects from Winterthur’s collection that either resemble Wilson’s description or are in its spirit.

He turned Wilson’s whim of imagination and cultural criticism into an immersive carnival ride through Black history and art inspired by “casinos, Jordan Peele films and ‘The Shining,’ which I absolutely love,” he said.

“Like Dickens meets Edgar Allan Poe meets modern sci-fi,” said Winterthur’s Director of Collections Alexandra Deutsch. “It’s so crooked. It’s so unexpected. It’s so quirky and takes you on all these bends. Sometimes it is gentle and how it’s describing things, and sometimes it isn’t.”

“Almost Unknown” moves like a haunted attraction with false walls dividing the gallery space into switch-backing hallways, some with dramatically dark lighting and sound effects.

In his seven serialized columns about the fictitious Afric-American Picture Gallery, Wilson goes in odd directions. What starts out as a description of an exhibition of his own mind’s eye becomes a journey into strange places.

Wilson travels to Mount Vernon, the historic home of George Washington, which in this account is a largely forgotten and ruined plot of land “somewhere in Virginia,” with little remaining but toppled stones and the ghosts of the people held in slavery by the first president.

Even the coffin in which Washington was buried has been dug up and desecrated. An enslaved person is seen gathering his bones and offering them for sale.

“He describes Mount Vernon in decadence, like it’s in ruins because it’s a physical manifestation of his ruined, sullied, besmirched legacy,” Square said. “Remember, this was written in 1859. This wasn’t a moment of people being critical of Founding Fathers. People are barely being critical of Founding Fathers in 2025.”

After Mount Vernon, the journey suddenly plunges into a “Black Forest,” a psychic liminal space described by Wilson as a “two-day journey by stage and by foot” through a dark landscape populated by dangerous adversaries such as a slave-catcher, and hermit-like eccentrics who dazzled the narrator with their wisdom.

“The frost of at least ninety winters must have fallen upon his head, and yet had not chilled him,” Wilson said, describing a stranger as resembling a “forest tree.” “Never before did I witness such a flood of knowledge poured forth from the lips of man.”

“It’s a wacky text,” Square said. “It starts off very linear. He’s describing objects in the exhibition, but then in the middle of the text he goes down a journey into a dark black forest. There is literally a black forest that we’ve recreated in the exhibition.”

Part of the impetus for Wilson’s flight of fancy was a call for Black creatives to control the story of Black Americans, who were often depicted by white newspapers, cartoons and novels as broad caricatures, at best.

Square included in the exhibition a cartoon circa 1830 created by Edward Williams Clay for his series “Life In Philadelphia,” depicting a ball of prosperous Black residents, rendered in grossly racist exaggerations.

Square said Wilson was responding to popular depictions like “Life in Philadelphia” as he urged Black Americans to “write our own lecture, paint our own picture, chisel our own bust.”

“There are a lot of understudied African American figures from the 19th century that deserve more attention,” Square said. “People focus on Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Those folks are important and need to continue getting attention, but there are other figures who had very complex and fascinating lives like William J. Wilson, or Mary Ann Shadd, or Martin Delaney.”

“Almost Unknown” will be on view at Winterthur until Jan. 4.