A Decade of Success: ‘Creative Mind’ Traveling Exhibit Spotlights Prominent Black Scientists and Researchers
Feature Story
By Joshua Blatt
Last update February 23, 2022
Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1950s and 1960s, Shirley Malcom lived in a segregated community. But when she went off to the University of Washington to study zoology, she found she was usually the only Black woman in her science classes, according to a reflection Malcom penned in Science.
Unfortunately, these early experiences Malcom faced were not unique, as she went on to document in the landmark 1976 report The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science. Science education programs across the country often excluded minorities, the report says, and those that included minorities tended to favor men — making opportunities in science doubly difficult for minority women to access. Malcom went on to dedicate her career to opening science fields to underrepresented groups and promoting educational science and technology programs.
Malcom is just one of the many exceptional scientists featured in “The Creative Mind,” a traveling exhibit by the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) that celebrates African Americans in medicine, mathematics, engineering, and across the branches of science. The exhibit, which made its debut 10 years ago, consists of seven panels — 3 feet wide and over 7 feet tall — each dedicated to notable Black scientists in a particular field. The exhibit explores their great achievements, discoveries, and inventions, along with facts about the field and various career paths within it.
Among the other scientists and engineers highlighted are Warren Washington, an atmospheric scientist who pioneered the use of computers to model and predict climate change, and Christine Darden, a mathematical engineer who made invaluable contributions to NASA’s missions through her research on sonic booms and high-speed aerodynamics.
The exhibit grew out of an initiative at the National Academies in the 1980s, led by staff member Sandra Matthews, to collect portraits of Black scientists and researchers, in order to heighten awareness of their outstanding contributions. The portrait collection proved to be popular — it is still growing and open to the public at the National Academy of Sciences building — so the traveling exhibit was produced out of a desire to share these stories with a wider audience.
“‘The Creative Mind’ gives visibility to the contributions of trailblazing African Americans working in the sciences, engineering, and medical fields from the late 19th century to the present,” said Alana Quinn, a senior program associate in CPNAS. “With this exhibit, we want to help give them the recognition they deserve. We also hope that it will inspire African American students to consider STEM careers and to imagine themselves achieving great things.”
Soon after launching “The Creative Mind,” the National Academies found it had underestimated the public’s appetite for the stories of scientists like Malcom. Additional sets of the panels had to be produced so the exhibit could be displayed in several places at once. Since its creation, the exhibit has traveled to museums, universities, libraries, schools, and community centers across 19 states and the District of Columbia.
The exhibit is currently on display at the Harrison Museum of African American Culture in Roanoke, Virginia; Southview Middle School in Ankeny, Iowa; and Nauticus, a maritime museum and STEM discovery center in Norfolk, Virginia. Nauticus is featuring “The Creative Mind” as part of its annual Afrofuturism celebration, during which it honors past and present achievements and stories, and also works to imagine the future.
“The exhibit has been a big hit,” said Rachel Harrington, the education manager at Nauticus. “We’ve been able to create several programs around the work of the scientists in the exhibit that help young visitors see themselves in science and technology careers.”
Among other exhibit-inspired activities, visitors can read about Mae Jemison — the first Black woman to travel into space — and then build their own play rocket ship, or follow in the footsteps of Charles Drew by experimenting with (fake) blood to learn about how it congeals, a critical factor that affects lifesaving blood transfusions.
The public’s interest in the inspirational stories of creative minds like Darden, Drew, Jemison, Malcom, and Washington has only grown over the years. Ten years of sustained travel has taken a physical toll on the exhibit sets, however. CPNAS recently produced three new copies of the exhibit, to ensure that “The Creative Mind” can continue its extended national tour for another decade.
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