Witnesses to History: Historic Moments Documented within Family Photo Albums in the Kislak Center

Samantha Hill

Samantha Hill is the Curator of Civic Engagement at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.  She holds master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, School of Information, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Before coming to Penn, Samantha worked as an artist and educator to produce archive-based exhibits, educational projects, and presentations for academic and cultural institutions.  Samantha developed exhibitions and projects for the Anchorage Museum, the Block Museum at Northwestern University, the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture at the University of Chicago.  She is also the creator of the Kinship Project, a community archive of photographs and artifacts from African American families dated between 1839 to 2012.   

As the Curator of Civic Engagement, Samantha continues this work by collecting and preserving Philadelphia's diverse contemporary histories and cultures.  She collaborates with community organizations to develop digital archives and programs, which will extend online access of the collections to researchers, students and the public.