{"id":15149,"date":"2018-03-23T19:36:19","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T19:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2018\/03\/23\/toni-armstrong-19-turns-historical-research-into-an-art\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:53:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:53:39","slug":"toni-armstrong-19-turns-historical-research-into-an-art","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2018\/03\/23\/toni-armstrong-19-turns-historical-research-into-an-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Toni Armstrong \u201919 turns historical research into an art"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Toni Armstrong ’19 didn’t come to Clark University to take it easy.<\/p>\n

In her three years here, the art history<\/a>\/ancient civilization<\/a> double major has indulged her curiosity and demonstrated her talents and passions in ways that span multiple disciplines.<\/p>\n

This kind of workload would be daunting for anyone, but Armstrong has learned to manage. “I need to pursue projects that keep my interest,” she says.<\/p>\n

About Toni Armstrong ’19<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Majors:<\/strong><\/em> Art History<\/a> and Ancient Civilization<\/a>
\nHometown:<\/strong><\/em> North Wales, Pennsylvania<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last spring, Armstrong took History<\/a> Professor Janette Greenwood’s<\/a> “Public History: Race, Photography and Community,”<\/a> a Problems of Practice<\/a> seminar. The course focused on a collection of formal portraits taken by photographer William Bullard at the turn of the last century depicting the African-American community in Worcester’s Beaver Brook neighborhood. The course culminated with a fall exhibition<\/a> of many of the photographs at the Worcester Art Museum<\/a>, which the student researchers helped organize and stage.<\/p>\n

Armstrong’s research focused on the genealogy of the Perkins family, who sat for portraits taken by Bullard.<\/p>\n

“During the course, and a subsequent directed study, I identified and connected over 100 family members from the last 200 years, though there are many more I haven’t yet found,” she says. During the summer, Armstrong found the site where two of her subjects were laid to rest. “It was so moving to stand at the foot of their grave, and know that they were so much more than their photographs could begin to capture.”<\/p>\n

For Armstrong and her peers, Clark supplies opportunities to put their classroom learning into action. “Clark values undergraduate research,” Armstrong says. “That provides me with the opportunities to explore.”<\/p>\n

\"people
Toni Armstrong ’19, left, and Alex Jeannotte ’17, second from left, show records of the Perkins family to descendants and sisters Wendy Byfield, second from right, and Kim Perkins Hampton, as part of research in their Problems of Practice seminar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That love for exploration has taken Armstrong down many avenues, particularly in the arts and humanities. Consider her fall semester. In addition to continued work on the Bullard exhibition, she:<\/p>\n