Introduction to Ruth Anna Fisher
In the first half of twentieth-century America, substantial barriers existed for both women and people of color that often restricted their entry into the predominantly white and male intellectual sphere. These barriers were particularly challenging for African American women such as historian and archivist Ruth Anna Fisher who, doubly affected by both racism and sexism, faced limited access to higher education and entrance into the professional archival world. Despite these challenges, Fisher was able to become an influential archivist and historian for the Carnegie Institute and the Library of Congress at the British Museum in London. Fisher’s very status as a black woman archivist was a work of activism and racework due to the contested nature of the archives themselves.
Archives have always been a contested space for historians because of the very nature of power involved in their creation and upkeep. It is no surprise that the same white men who ruled the academic and political spheres were the same men who had the most say in keeping and organizing documents in the archives. Thus, these men were the ones who controlled knowledge production through both the physical organization and publication of documents in archival spaces and the subsequent analytical work of these documents. The stories that were chosen to be told were typically those of “great” white men, thus the records of the historical contributions and mere existence of black and female figures in the archives have often been erased, vilified, and ignored. This was still true when Ruth Anna Fisher moved to London and began to work for the Library of Congress doing archival work in the British Museum.
Fisher received her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1906. During this period, Oberlin College was, as it still is, a comparatively liberal institution and was a place where Fisher could experience a relatively unassailed educational experience. However, Post-Oberlin, Fisher remained unsatisfied with the opportunities of the United States. Though she taught various subjects such as English and Civics throughout the United States and Canada, was briefly involved with the Tuskegee Institute, and operated the YWCA in New York City, she remained relatively unfulfilled before she was sponsored to study at the London School of Economics. In London, Fisher earned a research and archival opportunity at the British Museum where she worked with documents pertaining to American history for the Carnegie Institute and, later, the Library of Congress. The objective of this interactive page is to situate Fisher amongst her contemporaries as not only an influential black woman but as a proper scholar of American history and Pan-Africanism in her own right. Here, we will offer viewers the opportunity to engage with primary sources pertaining to Fisher’s life and work in order to attempt to illustrate Fisher’s identity as a black woman expatriate and the influence of this status on her work as an archivist, her historical research, and her scholarly writing.
Ruth Anna Fisher was truly an extraordinary archivist and historian. According to one obituary, she photo-stated approximately 100,000 documents a year while working in London at the British Museum.[i] Her sponsor and friend, James Franklin Jameson referred to Fisher as a “very clever… learned, accurate, businesslike” woman “who knows the materials in the Public Record Office better than anyone does…” thus highlighting Fisher’s incredible talents at archival work.[ii] Not only was Fisher an impressive archivist in this regard, but her status as a black woman producing knowledge about black history within a space traditionally dominated by and telling stories to advance the political, social, and cultural agendas of white men makes her that much more outstanding. Fisher’s ideas about the study of history and the exclusion of black voices in the narrative of American history came at a time when black history as a discipline was just emerging. Through her voice, African-Americans could stake a claim not only on the archives, but on their historical agency as well.
[i] Clipping from The Washington Post containing Ruth Anna Fisher’s Obituary, January 31,
1975, Box 329, Ruth Anna Fisher Student File, Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin, OH.
[ii] August Meier and Elliott Rudwick. "J. Franklin Jameson, Carter G. Woodson, and the Foundations of BlackHistoriography." The American Historical Review 89, no. 4 (1984): 1005-015. doi:10.2307/1866402.