About this exhibit

This digital exhibit is built on the work of Professor Gerald Gill (1948-2007) First exhibited in 1988, the Another Light on the Hill exhibit sought to tell the often-overlooked story of black alumni. The physical exhibit was staged three separate times before 2002 when Professor Gill wrote a version of Another Light on the Hill manuscript for publication in Tufts Magazine. A portion of the Another Light on the Hill exhibit is on permanent display at the Africana Center at Tufts University.

In 2021 and 2022, Tufts DCA (now Tufts Archival Research Center) substantially expanded the exhibit including the creation of a new physical exhibit in the Coolidge Room in Ballou Hall. Funding for the design and installation of the physical exhibit was provided by the Office of President and Tufts Digital Collections and Archives as part of the University’s Public Art anti-racism workstream. This exhibit was designed to be the first in a series replacing the portraits of Tufts presidents formerly occupying the walls of the Coolidge Room.

Most of the resources from the original exhibits were drawn from archival collections held by Tufts Archival Research Center (TARC) at Tufts University. In 2007, TARC began a collaboration with Professor Gill to recreate the physical exhibit as a permanent digital exhibit. This work ceased when Professor Gill passed away suddenly in July 2007.

Where possible, TARC has maintained the voice and stylistic choices of Professor Gill's manuscript. You can read the original manuscript in its entirety in the Tufts Digital Library.

Tufts students, alumni, and faculty interested in participating in further contributing to this exhibit are encouraged to contact Tufts Archival Research Center.

Quotes attributed to "Gill, Another Light on the Hill" were written by Gerald Gill and taken, verbatim, from an undated manuscript.

The exhibit was built and written by Sari Mauro, Digital Collections Project Manager at Tufts University, Digital Collections and Archives (now Tufts Archival Research Center) with assistance from Alejandra Garcia (A2019) in 2017. The 2022 iteration of the exhibit was researched and edited by Cat Rosch AG22 in 2022.

Tufts Archival Research Center is grateful to Ayanna Gill for donating the Gerald R. Gill Papers to DCA (now TARC) in 2016, the event that led to the creation of this exhibit. DCA would also like to thank Jeanne Penvenne and Beatrice Manz of the Department of History, Boris Hassleblatt, and Kendra Field of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy for their assistance in acquiring the Gill papers.