Dear Yesteryear

Dear Yesteryear is written as a letter to the past, one that links Black history to the present day. Kimberly Annece Henderson, a historical curator and researcher, pairs her lyrical text with archival photographs and handlettering by Ciara LeRoy.

The book grows out of a project Henderson began in 2020, emaline and 'nem, an Instagram-based archive of portraits of everyday African Americans from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Dear Yesteryear carries that work further. It honors the ancestors whose lives made the present possible and celebrates the ordinary moments of Black American life.