Historically Speaking: All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake with Dr. Tiya Miles

NMAAHC’s Robert Frederick Smith Explore Your Family History Center hosts author and historian Tiya A. Miles of Harvard University as she metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained — and crafts an extraordinary testament to the people often left out of our nation’s stories and archives.

Current finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for nonfiction, All That She Carried tells the story of Ashley’s sack, an object handed down through three generations of Black women and later displayed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.