# Fath Davis Ruffins

Fath Davis Ruffins (September 27, 1954 – November 13, 2024) was a curator and historian at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. She spent her 43-year career preserving and celebrating African American history and culture. She specialized in African American history and culture, racial construction and ethnic identity, museum studies, and public history.

## Early years

Born in Prairie View, Texas to Robert and Myrtle Davis, she graduated as the first black valedictorian of the National Cathedral School in 1972. She earned Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard University, majoring in history and literature.
She began her career as administrative director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard, where she was also pursuing her PhD, but altered course after becoming disenchanted with traditional academia. Leaving Harvard with a MA in the History of American Civilization, she took a job in the admissions office at Sanford University. Later, pivoting to public history, she joined the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in 1981.
She also was one of the first women of Radcliffe College admitted to Harvard.

## Smithsonian

For four decades, Ruffins curated many exhibitions, led the Collection of Advertising History, and became a leading expert on ethnic imagery, African American Preservation, and the origins of ethnic museums on the National Mall.
From 1988 to 2001, she served as lead curator of the Collection. The ‘Collection of Advertising History’ included more than 3,000 advertising clips and numerous publications which date from 1850 to 1920 in the United States. Her projects included work on the Muhammad Ali Center, the African Burial Grounds in New York, and the Many Voices, One Nation, a major Smithsonian exhibition that debuted at the NMAH in 2017. Her work on Black public history including “Revisiting the Old Plantation: Reparations, Reconciliation, and Museumizing American Slavery” was published in "Museum Frictions". Also, “Mythos, Memory, and History: African American Preservation Efforts, 1820–1990” was published in "Museums and Communities" for the Smithsonian. Her passion for broadening historical narratives extended beyond her professional work. A committed mentor, she inspired young scholars through internships, fellowships, and teaching. Her influence shaped a generation of public historians and activists. At the time of her passing, Fath was completing a book on the integration of diverse cultures into the Smithsonian and leading a project on the Lowcountry region of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.

## Publications

Articles Ruffins, Fath Davis, Mieri, Magdalena, Velasquez, L. S., and Woodaman, Ranald. 2024. "Marvette Pérez: A Visionary Smithsonian Curator." Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906241246068. 2024.
Ruffins, Fath Davis. 2022. "Grassroots Museums & the Changing Landscape of the Public Humanities." Daedalus, 151, (3) 108–123. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_01932. 2022.
Franz, Kathleen, Smith, Paul Chaat, Ruffins, Fath Davis, Meyers, Cynthia B., and O'Barr, William M. 2020. "Virtual Colloquium: Smithsonian Curators Reflect on Documenting the Representations of Race/Ethnicity/Diversity in Advertising." Advertising & Society Quarterly, 21, (4). https://doi.org/10.1353/asr.2020.0025. 2020.
Ruffins, Fath Davis. 2018. "Building Homes for Black History: Museum Founders, Founding Directors, and Pioneers, 1915–95." The Public Historian, 40, (3) 13–43. https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2018.40.3.13. 2018.
Ruffins, Fath Davis. 2015. "Student-Led Black material Culture 1968—A Curator's Thoughts." Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, 2, (1) 148–159. https://doi.org/10.15367/kf.v2i1.59. 2015.
Ruffins, Fath Davis. 2007. "Money Makes a Difference: The Impact of Rising Prices on African American Collecting Since 1968." International Review of African American Art, 21, (4) 71–81. 2007.
Ruffins, Fath Davis. 2017. "Contesting the Nation, 1900–1965." In Many Voices, One Nation: Material Culture Reflections on Race and Migration in the United States. Salazar-Porzio, Margaret, Troyano, Joan Fragaszy, and Safranek, Lauren, editors. 137–164. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. In Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. 2017.
Ruffins, Fath Davis. 2008. "The Paradox of Preservation: Gullah Language, Culture and Imagery." In Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art. Rosengarten, Dale, Rosengarten, Theodore, and Schildkrout, Enid, editors. 216–231. New York, NY: Museum for African Art. 2008.
Ruffins, Fath Davis. 2007. [Book review] "Memory in Black and White: Race, Commemoration, and the Post Bellum Landscape by Paul A. Shackel." Visual Anthropology Review, 23, (2), 178–179. https://doi.org/10.1525/var.2007.23.2.177. 2007.
Ruffins, Fath Davis. 1992. "Mythos, Memory and History." I. Karp, C. Kreamer, & S. Lavine (ed.), Museums and Communities. The Politics of Public Culture, pp. 506-611.

## Awards

2018 G. Wesley Johnson Award – National Council on Public History – “Building Homes for Black History: Museum Founders, Founding Directors, and Pioneers, 1915–1995”

## Popular culture

PBS Africans in America/Part 2/Fath Ruffins on blacks' reaction to Dunmore's Proclamation.
WPFW Tribute aired on Sunday Kind of Love 1/19 show WPFWFM.org

## Major exhibitions

After the Revolution- Everyday Life in America, From Victory to Freedom. NMAH

## Death and legacy

in November 2024 while visiting Panama for a Museums of Central America Conference, Ruffins suffered heart complications and was admitted to the emergency room for treatment, she died while undergoing an operation to relieve a blockage. She left behind her husband, Paul Ruffins, children Joy and Robert: her sister, Brenda: Her daughter-in-law, Amberine Huda: and a goddaughter, Taifa Peaks. Through her mentorship, she helped mold a generation of public historians and activists.
On March 13, 2025, the National Museum of American History honored Fath’s legacy with a livestream of the Smithsonians memorial from the Warner Bros. Theater at Smithsonian National Museum of American History. She was also designated Curator Emerita status and a fund in her name at NMAH.