Portraits give an insight into the times and local colour of a place or an institution. This evocative title reproduces a selection of portraits of the professors of the University of Amsterdam commissioned over the centuries since 1632. The collection of these portraits, numbering some 1500, represents the history of the university, as well as the flamboyance and unconventionality of some of the Amsterdam scholars.

"This volume of essays is the first to focus on the Colored Conventions movement, the nineteenth century's longest campaign for Black civil rights. Well before the founding of the NAACP and other twentieth-century pillars of the civil rights movement, tens of thousands of Black leaders organized state and national conventions across North America. Over seven decades, they advocated for social justice and against slavery, protesting state-sanctioned and mob violence while demanding voting, legal, labor, and educational rights. Collectively, these essays highlight the vital role of the Colored Conventions in the lives of thousands of early organizers, including many of the most famous writers, ministers, politicians, and entrepreneurs in the long history of Black activism"--