The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley has acquired a collection of materials from Mildred Howard, a Black artist from the Berkeley community.
Howard’s collection chronicles her more than five-decades-long career. The archive contains datebooks, exhibit announcements and catalogs, newspaper clippings, letters, fragments of unfinished artworks, and sketches. It also features materials dating back before she was born, including photographs documenting the lives of her parents and grandparents during the early twentieth century in Galveston, Texas.
Born in San Francisco, Howard and her family moved to South Berkeley when she was young. She graduated from Berkeley High School, studied fashion at the College of Alameda, and earned her master of fine arts degree from John F. Kennedy University. Across her career, Howard created multiple public-art installations and worked in a wide range of styles, including photography, sculpture, drawings, and more.
Recently, Howard was awarded honorary doctorates from the California College of the Arts and California State University, East Bay. In 2025, she received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
“What we’re looking at in her archive are materials that help us understand who she is,” said Christine Hult-Lewis, curator of pictorial collections at the Bancroft Library. “It’s such an interesting cross section of mixed media — all the different pieces that go into the incredible hopper of Mildred Howard’s mind.”
After the new archive is processed by scholars at the Bancroft Library, Howard’s collection will be made available to the public.
