Beard, Derrick Joshua  papers, 1995-1996 | Amistad Research Center

Construction and real estate developer Derrick Joshua Beard is considered one of the pre-eminent collectors of African Americana. His collection of decorative arts, books, documents, photographs, and other items has been widely exhibited around the United States. Derrick Joshua Beard was born in Chicago in 1958. He is the descendent of free Blacks who were artisans in Alabama, and interest in the arts runs throughout his family. Beard was identified as artistically gifted at an early age. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and later received a scholarship to the Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Michigan, where he studied under Michael Hall. Hall's interest in folk art influenced Beard's own interest in the topic. Beard received a bachelor's degree in Urban Economics from the University of Chicago in 1980. After graduation, he worked at a variety of jobs, including positions with an architectural firm in Chicago, a stock broker, and an engineering firm. He eventually founded his own construction and real estate firm in Houston, Texas. His company later expanded into Louisiana; work in the city of New Orleans increased Beard's interest in African American history. Beard's collecting began to incorporate the African Diaspora after meeting Haitian artist Gerald Thomas. Today, Beard's private collection related to African Americans and the Diaspora is considered one of the largest of its kind.Sources:
"Drapetomania: A Disease Called Freedom. An Exhibition of 18th-, 19th-, and Early 20th-Century Material Culture of the African Experience in the Americas from the Collection of Derrick Joshua Beard" http://www.broward.org/library/bienes/lii13000.htm (Accessed 7/16/2009)

African American art - Collectors and collecting
African American book collectors
African American history
African Americans - Caricatures and cartoons
Muslims - United States - 19th century - sources
Said, Omar ibn, 1770?-1863 or 4