An aerial view of the Triangle Block of Williamsburg, VA, from the Triangle Block Scrapbook in the Quo Vadis Wright Family Collection.
Quo Vadis and her family. Top row left (Johnathan Wright, Juan Wright, Glen Carter II, Glen Carter I, John Wright, Johnas Wright, Carol Dubois, Adrianna Carter, Johnella Carter) Bottom row starting from the right (Joanna Wright, Andrea Claiborne, Suzanna Wright, Joshua Wright, Quo Vadis Wright). Photo courtesy of Johnella Carter and Andrea Claiborne.
Johnella Carter and Andrea Claiborne during filming of the The Village Initiative documentary project about the Triangle Block community. Photo courtesy of Amy Quark
By Sarah Thompson, W&M Libraries
Quo Vadis saved and recorded everything. As an avid historian of African American history, she knew that everyday items like receipts, school notebooks, medical records, and photo albums were important to preserve the past. Over the years she collected family records that chronicled local Williamsburg history. She envisioned that one day her archive would champion the legacy of the Historic Triangle Block.
With materials dating back to the 1890s to the 1970s, the Quo Vadis Wright Family Papers, an 18-box collection in W&M Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center, recounts the story of the Historic Triangle Block, a Black residential and business district just a few streets away from today’s Colonial Williamsburg that was displaced by the city in the 1970s under the guise of urban renewal.
“It was almost like being able to step back in time when these situations or occasions were really happening, and she had them right in her closet,” said Andrea Claiborne, granddaughter of Quo Vadis Wright.
Claiborne and her mother Johnella Carter, daughter of Quo Vadis Wright, and other descendants of the Triangle Block community are working with the Village Initiative to produce a documentary project about the community, in tandem with tours and teaching that they currently do. The Quo Vadis Wright Family Papers are an important resource for the project.
“It's going to bring the community to life on the big screen for our local community and we hope for a national community,” said Amy Quark, professor of sociology, W&M partner at the Village Initiative, and co-producer of the documentary with founder of the Village Initiative Jacqueline Bridgeforth Williams. “I feel just so privileged to have a chance to work with these documents.”
The papers are growing in popularity due to campus and community teaching efforts, which has increased the need for easier access to the materials. Through the hard work of the digital services team at W&M Libraries, the collection is now available online.
“She foresaw that this was needed,” Carter said about her mother’s archival instincts. “I’m so excited to represent my mom, my grandmother, my uncle, my great grandparents, and their legacy, which we felt was ripped away from us.”
Quo Vadis in Latin translates to “where are you going.” As a community historian she embodied the idea that you don’t know where you’re going unless you know where you came from. She entrusted William & Mary to continue that mission, which the Special Collections Research Center intends to push forward.
“Now when [patrons] come in to learn about Williamsburg history, they are seeing a more complete history,” said Meghan Bryant, Frances Lightfoot Robb Head of Special Collections Public Services & Instruction.
The digitization of her papers creates opportunities for more efforts like the Village Initiative’s Local Black Histories Project and makes resources for teaching readily available.
“It gives me some confidence in the future that we're able to express this information, to use this information to benefit more than just ourselves,” Carter said.
View the digitized collection of the Quo Vadis Wright Family Papers.