Gail Hansberry

Gail A. Hansberry was born in Washington, D.C. Her mother, Myrtle Kelso Hansberry, taught French in a junior high school. Her father, William Leo Hansberry, was a pioneer in the study of Ancient African History and taught at Howard University from 1922–1959. Hansberry attended public schools and during her 10th grade year she lived in Cairo, Egypt, where her father was a Fulbright Research Scholar. In 1960, Hansberry received her B.A. degree in Art from Howard University and in 1962 she received her M.A. degree in Art History from Smith College, where she took Leonard Baskin’s graphics courses and made a book of hand etchings entitled Insects (1962) – a later enlarged version was entitled Insects and Haiku (1970). In 1962-63 Hansberry worked in the Publications Office of the National Gallery of Art and taught art at Taft Junior High School in Washington, D.C. From 1963–1966 she was an instructor of Art History at North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University) in Durham, N.C. In 1966, Hansberry moved to New York and was a researcher at Time Life Books from 1967-1976. Hansberry returned to Washington, D.C. in 1980 and served as an English Language Officer (ELO) for the U.S. Department of State. Hansberry’s prints and hand-made books are in private collections and at Smith College, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, and the Library of Congress. Her work was included in Legacy, The 2017 African American Art Exhibit at the Friendship Gallery in Chevy Chase, Maryland.