Fath Davis Ruffins

Fath Davis Ruffins is curator of the division of home and community life at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. She is a specialist in ethnic imagery in popular culture and African-American cultural history. Ruffins has curated or consulted on several major exhibitions dealing with the African-American experience, including Tavis Smiley's America I AM exhibition and one of the permanent exhibitions at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, From Slavery to Freedom. Her most recent publication is The Paradox of Preservation: Gullah, Culture and Imagery in Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art (2008). She served as a Center heritage panelist in 2009.