Lydia T. Black
Encyclopedia
Lydia T. Black was an American anthropologist.
She won an American Book Award
American Book Award
The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...

 for Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka, 1802 And 1804.

Life

She grew up in Kiev. Her father was executed in 1933, and her mother died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 in 1941. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, she was sent to a German forced labor camp. After the war, in Munich, she was a janitor. She was enlisted by the Americans as a translator, at the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations in 1945, was especially active in 1945 and 1946, and largely shut down...

 displaced children’s camp, since she could speak six languages.
She married Igor Black, and immigrated in 1950.

She graduated from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

 with a B.A., and M.A. in 1971, and University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a Ph.D. in 1973.
She taught at Providence College
Providence College
Providence College is a private, coeducational, Catholic university located about two miles west of downtown Providence, Rhode Island, United States, the state's capital city. With a 2010–2011 enrollment of 3,850 undergraduate students and 735 graduate students, the College specializes in academic...

 beginning in 1973. She taught at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks, located in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska System, and is abbreviated as Alaska or UAF....

 from 1984 to 1998. She worked translating and cataloging the Russian archives of Saint Herman's Orthodox Theological Seminary
Saint Herman's Orthodox Theological Seminary
Saint Herman’s Orthodox Theological Seminary is an Orthodox Christian seminary located in Kodiak, Alaska, with a campus in Anchorage. Established as a pastoral school in 1972, the seminary now provides a number of educational programs to prepare students for work in the Orthodox Church, as readers,...

, earning the Cross of St. Herman.
In April 2001, she, along with fellow anthropologist and historian and close colleague Richard Pierce, historians Barbara Sweetland Smith, John Middleton-Tidwell, and Viktor Petrov
Viktor Petrov
Viktor Petrov was a prominent Ukrainian existentialist writer. He signed his works with pen names Viktor Domontovych and Viktor Ber . Together with Valerian Pidmohylny Petrov is considered to be the founder of the Ukrainian intellectual novel. Although Petrov is remembered as a writer today,...

 (posthumous), was decorated by the Russian Federation with the Order of Friendship Medal
Order of Friendship
The Order of Friendship is a state decoration of Russia established by decree # 442 of March 2, 1994 of the President of the Russian Federation....

, which they received at the Russian consulate in San Francisco.

She is buried at Kodiak City Cemetery.

Family

She married Igor A. Black (died 1969), an engineer for NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

contractors; they had four daughters.

External links

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