The Kinsey Collection spans centuries — covering everything from the Civil Rights movement to the Harlem Renaissance and the legacy of slavery.

It’s one of the largest surveys of African American art and history, and it opens in Dallas tomorrow at the African American Museum in Fair Park.

Philanthropist Shirley Kinsey spoke to KERA last year about the collection she started more than 50 years ago with her husband Bernard.

“I call it our collective ancestry,” Kinsey said. “I claim all these stories because to me they’re the people who have made what we have now possible.”

Those stories are captured through a trove of artworks, books, photos and documents that celebrate the lives of black Americans. Some of the exhibition’s highlights include hand-colored tintypes from the Civil War era, a signed copy of the Brown V. Board of Education ruling and a first-edition book of poems from 18th century writer Phillis Wheatley.

The exhibition will run through March 2020 at the African American Museum in Fair Park.