INTRODUCTION
go to first exhibition section |
exhibition HOME PAGE
Collections are the lifeblood of a research
library. The Schomburg Center, like other research
libraries, acquires books, magazines, journals and
other printed materials as well as diaries,
manuscripts, correspondence, photographs,
microforms, art works, artifacts and audio visual
resources in order to document the record of human
knowledge and experience. These materials also
provide the raw material needed to create new
research studies, textbooks, exhibitions, films,
theatrical productions, television programs, and
other interpretive works.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg used his original
collection of over 10,000 items to challenge the
myths of black racial inferiority and document
the contributions people of African descent had
made to the development of human civilization.
The collections of the Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture now number in excess of
five million items. They have been developed to
document a much broader range of issues and themes
in the historical and cultural development of
African people worldwide.
The Schomburg Legacy: Documenting the
Global Black Experience for the 21st Century
presents a selection of representative
collections and objects which illustrate the
growth and development of the Center's holdings
since Schomburg's death. These extensive and
diverse resources reflect the dramatic changes
that have taken place in the global Africana
(African, African American, and African Diasporan)
condition since 1938, as well as the new questions
scholars and laypersons alike have been asking
about black history and culture since that time.
The exhibition is organized around a
series of core collections and themes in Africana
history and culture. Core collections range from
the research and personal papers of scholars
Melville Herskovits and John Henrik Clarke to the
professional papers of scholar/diplomat Ralph
Bunche and Panamanian journalist, diplomat and
impresario, George Westerman. Core themes in
Africana history and culture range from the
geographic--Africa, African Diaspora, Harlem--
to the socio-political--religion, the arts, and
political economy. Within each thematic area,
selected items from representative collections
and related objects, acquired since 1938, reveal
the scope of the Center's documentary resources
as well as the diversity and complexity of the
cultures, events, movements, forms of human
expression, and socio-political phenomena that
are preserved in the Center's collections.
Preserving and providing access to its
resources have posed unique challenges to the
Schomburg Center. The projects and technologies
used to achieve these objectives are surveyed
in the Preservation and Access component
of the exhibition.
RACISM, MILITARISM AND IMPERIALISM
IN THE POST-SCHOMBURG WORLD
The racism that shaped Arturo Alfonso
Schomburg's world (1874-1938)--the attacks on
African peoples' history, culture, intelligence
and social well being--has continued to influence
the global black experience down to the present
day. People of African descent around the world
have had to confront many new challenges and
opportunities since Schomburg's death, however.
The Great Depression, which wreaked
economic, political and social havoc everywhere
during the 1930s, ushered in an era of global
transformation as the 1940s began. World War II
accentuated these processes, destroying the
socio-economic foundations of European colonialism
and severely weakening the moral and ideological
bases of racial segregation in the United States.
Colonized and racially dominated Africans
on the continent, in the Caribbean and in the
United States were recruited to help defend
Euro-American democracy as they had in World War
I. In the colonies, as well as in Europe and the
Americas, they also used the disruptions of the
war to advance their own interests. When the war
ended, they accelerated their struggles for
justice, freedom and human dignity and organized
victorious civil rights and national liberation
movements.
These victories were short-lived, however.
Opposition to colonialism and racial domination
had been sufficient to unify African peoples
around common goals. Few have been able to develop
such commonalities of purpose in the post-colonial,
post-segregation eras. In addition, the economic
and political power formerly wielded over African
peoples by western nation states has gradually
shifted to Western-dominated global corporations.
The post-colonial, post-segregation,
post-apartheid eras have posed even greater
challenges for African leaders and masses alike.
African control of the political apparatus
of African and Caribbean societies has not been
sufficient to reverse the processes of economic
underdevelopment that were initiated in these
societies under European rule. Black political
leaders in the United States and Brazil have faced
similar problems. Tyrannical dictatorships have
emerged in many African and Caribbean societies,
stifling the democratic impulses of the masses
and creating new black-controlled forms of
colonial domination. Meanwhile, Euro-American
political, religious and philanthropic
organizations have knowingly (and at times
unwittingly) undermined genuinely mass-based
struggles for freedom and human dignity.
A luta continua!!
REMAKING THE PAST TO MAKE THE FUTURE
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg devoted his life
to disproving the myths of black racial
inferiority and affirming African peoples' role
in the making of world civilization. Successive
generations of bibliophiles, scholars and
intellectuals throughout the world have continued
Schomburg's quest. Today, many of the myths
Schomburg challenged have been soundly refuted.
The African origins of humankind have
been affirmed. The Egyptian origins of Greek
(and therefore Western) civilization have been
established. Recognition of ancient Egypt as an
African civilization has been grudgingly conceded.
Evidence of the presence of Africans in the
pre-Columbian Americas has been unearthed.
The achievements of African peoples in
art, literature, music, science and mathematics
have been documented, as have the roles blacks
have played in the major events of human history.
In addition, scholars have proven that African
cultures survived the Middle Passage and that
vibrant, dynamic African-American cultures
invented during slavery continue to thrive
throughout the Western Hemisphere. These "New
World" African cultures define, in many
instances, the national cultures of many
American societies. The commonalities and
differences in the historical, political and
cultural experiences of African peoples
worldwide have begun to be documented.
The kinds of information scholars and
lay people alike are looking for about the black
experience have changed radically over the last
half-century. Alex Haley's Roots proved that
black people could trace their heritage back to
Africa and black genealogical studies have
proliferated. Whereas studies during Schomburg's
time focussed on the achievements of outstanding
people of African descent, the new scholarship
has been equally concerned with the thought,
behavior and activities of ordinary people--in
traditional African societies, in slavery and in
modern times. The place and role of black women
in all aspects of black life has emerged as a
new and dynamic field. The study of African
survivals in the Western Hemisphere has evolved
into comparative studies of "New World" African
cultures. Previous concerns with black
victimization have been transformed into
assessments of blacks as history and culture--
makers in their own right. Critical assessments
of black leadership and black political
strategies, as well as critical biographies,
have replaced the celebratory works of old. The
relationship of black people to the changing
global political economy is being explored.
The processes of colonization and decolonization
as well as segregation and desegregation have
assumed new prominence as scholars, activists
and laymen alike try to understand themselves
and their ever-changing worlds.
The collections developed by the Schomburg
Center in the post-Schomburg era have been
selected to support research and study in these
critical dimensions of the global black experience.
Acquired to illuminate our understanding of the
past, these resources, critically used, provide
insights into the possibilities of a sane, humane
future for the African world.
THE COLLECTING ADVENTURE
The research collections of the Schomburg
Center have grown exponentially during the
post-Schomburg era. The 10,000 items he deposited
in the 135th Street Branch Library (today's
Countee Cullen Library) seventy years ago have
evolved into a collection of more than 5 million
items. There are over 130,000 books, 8,000
serials, 85,000 microforms, 750,000 photographs
and negatives, 20,000 artworks, 20,000 sound
recordings, 4,000 rare books and more than 3.5
million manuscript items. The manuscript
collections include personal papers,
organizational records, sheet music, playbills,
programs, radio, television and theater scripts
and broadsides.
Commercially-produced resources such as
books, periodicals, newspapers, and sound
recordings are selected by curators and purchased
on an annual basis in order to keep abreast of
the publishing output in these media. During
Schomburg's era, these materials were primarily
purchased through the New York Public Library's
Branch Libraries acquisition department.
Schomburg used his personal network of
relationships with book dealers across the globe
to acquire foreign language and rare materials.
When the Schomburg Center became a part
of the Research Libraries of The New York Public
Library in 1972, its General Research and
Reference Division took advantage of the network
of dealers the Research Libraries use to acquire
commercially-produced resources. Acquiring
primary research materials remained the
responsibility of the Center's curators, and
since 1972, these duties have been vested in
four special collections divisions: the
Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division;
the Photographs and Prints Division; the Art
and Artifacts Division; and the Moving Image
and Recorded Sound Division. Though organized
by format into the five divisions, the
collections are linked by subject across
divisions providing users with access to a
variety of materials on each subject.
While the Center purchases most of its
commercially-produced resources, the vast
majority of the 5 million items in its
collections have been acquired through the
gifts of generous donors. These gifts have come
from a wide variety of individuals and
organizations, and while many of the donations
have resulted from the systematic, planned
solicitations of the Center's curators and
directors, an equal number have resulted from
good fortune and circumstance. Building the
Schomburg Center's collections over the last
seventy years has indeed been an adventure.
The links from the following list provide some
background information on the unique and varied
ways the Center has become the permanent
repository of essential documentary resources
on the global black experience that, in many
instances, were at the risk of being destroyed
or lost forever:
Acquiring the Austin Hansen Collection
Austin Hansen had a small fire in his 135th
Street Studio in the early 1980s. Most of the
photographs and negatives he had taken since the
1930s were stored there. Aware of their
historic value, Hansen became concerned about
their future. He talked to his minister, Rev.
James E. Gunther, and Rev. Gunther recommended
that Hansen deposit them in the Schomburg Center.
Hansen made an initial deposit in 1982.
These were principally his inactive files of
early photographs. His active files and all of
his negatives remained with him until the late
1980s. A second fire in his Bronx studio
convinced him it was finally time to deposit his
negatives and the rest of his collection in a
safe, secure environment. Today, the Austin
Hansen Collection of over 500,000 negatives and
prints is preserved and accessible to the public
in the Center's Photographs and Prints Division.
Acquiring the IFCO Collection
The lease for the Convent Avenue offices of
IFCO had run out. Its new, smaller quarters were
not large enough to house everything they had
accumulated over the years. Something had to go.
The old file cabinets became the first candidate.
They were already headed for the street (and the
dumpster) when someone decided to call the
Schomburg Center. Within a matter of hours,
Schomburg staff had arrived to claim the
collection which is now housed in its Manuscripts,
Archives and Rare Books Division. But for the
call, it would have likely ended on the dump and
the records of the formative years of this
organization's work would have been lost forever.
Acquiring the 409 Edgecomb Avenue Collections
The dumpster was parked in front of Harlem's
famed 409 Edgecombe Avenue building. The tenants
association had given the residents the ultimatum.
All of the trunks in the basement trunk room had
to be removed by the end of the day.
Just before noon, one of the tenants
(a friend of the Center) called to say that she
had seen several trunks there with the names of
some rather famous people on them. So far, no
one had claimed them. Was the Center interested?
A hastily-placed call to the building
manager resulted in a day of grace. In exchange
for the Center agreeing to pay the cost of
renting the dumpster, the tenants association
granted the Center permission to claim all of the
unclaimed trunks. In addition to World War I and
Pullman Porter uniforms, the trunks contained
original manuscripts by Walter White, personal
correspondence by Aaron Douglas and a wide
variety of other historically-significant
documents and artifacts.
Acquiring the Harold Rome Collection
Harold Rome, broadway producer and song
writer, was also a world-renowned African art
collector. When he and his wife, Florence,
decided to move from their large Fifth Avenue
residence to a smaller apartment, Harold called
the Schomburg Center to see if it would be
interested in receiving a gift of his library
of over 1200 volumes on African art, archaeology,
anthropology and related subjects. A visit to
his apartment confirmed the fact that his library
was indeed a remarkable collection in these fields.
The gift was given and gladly and graciously
received. During the visits, Mr. Rome also showed
the staff his large and distinguished collection
of African art.
Within weeks after the library had been
transferred to the Center, Mr. Rome called again.
He reported that he was so pleased with the
library transaction that he was prepared to donate
his art collection to the Center. This second
gift contained over 398 items--masks, sculptures,
doors, locks, and utilitarian objects, as well as
a large collection of gold weights. They have
strengthened the Center's African art collection
in immeasurable ways.
Acquiring the Richard Saunders Collection
It took an Act of Congress to have the Richard
Saunders Collection donated to the Schomburg Center.
Richard Saunders, a world-renowned photographer,
produced the bulk of his work while in the employ of
the United States Information Agency (USIA), the
overseas propaganda arm of the United States
government. The legislation authorizing the
establishment of the USIA strictly prohibited the
agency from distributing any of its information
(propaganda) in the United States. Americans were
not even allowed to subscribe to its monthly
magazine, Topic, for which Saunders did most of his
work.
When Saunders died in 1987, Rosalie Targonski,
a member of the staff of Topic and Mrs. Emily
Saunders concluded that the American public should
experience Mr. Saunders' extraordinary photographic
genius. At their request, Harlem Congressman
Charles Rangel introduced legislation to have the
prohibition waived. The House and the Senate
passed legislation in April and July, 1991
respectively, authorizing the waiver as well as
transfering the collection to the Schomburg Center
for Research in Black Culture. Mrs. Saunders has
subsequently donated Mr. Saunders' non-USIA related
photographic archive, thereby rounding out the
Richard Saunders Collection.
Acquiring the Preservation of the Black Religious
Heritage Projects Collections
The Preservation of the Black Religious
Heritage Project was a unique experiment in
collection-building at the Schomburg Center.
Designed to fill gaps in existing holdings and
increase the Center's volume and range of primary
research resources essential for documenting the
black religious experience, the project used a
variety of methods--surveys, preservation
workshops, personal and mail requests of
individuals and organizations, and photographic
and microform reproduction--to identify, solicit
and acquire materials in all formats. Guided by
a scholars advisory committee and supported by a
national advisory body, the project played a
major role in heightening public awareness
(especially within black churches and other
religious bodies) of the need to preserve
historically significant records and other
documentary resources.
The project had an equally significant
impact on the holdings of the Center's five
collection divisions. Over 100 collections of
personal papers, organizational records,
dissertations, photographs, sheet music, and
microform materials were acquired through
purchase and gifts, thanks to two generous
grants from the Lilly Endowment. Project
activities were national in scope and the
collection resources acquired were global.
Two research symposia sponsored by the project
established a research agenda for the field
of African American religious studies for the
next decade.
Acquiring the Leon Damas Collection
Ms. Marietta Campos Damas, the widow of
Leon Damas, put his personal and professional
papers and library in storage in a Washington,
D.C. warehouse when she moved to Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil shortly after his death. She died a year
later, and shortly thereafter, her sister and
heir, Virginia de Campos Vierra, started
receiving overdue storage bills from the D.C.
warehouse. When an urgent notice arrived
advising her that the warehouse was going out of
business, it set in motion the chain of events
that led to the acquisition of the Damas
Collection by the Schomburg Center.
Ms. de Campos Vierra asked her friend,
Eliza de Nascimiento, wife of Brazilian artist
and activist, Abdias de Nascimiento to help her
resolve the issue. Eliza eventually called the
Schomburg and asked if the Center would agree
to pay the overdue storage bills and shipping
costs, if Ms. de Campos Vierra would donate the
Collection to the Schomburg. The Center agreed
and upon receipt of the gift donated duplicate
copies of books as well as copies of selected
documents and correspondence to the Association
of Friends of Leon Damas in Cayenne, French Guyana.
Acquiring the A.M.E. Department
of Home and Foreign Missions Collection
While in the process of packing the records
of the Black Economic Research Center (BERC)
and the 21st Century Foundation for transfer to
the Schomburg Center, the director of BERC, Dr.
Robert Browne reported that there were file
cabinets full of records in the sub-basement of
their office, the former home of the A.M.E.
Church's Department of Home and Foreign Missions.
A survey of the sub-basement revealed that
indeed, many of the records of this Department
were in fact stored there, where they had been
for at least a decade or two. Negotiations with
the Head of the Department and the Board of
Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church resulted in their agreement to donate
this invaluable resource to the Schomburg Center.
go to first exhibition section |
exhibition HOME PAGE
|
