The Top 2s of 2022
The Schomburg Center's online materials include blog posts, research guides, and public programs. Links to these items appear on the Center's location pages, newsletters, and social media platforms.
(Left to right, top) Photo 1: Arturo Schomburg, Image 1939249; Photo 2: W.E. B. Du Bois and the Fisk University class of 1888, Digital Image 1953588; Photo 3: Writer Mrs. Jarena Lee, Image 3948232 (Left to right, bottom) Photo 4: Dr. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò and Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley, Photographer Bill Farrington; Photo 5: Interior photo of the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Photograph by NYPL; Photo 6: Paul O’Neill, Thomas J. Ruller, Dr. Michelle Commander, Dr. Nell Irvin Painter, Justice Dianne Renwick, Photographer Bob Gore
Curious about which Schomburg Center blog posts, online programs, and research guides were the most-viewed of 2022? The list includes book picks inspired by a popular television show, a conversation about historic court records thought lost for nearly two centuries, and a research guide—also known as a LibGuide—highlighting some of the most prolific Black women writers of the 19th century.
As the year comes to a close, explore the top two of 2022 in each category.
Blog Posts
Book recommendations to learn more about the era, which became known as the Gilded Age, is the Schomburg Center’s most-viewed blog of the year.
A Short Bibliography of the Black Elite: Books About Black High Society in the Gilded Age
In the HBO program The Gilded Age, the character Peggy Scott is an aspiring writer and the daughter of a successful Black pharmacist who lives in a thriving Black community in Brooklyn. Her story gives us a glimpse into a lesser-known history of America’s Black aristocracy from the 1870s through the 1890s. Book picks, which are in the collection of the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, offer insight into this era. Read the full story.
Afro Latinx Materials to Explore at the Schomburg Center
The Schomburg Center is known for its vast collections preserving and documenting the works of activists, authors, artists, historians, and scholars across the African diaspora, including those who identify as Latinx and Afro Latinx.
Materials include a copy of the only feature-length film directed by Cuba’s first female filmmaker Sara Gómez; photographs capturing the everyday lives of Puerto Ricans and African Americans through the lens of Afro Cuban photographer of Rómulo Lachatañeré; books, papers, and writings of Arturo Schomburg—the Center’s founder—and more. Read the full story.
LibGuides
Essays, poems, short stories, and books written by some of the most celebrated Black women writers of the 19th century such as Annie L. Burton (left), Mrs. Josie D. (Henderson) Heard (middle), and Lucy A. Delany (right), continue to inspire researchers. The Center’s LibGuide highlighting Black women writers of that era is the most-viewed of the year.
Images: 1156796, psnypl_scg_681, and 1232382
African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
The Center launched the online project Digital Schomburg African American Women Writers of the 19th Century in 1998 featuring 38 published works by acclaimed authors such as Lucy A. Delaney, Mrs. Jarena Lee, and Miss Effie Waller. Their books, essays, short stories, and poetry show the many sides of Black life with their stories of struggles, everyday life, and triumphs.
Curators, librarians, and archivists redesigned the project as a LibGuide in 2021. Now, researchers can locate and read digital copies of their texts, which are out-of-print or not easy to find.
The guide topped the list of views for this year as well. Explore this research guide.
Guide to the Schomburg Center's Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division
Designed to help researchers learn more about the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division (MARB), the guide offers best practices to locate and read materials in the division’s collections.
MARB is home to personal papers of legendary figures in American history such as writer, poet, and scholar Dr. Maya Angelou, human rights activist Malcolm X, and author James Baldwin. Explore this research guide.
Online Programs
Talks at the Schomburg: Freedom Dreams Revisited with Robin D.G. Kelley
Author Robin D.G. Kelley unearths the freedom dreams of scholars and artists of the African diaspora in the 20th century in his 2002 book, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. With text focusing on the visions of activists such as C. L. R. James, Aimé Césaire, and Malcolm X, Kelley wrote of the hope that Communism offered, the transformative potential of radical feminism, and of the 400-year-old dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow.
Kelley and Dr. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, associate professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, discussed the impact of Kelley’s text 20 years after its publication.
Uncovered: Sojourner Truth's Quest for Liberty and Justice
Court records from abolitionist Sojourner Truth’s 1828 groundbreaking legal victory to free her son from enslavement were thought lost for almost two centuries. The verdict shattered legal norms, challenged gender biases, and further energized the abolitionist movement.
Dr. Michelle Commander, the Center’s deputy director of Research and Strategic Initiatives, moderated a historic conversation with Dr. Nell Irvin Painter (Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, Princeton University), Paul O’Neill, Esq., (Commissioner of Jurors, Ulster County), and Thomas J. Ruller (New York State Archivist). The discussion covered how the records were rediscovered and the importance of preserving archival records.
The Center, the Historical Society of the New York Courts, the New York State Archives, and the New York State Unified Court System produced the talk in collaboration.
The program inspired a one-day pop-up exhibit at the Center featuring Truth’s writ of habeas corpus, Truth’s deposition, enslaver Solomon Gedney's response, and the order of the court. A copy of Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, Emancipated from Bodily Servitude by the State of New York, in 1828 was also on display. The book is from the collection of Schomburg Center founder Arturo Schomburg.
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