Sidney Kaplan collection

1971

Scholar of African-American culture and history and an analyst of how African Americans are portrayed. Taught at the University of Massachusetts for 31 years and helped found its African-American Studies Dept. He died in 1993. Collection documents part of an exhibition on Afro-American history organized by the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution on African-American musicians. Papers consist of research material gathered by consultant Sidney Kaplan and his assistant, including sheet music, research notes, subject file of clippings and printed matter on various Adrican musicians, and correspondence with Alberta Hunter, Middleton Alexander "Spike" Harris, Caterina Jarboro, Noble Sissle, and several African-American university museums and archives.