- Creator
- Kaplan, Sidney, 1913-
- Call number
- Sc MG 137
- Physical description
- 0.42 linear feet (1 box)
- Language
- English
- Preferred Citation
- [Item], Sidney Kaplan collection, Sc MG 137, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Some collections held by the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture are held off-site and must be requested in advance. Please check the collection records in the NYPL's online catalog for detailed location information. To request access to materials in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, please visit: http://archives.nypl.org/divisions/scm/request_access Request access to this collection.
This collection documents part of an exhibition on African American musicians organized by the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. The papers consist of research material gathered by consultant Sidney Kaplan and his assistant, including sheet music; research notes; subject files of clippings and printed matter on various African American musicians; and correspondence with Alberta Hunter, Middleton Alexander "Spike" Harris, Caterina Jarboro, Noble Sissle, and several African American university museums and archives.
Biographical/historical information
Sidney Kaplan was a scholar of African American culture and history. In World War II, he served as a first lieutenant in the United States Army in England. His experiences working with an all-Black unit in the segregated Army, coupled with his interest in Marxism, would influence his later career. In 1963, Kaplan and an art gallery organized a seminal exhibit on portrayals of Blacks in American painting.
Kaplan taught at the University of Massachusetts (mostly at Amherst) for 31 years and helped found its African American Studies Department. He also helped create the University of Massachusetts Press; was a founder and the editor of The Massachusetts Review, a journal on the arts and public affairs; and edited the Gehenna Press, a journal on the fine arts. His books included The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution (New York Graphic Society, 1973), written with his wife, Emma, and American Studies in Black and White (University of Massachusetts, 1991). He also worked as a consultant for the Public Broadcasting System series The Civil War and Africans in America. He died in 1993.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift of Sidney Kaplan, 1985.
Revision History
Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark. (2021 January 27)
Processing information
Accessioned by Andre Elizee, January 1986.
Separated material
Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: photographs
Bibliography
The New York Times."Sidney Kaplan, 80, Scholar on Culture Of Black Americans". Accessed January 27, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/19/obituaries/sidney-kaplan-80-scholar-on-culture-of-black-americans.html.
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor