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Creator
Saunders, Richard, 1922-1987
Call number
Sc MIRS Saunders 1993
Physical description
17 audio_recordings
Language
Multiple languages; English, French.
Preferred Citation
Richard Saunders audio collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

The collection consists of seventeen audio recordings of interviews and photograph captions, dating from 1970 to 1974. They are organized alphabetically by title. The collection contains interviews and photograph caption information by Saunders that would go on to appear in Topic magazine. The recordings cover arts and culture, economic development, and industry in Benin, Ethiopia, Gabon, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and the United States.

Biographical/historical information

Richard Saunders (1922-1987) was a Black photojournalist who documented African life for the United States Information Agency.

Saunders was born in Bermuda in 1922. He developed an interest in photography when his family lived in the United States during a brief period in the 1930s. Saunders relocated to New York City in 1945, where he studied photography at Brooklyn College, and humanities and sociology at the New School for Social Research.

Early in his career, Saunders photographed for organizations such as the photo agency Black Star, and the United States Farm Security Administration, as well as publications including Ebony, Fortune, Ladies Home Journal, Look, and the New York Times. His subjects included his wife Emily Saunders, a seamstress who often worked as his assistant; displaced Black families in the Lower Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an assignment that earned Saunders a Young Photographers Contest Prize from Life magazine; and civil rights leaders Malcolm X and James Farmer.

From 1967 to 1986, Saunders was the international editor and photographer for Topic, an internal magazine of the United States Information Agency (USIA). USIA was a US government organization that promoted US policies to audiences abroad from 1953 to 1999. The magazine was distributed to USIA outposts throughout Africa. While based in Tunisia, Saunders traveled throughout Africa and the Middle East, recording interviews with subjects including Beninese artist Armand Aniamboussou, Lebanese architect Samir Khairallah, and the Ethiopian poet Mengistu Lemma. He also reported on industries in Kenya, cooperative farms in Niger, and childcare in Nigeria.

Saunders retired in 1986, and passed away in Washington, DC, in 1987.

See the finding aids for the Richard Saunders photographs, Sc Photo Richard Saunders Collection, and the Richard Saunders papers, Sc MG 984, for more information about Saunders's life and work.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of seventeen audio recordings of interviews and photograph captions, dating from 1970 to 1974. They are organized alphabetically by title. The collection contains interviews and photograph caption information by Saunders that would go on to appear in Topic magazine. The recordings cover arts and culture, economic development, and industry in Benin, Ethiopia, Gabon, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and the United States.

The original format of the bulk of the audio recordings was cassette, with many items containing two or more parts. Some items are described separately. Interviews are in English unless otherwise noted. Magazine issue numbers are indicated when known. Item titles originate from Saunders's documentation, and reflect the subject and location of the assignment. Dates reflect the date of recording. When indicated by original documentation, item scope and content notes include dates that reflect the creation of written transcripts. Transcripts can be found in the Richard Saunders papers, Sc MG 984.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated to the Schomburg Center in 1991, 1992, and 1993.

Revision History

Item AMI identifiers, titles, scope and content notes, and extent notes updated to facilitate public access by Lyric Benjamin-Hunter. (2026-06-02)

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Emily Dunne and Anika Paris. Collection processed and described by Lyric Benjamin-Hunter, archivist. Finding aid published in 2026.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Richard Saunders papers, Sc MG 984.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for the Richard Saunders photographs, Sc Photo Richard Saunders Collection.

Related Material

See the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division for issues of Topic, Sc Ser.-N .T67.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.