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Creator
Sims, Naomi, 1948-2009
Call number
Sc MIRS Sims 1981-12
Physical description
21 audio_recordings. 2 video_recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Naomi Sims audio and moving image 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.Restrictions apply

Naomi Sims (March 30, 1948- August 1, 2009) was a model, businesswoman, and author. She is widely credited as being one of the first African American supermodels. The collection consists of two videos and twenty-one audio recordings, primarily of interviews with Black women for Sims's book All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman (1982).

Biographical/historical information

Naomi Sims (March 30, 1948- August 1, 2009) was a model, businesswoman, and author. She is widely credited as being one of the first African American supermodels. Sims was born in Oxford, Mississippi, and spent much of her childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1966, she moved to New York City to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology and New York University.

Sims was the first African American model to appear on the covers of Ladies' Home Journal (November 1968) and Life (October 1969). She achieved worldwide recognition from the late 1960s into the early 1970s, appearing in popular fashion magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Vogue Italia. Sims retired from modeling in 1973, and started a business designing wigs for Black women. Her line of products, the Naomi Sims Collection, eventually expanded from wigs to include cosmetics and fragrances as well. Sims authored several books on health, beauty, modelling, and business, aimed at Black women. They include All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman (1976), How To Be a Top Model (1979), All About Hair Care for the Black Woman (1982), and All About Success for the Black Woman (1982).

Sims died of breast cancer in 2009 in Newark, New Jersey.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of two videos and twenty-one audio recordings. They are arranged alphabetically by title. The videos include a commercial for the Naomi Sims Collection featuring Sims. Two audio recordings are interviews with Sims: one conducted by the founder of the Attica Memorial Foundation Emory Giles, and another about How To Be a Top Model (1979).

Nineteen audio recordings represent research material for Sims's book All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman. They include interviews conducted by Patrecia A. Sawyer, Sims's research assistant, with several Black women. Sawyer interviewed each woman about their beauty and health maintenance practices, including questions on hair; skin; makeup; nails; feet; hygiene; nutrition; exercise; and fashion. One audio recording consists of Sims's calls to several people, including psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark, asking questions for her book.

Biographical information is included in items' descriptions and represents participants' ages and occupations at the time of the interview, unless otherwise stated. Many of the audio items' original formats are cassettes, and contain two or more parts, one for each side of the cassette. Some items include multiple recordings and are described separately. Square brackets indicate unclear spelling.

Administrative information

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Stacey Doyle Ference and Anika Paris. Collection processed and described by Ornella U. Baganizi, archivist. Finding aid published in 2025.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Naomi Sims papers, Sc MG 136.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for the Naomi Sims photographs, Sc Photo Naomi Sims Collection.

Related Material

Naomi Sims portrait collection, Sc Photo Sims, Naomi.

All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman by Naomi Sims, Sc 613-S (Sims, N. All about health and beauty for the Black woman).

How To Be a Top Model by Naomi Sims, Sc E 80-219.

All About Success for the Black Woman by Naomi Sims, Sc E 83-106.

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.

Access restrictions

At the time of publishing, one video is not available pending digitization.