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Creator
Brown, Helen Elizabeth
Call number
Sc MIRS Brown 2012-34
Physical description
16 moving_image_recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Helen Elizabeth Brown film 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

Helen Elizabeth Brown was a Harlem resident who worked at Lewis H. Michaux's National Memorial African Bookstore. The collection consists of sixteen films, dating from circa 1935 to 1970. The bulk of the films date from circa 1959 to 1965.

Biographical/historical information

Helen Elizabeth Brown (dates of birth and death are unknown) was a Harlem resident. She performed as a singer in the Hall Johnson Negro Choir in the 1920s, before going on to work at Lewis H. Michaux's (1885-1976) National Memorial African Bookstore, located at Seventh Avenue and 125th Street, until it closed in 1974. The bookstore's storefront famously featured a sign proclaiming it the "House of Common Sense and the Home of Proper Propaganda," and it was considered a center of Black culture. It stocked Black literature from around the world and drew notable figures in Black nationalist and civil rights movements.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of sixteen films belonging to Helen Elizabeth Brown, dating from circa 1935 to 1970. The bulk of the films date from circa 1959 to 1965. They are organized chronologically, and then alphabetically by title.

The films consist primarily of home movies likely shot by Brown, and demonstrate an interest in the civil rights movement and Black nationalism, her work at the National Memorial African Bookstore, and daily life in Harlem in the 1960s. One film that Brown collected was likely produced by the United Nations. One film appears to have never been developed.

Item titles have been drawn from handwriting on the film container or the film itself. Unless otherwise noted, films are in color, and dates were determined from date codes on the film.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Al Vinson, 2012.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Nathan Evans. Collection processed and described by Lyric Benjamin-Hunter, archivist. Finding aid published in 2025.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Helen Elizabeth Brown letters, Sc MG 880.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for the photographs.

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, sixteen films are not available pending digitization.