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Creator
Guy, Rosa
Call number
Sc Photo Rosa Guy Collection
Physical description
1.08 linear feet (3 boxes). 1,024 photographs. 1,011 photographic prints. 10 photographs : negatives. 3 photographic slides
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Rosa Guy photographs, Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
Repository
Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Rosa Guy (1922-2012) was a Trinidadian American award-winning author and an active member of the Harlem community. The Rosa Guy photographs date from the 1920s to 2000s and consist of portraits of Guy and her family and friends, professional events, personal gatherings, and candid pictures from Guy's travels. The collection holds mostly photographic prints, as well as some negatives, slides, ephemera, expired passports, photograph albums, and a scrapbook.

Biographical/historical information

This biographical note, originally written by Steven G. Fullwood and Candice Carr circa 2015, was revised by Lauren Stark in December 2020 and Amy Lau in 2024.

Rosa Guy (née Cuthbert) was born in Diego Martin, Trinidad, on September 1, 1922. Although there is some debate about the actual year she was born, most documents support 1922. Her parents, Henry and Audrey Cuthbert, emigrated from Trinidad to Harlem, New York, in 1927. Guy and her sister, Ameze, left Trinidad in 1932 and joined their parents in Harlem. Shortly after Guy arrived in Harlem, her mother fell ill and sent Guy and Ameze to live in Brooklyn with a cousin. In Brooklyn, Guy was exposed to Garveyism and Black Nationalism, which helped shape her worldview at a young age. After the death of her mother in 1934, Guy and Ameze lived in Harlem with their father until he passed in 1937. At the age of 14, Guy dropped out of Wadleigh High School and started working in a factory in the garment district to support her and her sister, while they lived in foster homes.

In 1941, Rosa married Warner Guy and gave birth to Warner Guy, Jr., a year later. While her husband was serving in World War II, she continued to work in factories and sweatshops in the garment district of New York City. During that time, one of her co-workers introduced her to the American Negro Theatre, where she studied acting. After the end of World War II, Guy moved to Connecticut with her husband and son. Her marriage ended in 1950 and she returned to New York City with her son.

The same year, Guy founded the Harlem Writers Guild with John O. Killens, John Henrik Clarke, Willard Moore, and Walter Christmas. The Guild provided an informal setting for aspiring black writers to critique one another's work. As its membership grew and its reputation spread, it became one of the most influential Black literary organizations of its time. Its membership included Killens, Clarke, Moore, Christmas, Maya Angelou, Paule Marshall, Audre Lorde, Alice Childress, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Douglass Turner Ward.

After years of sharpening her craft and briefly returning to school at New York University, Guy's first book, Bird at My Window (1966), was published by J.P. Lippincott. Guy went on to publish more than twenty works. She is well-known for her award-winning book trilogy about three Black girls coming of age in Harlem, The Friends (1973), Ruby (1976), and Edith Jackson (1978). Her novel My Love, My Love, or, The Peasant Girl (1985), was adapted into the award-winning musical Once on This Island in 1990.

Guy loved to travel and often found inspiration for her writings during her travels to Africa, the West Indies, and Europe.

On June 3, 2012, Guy lost her battle with cancer and passed away in New York City.

Scope and arrangement

The Rosa Guy photographs date from the 1920s to the 2000s and contain portraits and candid prints, negatives, slides, and contact sheets of Guy, her family, and her friends. The collection also features expired passports, three photograph albums, one scrapbook, and some ephemera such as four newspaper clippings, five cards, and two programs from or about Guy's friends and family. The photographs are arranged alphabetically by topic or format.

The bulk of the collection spans from the 1960s to the 1990s and contains portraits and personal photographs of Guy, as well as her friends and family. Some prints from Guy's travels and professional events are interfiled with her friends and family photographs. The portraits of Guy were taken by Bert Andrews, Carmen de Jesus, Gerard Purcell Associates, Ltd., Jill Krementz, Mark Liberman, Willard Moore, Susan Mullally, and Martha Swope from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Professional events (book readings, launches, and award ceremonies) and personal gatherings (birthdays, domestic life, picnics, and dinners) are sometimes interfiled. The candid photographs often depict Guy with her friends and colleagues including Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Phoebe Beasley, Irving Burgie, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Tom Feelings, John O. Killens, Paule Marshall, Louise Meriwether, Gordon Parks, and Joan Sandler. Some prints of events and gatherings have inscriptions identifying friends and family on the back.

There are prints of Guy and the actresses who appeared in "The Friends" episode (1984) of the British television show The English Programme. The episode was based on Guy's 1973 award-winning novel of the same name. Guy also retained prints of Black farmworkers in Jackson, Mississippi by Southern Media, Inc.

The collection includes candid snapshots from Guy's travels to Europe, Africa, and the West Indies. Photographs from Guy's travels are grouped under the general terms "travel" or "outings." Other than a 1986 family trip to Puerto Rico, no travel photographs are dated. The two expired passports, issued in 1959 and 1965, date some of Guy's travels to Senegal, Switzerland, Morocco, Algeria, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago during the 1960s.

The photographs also feature a scrapbook and three photograph albums. The scrapbook contains personal photographs and newspaper clippings of and about Guy's family, and a memorial program for Guy's ex-mother-in-law. The photograph albums hold portraits and candid prints of Guy and Guy's family, Guy's travels, and personal and professional events.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Purchased from the Estate of Rosa Guy, 2013.

Processing information

Processed by Amy Lau in 2025.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Book Division for the Rosa Guy papers, Sc MG 903.

Using the collection

Location

Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Photographs and Prints Division Reading Room