Loading...
Creator
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Call number
Sc Photo Schomburg Center Collection
Physical description
6.25 linear feet (25 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Schomburg Center photograph collection, 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.

The Schomburg Center photograph collection documents the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from its beginnings in 1925 to the early 2000s, through depictions of events, exhibitions, and notable individuals.

Biographical/historical information

The Division of Negro Literature, History, and Prints – the forerunner to today's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture – was established in 1925 at the 135th Street Branch of The New York Public Library. One year later, the Library acquired bibliophile Arturo Alfonso Schomburg's collection of books, manuscripts, prints, and other material on the history and culture of persons of African descent. The collection was deposited at the Division, and Schomburg was hired as curator in 1932. After Schomburg's death in 1938, the Division was renamed the Schomburg Collection. In 1942, the 135th Street Branch moved from its location on 135th Street (now known as the "Landmark Building," built with funds donated by Andrew Carnegie) to the present site of the Countee Cullen Library (104 W 136th St). In 1951, the branch was renamed the Countee Cullen Library. In 1972, the Schomburg Collection was designated part of the Research Libraries of The New York Public Library, and was renamed The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The Center, now separate from the Countee Cullen Library, expanded into its own building, whose construction began in 1977. A 1991 expansion added exhibition galleries, as well as the Langston Hughes auditorium and lobby, to a complex including the original Carnegie library on 135th Street.

Scope and arrangement

The Schomburg Center photograph collection documents the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from its beginnings in 1925 to the early 2000s, through depictions of events, exhibitions, and notable individuals. The bulk of the collection documents events from the 1970s to 2001, with a particularly large quantity of material produced in the 1980s. The collection consists primarily of photographic prints and contact sheets. Photographers, of whom most who are credited were contracted by the Center or NYPL, include Morgan and Marvin Smith, James Van Der Zee, Cecil Layne, Chuck Stewart, Chester Higgins, Jr., Kwame Brathwaite, and Hakim Mutlaq, among others. Additional images in the collection were created by staff and/or nonprofessional photographers, some of whom are not credited.

Series I documents the interiors and exteriors of the buildings that have housed the Division of Negro Literature, History, and Prints, and later the Schomburg Collection and Center. These include the Carnegie-funded library building on 135th Street, also known as the Landmark Building; the site of the Countee Cullen Library on 136th Street; and the Schomburg Center complex built in 1979 and expanded in 1991. The Landmark Building photographs include works by James Van Der Zee. The series also documents the construction of the new building for the Center in 1979, as well as the 1991 rehabilitation and expansion of the Center and Countee Cullen Library.

Series II documents staff, including candid and posed portraits of librarians, library assistants, pages, security, and facilities employees at work, and at various events. Staff members depicted include Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Lawrence D. Reddick, Catherine Latimer, Ernestine Rose, Jean Blackwell Hutson, Wendell Wray, Howard Dodson, and Deborah Willis, among others.

Series III documents patrons, volunteers, and visitors, as well as the Schomburg Corporation – a nonprofit supporting the Center – and includes documentation of a 1977 rally to "Save the Schomburg."

Series IV includes documentation of public events, including exhibitions, panels, book talks, award ceremonies, and community events, including Founder's Day. All events were held at the Center unless otherwise noted. The series illustrates a wide variety of artists, writers, scholars, political figures, and other personalities who participated in Schomburg Center events.

Notable individuals depicted in the third and fourth series include: Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Romare Bearden, Harry Belafonte, Selma Burke, Octavia Butler, Kathleen Cleaver, Jayne Cortez, Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Samuel R. Delany, Ralph Ellison, Laurence Fishburne, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Danny Glover, Dick Gregory, bell hooks, Langston Hughes, Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Spike Lee, Haki R. Madhubuti, Hugh Masekela, Toni Morrison, Michelle Obama, Gordon Parks, Rosa Parks, Sidney Poitier, Max Roach, Sonia Sanchez, Bobby Seale, Henry Threadgill, Desmond Tutu, McCoy Tyner, and Cornel West.

Series V includes limited documentation of the Center's collections, including work done as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities preservation grant; a notable collection acquisition; and other miscellaneous photographs.

The Schomburg Center photograph collection is arranged in five series:

Administrative information

Custodial history

The collection was compiled by staff of the Schomburg's Photographs and Prints Division. Materials were compiled for value from a larger aggregate of photographic records. The majority of the collection was created by photographers contracted by the Center and/or NYPL.

Revision History

Finding aid updated by Jack Patterson (2024-05-11)

Processing information

The collection was compiled and given its initial arrangement by Mary Yearwood, Curator of Photographs and Prints, and Michael Mery, the Division's photograph cataloger. Jack Patterson completed processing the collection in 2024.

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