Schomburg, Arthur Alfonso, 1874-1938
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc Micro R-1520
0.06 linear feet (1 box, 1 microfilm reel)
A collection of bills of sale, deeds, passes, certificates of registry, manumission papers, wills, and speeches. Also, letters relating to slavery-related court cases, including the
Amistad slave ship revolt. Also includes letters by...
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A collection of bills of sale, deeds, passes, certificates of registry, manumission papers, wills, and speeches. Also, letters relating to slavery-related court cases, including the
Amistad slave ship revolt. Also includes letters by prominent abolitionists William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, and William Lloyd Garrison with their views and comments on the abolition movement.
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Harris, M. A., 1908-1977
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 34
0.46 linear feet (2 boxes)
The Middleton "Spike" Harris slavery and abolition collection consists of individual documents pertaining to slavery and abolition in the United States. Included are legal documents, indentures, manumission papers, bills of sale, agreements to...
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The Middleton "Spike" Harris slavery and abolition collection consists of individual documents pertaining to slavery and abolition in the United States. Included are legal documents, indentures, manumission papers, bills of sale, agreements to hire slaves, other business records, deeds, letters, and indentures referencing specific slaves and their masters and detailing the situations for which the documents were produced. The states in which these documents were issued are Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. There are also letters from the following abolitionists: Granville Sharp, Gerrit Smith, Charles Sumner, and Francis Jackson.
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Nautilus Insurance Company
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 715
1.75 linear feet (6 boxes)
The Nautilus Insurance Company (predecessor of the New York Life Insurance Company) was one of several insurance companies that sold policies to enslavers to insure their enslaved persons against damages or death. The Nautilus Insurance Company...
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The Nautilus Insurance Company (predecessor of the New York Life Insurance Company) was one of several insurance companies that sold policies to enslavers to insure their enslaved persons against damages or death. The Nautilus Insurance Company slavery era ledgers contain information on insurance policies for enslaved persons insured between 1845-1848.
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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 230
0.33 linear feet (2 boxes)
This collection consists of historic documents pertaining to slavery in Brazil including a royal Portuguese decree regarding punishment of slaves using forbidden weapons, 1756; ten laws dealing with various aspects of slavery, mainly in Brazil...
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This collection consists of historic documents pertaining to slavery in Brazil including a royal Portuguese decree regarding punishment of slaves using forbidden weapons, 1756; ten laws dealing with various aspects of slavery, mainly in Brazil and Angola, 1751-1773; instructions to the captain of a Portugese schooner regarding slave traffic, 1845; account book of a Brazilian official with list of slaves, their provenance, and cost, 1813; a royal Portuguese decree regarding the slave trade, 1807; Brazilian bills of sale for slaves, 1813; a manuscript of an officer moving to Portugal, 1813; and a printed decree regulating the forced draft of slaves into the Armed Forces, 1813.
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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 418
0.54 linear feet (2 boxes, 2 boxes)
The Miscellaneous Afro-Latin American collection consists of a mix of official, private, and family papers from colonial Spanish American territories: Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The documents are all from...
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The Miscellaneous Afro-Latin American collection consists of a mix of official, private, and family papers from colonial Spanish American territories: Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The documents are all from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, except for a chronology of the history of blacks in Uruguay from 1680-1990.
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Saint-Léger, Théodore Étienne de
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 211
0.22 linear feet (1 box, 1 oversize folder)
Théodore Étienne de Saint-Léger was provost of the Special Court Provostale investigating the slave uprising in Martinique in February of 1831. This collection consists of sixty-five manuscripts relating to the 1831 slave rebellion...
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Théodore Étienne de Saint-Léger was provost of the Special Court Provostale investigating the slave uprising in Martinique in February of 1831. This collection consists of sixty-five manuscripts relating to the 1831 slave rebellion including correspondence from the Governor of Martinique, French settlers, and police precincts on the island; register of official correspondence of Saint-Léger, the "Prévôt" (Magistrate), 1831; police reports; warrants issued by Saint-Léger for fugitive slaves suspected of arson and poisoning; court records related to the burning of the Ducasse, Lamentin, and Grande Case plantations; and biographical notes of Saint-Léger dated 1913.
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Wilson, James Pliny, Jr., 1808-1891
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 967
0.25 linear feet (1 box)
James Pliny Wilson, Jr., (1808-1891) was the owner of a plantation known as Levensworth (also spelled Leavensworth), located in Darlington, South Carolina. The Bible (published in New York by Daniel B. Smith, 1825) contains eight pages of birth...
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James Pliny Wilson, Jr., (1808-1891) was the owner of a plantation known as Levensworth (also spelled Leavensworth), located in Darlington, South Carolina. The Bible (published in New York by Daniel B. Smith, 1825) contains eight pages of birth and death records of enslaved persons living on the Levensworth plantation, plus one page listing all overseers who worked at the plantation between 1826 and 1850.
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Polk Family
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 713
0.01 linear feet (1 folder)
The ancestors of the Polk Family, Jim and Amey, their daughter, Judah, and her husband, Kit, along with their children, upon reaching the age of twenty-one), were emancipated in 1840. This occurred one and one-half years after the death of their...
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The ancestors of the Polk Family, Jim and Amey, their daughter, Judah, and her husband, Kit, along with their children, upon reaching the age of twenty-one), were emancipated in 1840. This occurred one and one-half years after the death of their master, plantation owner Thomas Smelly, in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The newly-freed Smelly family left Virginia that same year, according to the law prohibiting freed slaves to remain in the state more than one year, and migrated to New Jersey. At some point the family changed their name from Smelly to Smiley. In New Jersey, the Smiley family met another freed family from Maryland, the Polks, and the two families intermarried. By 1993, Amey and Jim Smiley had over one hundred descendants. The Smiley-Polk family documents consist of nine holograph 19th-century documents relating to the emancipation of the ancestors of the Smiley-Polk family of New Jersey, and other items concerning the genealogy of this family.
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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 76
5.13 linear feet (15 boxes)
The Miscellaneous American Letters and Papers (MALP), spanning from 1740-2006, document the personal and professional lives of people of African descent.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 383
.8 linear feet (2 archival boxes)
The Grenada Plantation Records consist of manuscript documents from the Lataste Estate, a sugar plantation in Grenada, West Indies, dating from 1737-1845. The documents are in French, reflecting the fact that colonial control of Grenada changed...
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The Grenada Plantation Records consist of manuscript documents from the Lataste Estate, a sugar plantation in Grenada, West Indies, dating from 1737-1845. The documents are in French, reflecting the fact that colonial control of Grenada changed hands several times during the time period of this collection. Included are deeds of sale, account records for running the plantation, inventories, survey reports about the property, total amount of rum and molasses produced, and detailed account books of profits and expenses, as well as letters and copies of letters, powers of attorney, a 1756 marriage contract, and a hand drawn folio map. Most of the letters were written by John Harvey and include correspondence regarding other properties, e.g. Estate of Rochambard and estates adjoining Lataste - Brienner and Chantilly. Inventories of slaves (last dated 1834, when slavery was outlawed) include information about illness, cause of death, first names, ages, and sometimes country of origin, color and conspicuous marks (such as amputations) and scars.
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Schomburg, Arthur Alfonso, 1874-1938
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc Micro R-1527
.96 linear feet (1 microfilm reel, 3 boxes)
The manuscripts in this collection are mostly governmental and military documents, primarily relating to Haiti and Guadaloupe, and some to other West Indian islands.
Conrad, Earl
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 15
0.13 linear feet (2 reels)
Harriet Tubman research materials represent the research process used in the production of the book by Earl Conrad on the life and activities of Harriet Tubman.
Gregoire, Henri
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 243
1 folder
A catholic clergyman, abolitionist, and statesman, Henri Grégoire was a founding member of the anti-slavery Société des Amis des Noirs, and played an active role in the politics of France from the opening of the General Estates in...
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A catholic clergyman, abolitionist, and statesman, Henri Grégoire was a founding member of the anti-slavery Société des Amis des Noirs, and played an active role in the politics of France from the opening of the General Estates in 1789 to the restoration of the monarchy. Grégoire went to the National Assembly as a representative of the clergy, but soon sided with the Third Estate and became one of its more radical and outspoken leaders. He fought for universal suffrage and the abolition of all privileges, and was one of the first priests to take the oath of loyalty to the new Constitution. He became both president of the Assembly and Constitutional Bishop of Blois in 1791. Elected to the National Convention in 1792, he played a major role in the abolition of slavery in France's colonies and in the granting of civil and political rights to French Jews. Grégoire was also a member of the Conseil des Cinq-Cents. Elected senator under Napoléon and to the Chamber of Deputies under Louis XVIII, he led the opposition in parliament for the return to democracy and the republican constitution. He was the author of "An Inquiry Concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties and Literature of Negroes," "An Essay on the Physical, Moral and Political Reformation of the Jews," and "A History of Religious Cults." The Henri Grégoire Papers consist of miscellaneous religious writings and annotations, and draft letters and notes sent by Grégoire to his editor and colleagues, many of them recorded on the back of incoming letters. Included are several handwritten quotations from the religious writings of the French philosopher and economist Claude Henri de Saint-Simon and an excerpt from a Declaration by Toussaint-Louverture on the religion of the blacks in Saint-Domingue. The writings deal predominantly with issues of Catholic dogma, the infallibility of the Pope, problems of jurisdiction between the Vatican and Catholic bishops, comparative religion, and the exegesis of various biblical texts.
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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 119
0.96 linear feet (3 boxes)
The collection consists of individual items and small groups of Haitian documents mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. It includes miscellaneous correspondence of Etienne Polvérel and Félicité Sonthonax, members of the Civil...
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The collection consists of individual items and small groups of Haitian documents mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. It includes miscellaneous correspondence of Etienne Polvérel and Félicité Sonthonax, members of the Civil Commission sent by the French government to the Windward Islands "to restore order and tranquillity" in 1793, and of various Haitian heads of state, among them Nissage Saget (1874), Lysius Félicité Salomon (1883) and Tirésias Simon Sam (1897). Also included are a 1778 inventory listing the names, age, trades and physical condition of 149 slaves on the Beaugé Plantation in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue; a 1785 manumission certificate for Jeanne Aline, a sixteen year-old slave girl; miscellaneous French colonial administration documents ranging from 1791 to 1803; two letters from Henri Christophe to Tobias Lear, U.S. Consul to Saint-Domingue in 1802, and to Corneille Brelle, a French priest appointed Grand Almoner and Archbishop of Haiti in 1811; 1830s Masonic certificates from the Grande Loge d'Haiti; and a group of six autograph letters with attachments from the Haitian surrealist poet Clément Magloire-Saint-Aude (1968-1970). Diplomatic correspondence includes 35 letters from the Haitian Legation in Paris to the Haitian Ministry of Foreign Relations, 1911-1914, relating to the purchase of 10,000 guns and 500,000 rounds of ammunition in France, and to a 36-hour British ultimatum to the Haitian government. Also a group of letters from the Haitian Legation in Ciudad Trujillo (Santo Domingo) that give a sense of the general situation between the two countries prior to the October 1937 massacre of 10,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic.
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Fisher, Kurt A., 1908-
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc Micro R-2228
0.63 linear feet (10 reels, 1 oversize folder)
Kurt Fisher was an archaeologist and authority on Haitian history and culture whose life-long interest in collecting included these source materials relating to Haiti. The bulk of this collection consists of the archives of the General...
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Kurt Fisher was an archaeologist and authority on Haitian history and culture whose life-long interest in collecting included these source materials relating to Haiti. The bulk of this collection consists of the archives of the General Prosecutor's office for the city of Jérémie.
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Bey, Allan Ahmed
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 827
0.67 linear feet (2 boxes)
Moorish Science Temple of America, is an U.S. religious movement founded in Newark, N.J., in 1913 by Timothy Drew (1886–1929), known to followers as Noble Drew Ali and also as the Prophet. Drew Ali taught that all Blacks were of Moorish...
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Moorish Science Temple of America, is an U.S. religious movement founded in Newark, N.J., in 1913 by Timothy Drew (1886–1929), known to followers as Noble Drew Ali and also as the Prophet. Drew Ali taught that all Blacks were of Moorish origins but had their Muslim identity taken away from them through slavery and racial segregation. He advocated that they should "return" to the Islam of their Moorish forefathers, redeeming themselves from racial oppression by reclaiming their historical spiritual heritage. He also encouraged use of the term "Moor" rather than "Black" in self-identification. Many of the group's formal practices were derived from Muslim observances. This collection consists of materials collected by Allen Ahmed Bey for his research on the Moorish Science Temple in the United States. Included in the collection are legal briefs on the status of Moorish Nation Nationals (citizens) which contain a public declaration of national constitutional immunity. Also included are a number of documents on the history of the Moorish Nation and instructional manuals (lessons) for members.
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Crummell, Alexander, 1819-1898
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc Micro R-1004
11 reels
Clergyman, teacher, missionary. Letters addressesd to Crummell discussing personal and religious interests and Crummell's missionary work as an Episcopalian in Liberia in the 1850s through 1860s. Bulk of the collection consists of numerous sermons...
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Clergyman, teacher, missionary. Letters addressesd to Crummell discussing personal and religious interests and Crummell's missionary work as an Episcopalian in Liberia in the 1850s through 1860s. Bulk of the collection consists of numerous sermons preached in Washington, D.C. and other American cities, England, and Liberia. Sermons, in addition to discussing religious matters, concern his work in Liberia, the role of the family, and other subjects.
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Buckley, Gail Lumet, 1937-
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 327
2.04 linear feet (4 boxes)
This collection consists of original documents and correspondence related to the Horne family, assembled by Gail Lumet Buckley during the research and writing of her book
The Hornes: An American Family (New York: Alfred...
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This collection consists of original documents and correspondence related to the Horne family, assembled by Gail Lumet Buckley during the research and writing of her book
The Hornes: An American Family (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986). Included are articles, programs, awards, memorabilia, business correspondence and papers, financial data, and other printed material pertaining to the careers of singer Lena Horne; her uncle, Frank S. Horne, a member of the Roosevelt "Black cabinet" and poet; and other members of the extended family.
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Harris, M. A., 1908-1977
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 34
19.58 linear feet (93 boxes)
The Middleton "Spike" Harris newspaper collection consists of newspapers from various U. S. states, the majority from the East Coast and from the 19th century. There are also some newspapers from London, England. Included are multiple...
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The Middleton "Spike" Harris newspaper collection consists of newspapers from various U. S. states, the majority from the East Coast and from the 19th century. There are also some newspapers from London, England. Included are multiple publications per state, most with various issues.
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Johnson, Helen A.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 599
16.79 linear feet (46 boxes)
The Helen Armstead-Johnson miscellaneous theater collections (HAJMTC) were formed by over two hundred file-folder level collections (one-three file folders per personality or event). The collections contain information dating from the...
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The Helen Armstead-Johnson miscellaneous theater collections (HAJMTC) were formed by over two hundred file-folder level collections (one-three file folders per personality or event). The collections contain information dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth century, and they document early dramatic actors, minstrel shows, vaudeville, musical revues, Broadway productions, and protest dramas, among others. In addition to actors, playwrights, singers, musicians, and dancers and the productions in which they appeared, there are collections for poets and visual artists.
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Zoar United Methodist Church (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc Micro R-1183
The records of Zoar United Methodist Church are divided into four series: Delaware Conference; Delaware-Philadelphia District; Zoar United Methodist Church; and St. John's Church, Spring Lake, New Jersey. The Zoar Methodist Church series, largest...
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The records of Zoar United Methodist Church are divided into four series: Delaware Conference; Delaware-Philadelphia District; Zoar United Methodist Church; and St. John's Church, Spring Lake, New Jersey. The Zoar Methodist Church series, largest of the four, is divided into seven subseries: history, vital records, organizational records, pastors, financial, legal, and bulletins and miscellaneous printed material.
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Davis, John P. (John Preston), 1905-1973
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc Micro R-5858
Writings and research files, along with personal papers, and corrrespondence documenting Davis' multifaceted career, 1923-1972. Includes material on the AMERICAN NEGRO REFERENCE BOOK, 1966, edited by Davis; papers relating to Frederick Douglass,...
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Writings and research files, along with personal papers, and corrrespondence documenting Davis' multifaceted career, 1923-1972. Includes material on the AMERICAN NEGRO REFERENCE BOOK, 1966, edited by Davis; papers relating to Frederick Douglass, including letters to Douglass from his sons, Lewis and Frederick; historical novel about a frontier family in Louisville, Kentucky; compilation of biographies of black athletes called "Jump High;" short stories and poetry; and manuscript about Liberia entitled "Bitter Canaan," by Charles S. Johnson. Correspondents include Mary M. Bethune, Ralph J. Bunche, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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Jackson, Jesse
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 896
0.21 linear feet (1 box)
Jesse J. Jackson (1908-1983), the collector of these documents, acquired them over ten years while serving as a writer-in-residence at Appalachian State University. Jackson was born in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University. He wrote 8...
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Jesse J. Jackson (1908-1983), the collector of these documents, acquired them over ten years while serving as a writer-in-residence at Appalachian State University. Jackson was born in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University. He wrote 8 books for children, and often wrote for magazines, journals, and local newspapers. Jesse J. Jackson Slavery and Civil War documents collection consists of approximately 90 individual documents relating to Southern slavery and the Civil War. The majority of the documents are manuscript bills of sale and deeds of gift for enslaved persons, issued in North Carolina, 1800-1858. Each document generally gives the enslaved person's name, sex, approximate age, and occasionally other information such as occupation, prices, and names of seller and buyer. Other information provided includes mention that the enslaved person being sold is "at large" and an affidavit accusing a dealer of selling a man's runaway despite the fact that the owner had asked the dealer to hold the runaway until he could be retrieved.
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Porter, Kenneth Wiggins, 1905-1981
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 222
49.4 linear feet (67 boxes)
A professor of history, Kenneth W. Porter conducted research on African-American frontiersmen and cowboys, Black Seminoles, and American folklore and folk history. This collection consists primarily of his manuscripts and research materials...
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A professor of history, Kenneth W. Porter conducted research on African-American frontiersmen and cowboys, Black Seminoles, and American folklore and folk history. This collection consists primarily of his manuscripts and research materials pertaining to African-American and Native American studies. Porter's interests in socialism, poetry and literature, folklore, and general American and European history are also documented. Aspects of his personal life are represented in the papers as well.
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Harris, M. A., 1908-1977
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc MG 34
19.04 linear feet (43 boxes)
Middleton Alexander "Spike" Harris (1908-1977) was an author, historian, collector, and dealer of African Americana. In addition, he was the founder of the Negro History Associates (NHA), an organization which collected and disseminated...
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Middleton Alexander "Spike" Harris (1908-1977) was an author, historian, collector, and dealer of African Americana. In addition, he was the founder of the Negro History Associates (NHA), an organization which collected and disseminated information about African Americans. His papers primarily consist of research files created by Harris and the NHA.
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Winks, Robin W.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc Micro R-5857
8.25 linear feet (12 reels, 18 boxes)
Robin W. Winks, a professor of history at Yale University, wrote
The Blacks in Canada: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971). This collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, and research materials...
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Robin W. Winks, a professor of history at Yale University, wrote
The Blacks in Canada: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971). This collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, and research materials related to the book, and other articles concerning the history of Blacks in Canada.
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Schomburg, Arthur Alfonso, 1874-1938
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division | Sc Micro R-2798
.75 linear feet (17 boxes, 12 microfilm reels)
Papers reflecting Schomburg's endeavors as a writer and researcher, and collector and curator of books and manuscripts documenting black history and culture. Personal and professional papers, including correspondence and writings, and writings of...
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Papers reflecting Schomburg's endeavors as a writer and researcher, and collector and curator of books and manuscripts documenting black history and culture. Personal and professional papers, including correspondence and writings, and writings of others. Includes material relating to Schomburg's position as curator of the Schomburg Collection at the 135th St. branch of the New York Public Library, and to black literature, art, and history. Correspondents include John E. Bruce, Henrietta Buckmaster, W.E.B. Du Bois, Nicolás Guillén, W.C. Handy, Langston Hughes, Charles S. Johnson, James W. Johnson, Claude McKay, J.A. Rogers, Albert A. Smith, Sténio Vincent (President of Haiti), Walter White, and Carter G. Woodson. Other papers include programs, news clippings, invitations, announcements, and minutes of a variety of organizations, such as the New York Urban League, New York Public Library, Young Men's Christian Association, and several black cultural and educational groups. Also, transcriptions of eighteenth and nineteenth century historical documents pertaining to black history and culture.
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