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Voices of the Harlem Renaissance within the Schomburg Center: Archival Media

This guide will navigate researchers through materials documenting the Harlem Renaissance at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Exploring the Research Divisions

The Schomburg Center is organized by material format. This means that inquiries to research photographs, art work, and audiovisual materials need to be made separately. Click through the tabs below to learn about the types of materials covering the Harlem Renaissance that are available in the Art and Artifacts, Moving Image and Recorded Sound, and Photographs and Prints Divisions

Primary Source Research at the Schomburg Center

 The Art and Artifacts Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture collects, documents, preserves, and interprets art and artifacts by and about peoples of African heritage throughout the world.

The Schomburg Center's collection of Painting and Sculpture primarily surveys the history of art by African American artists from the late 19th century to the early 1970s and includes a few works by European, African, Caribbean and South American artists. The majority of works represent the New Negro Renaissance, the Works Projects Administration (WPA), and post-World War II eras. Urban genre themes and the descriptions of African American life dominate the work from this period.

Harlem Renaissance Artists in the Collection:

Augusta Savage

Richmond Barthé

John T. Biggers

Ruth Brall

William Ernest Braxton

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

Palmer Hayden

Malvin Gray Johnson

Sargent Claude Johnson

Lois Mailou Jones

Norman Lewis

Archibald Motley

Richard Bruce Nugent

James Porter

William Edoard Scott

Laura Wheeler Warring

Hale Woodruff

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division, The New York Public Library. "Laborer" New York Public Library Digital Collections. 

 

 

Artist Files:

Assembled by the Art and Artifacts Division of the Schomburg Center, Artists files include Black artists who are represented in the collection, and some who are not. Files include newspaper and magazine clippings, postcards, book marks, and other ephemera that has been collected about the artist. 

 

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division, The New York Public Library. "Brass band" New York Public Library Digital Collections. 

 

Podcast: Notes Between Sessions with Mary Edwards

Listen to Art and Artifacts curator, Tammi Lawson, reflect on the life and talent of sculptor and art teacher, Augusta Savage.

Research Guides:

The Augusta Savage Research Guide will assist users and scholars in locating information and artwork by renowned Harlem Renaissance Sculptor, Art Administrator and Educator Augusta Savage. Included is information about primary resources, books and visual materials.

To discover additional Black artists, the guide, Getting Started: An Introduction to Researching Black Artists, can be used for an introduction to resources available at the New York Public Library.

Please contact the division directly to inquire about research topics and access: SchomburgArt@nypl.org

The Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture documents the experiences of peoples of African descent, as they have been captured via audiovisual technology.

The following is a sample of materials in the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division that document the Harlem Renaissance.

Audio:Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Lyricist Noble Sissle and cast members from the musical "Shuffle Along," ca. 1921" New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Lyricist Noble Sissle and cast members from the musical "Shuffle Along," ca. 1921" New York Public Library Digital Collections.

 

 

Film:

Uses still photographs and filmed sequences to recreate the social and political climate of the Harlem renaissance--a period of great artistic and cultural activity in the 1920's which had, and still has, a profound influence on Black American art and self-awareness and life-style.

A poetic recitative dramatization about the Harlem Renaissance using excerpts from the works of the poets of the 1920's, including the works of Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and others (performed by Barbara Ann Teer and the National Black Theatre).

Videocassette

Video Oral History Interviews [from the Schomburg Center Video Oral History Program] 

Recorded Events

 

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Regina Andrews (seated) with librarian Edna Law" New York Public Library Digital Collections.

The Photographs and Prints Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, contains both documentary and fine art photographs, which document the history and culture of people of African descent worldwide as well as the work of photographers of African descent. The collection of over 300,000 images ranges from mid-eighteenth-century graphics to contemporary documentary and art photography.

Portrait Collections:

Aaron Douglas portrait collection

Augusta Savage portrait collection

Bessye and Romare Bearden portrait collection

Countee Cullen portrait collection

Lois Mailou Jones portrait collection

Nella Larsen portrait collection

Paul Robeson portrait collection

Zora Neale Hurston portrait collection

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Author Langston Hughes [far left] with [left to right:] Charles S. Johnson; E. Franklin Frazier; Rudolph Fisher and Hubert T. Delaney" New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Photograph Collections:

 
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Marcus Garvey in Regalia sitting in an automobile" New York Public Library Digital Collections.
This collection consists mainly of photographic and some photomechanical reproductions of American fine art and other visual artwork, created by or depicting peoples of African descent, from the 19th and 20th centuries. Researchers can view candid shots and group portraits of artists either creating or posing with their work. Also included in the collection are views of art patrons, students and museum visitors; reproductions of pre-colonial African and 18th century American art; views of art exhibitions; and some views of activities in workshops.

Eddie Mallory conducts Mills Blue Rhythm Band at the Cotton Club.Night Clubs and Theaters

The collection (ca. 1920s-1980s) consists of exterior and interior views of Harlem nightclubs and theaters (1920s-1960s); portraits and candid shots of entertainers, individual musicians, orchestras and chorus girls appearing at or affiliated with specific clubs and theaters (1920s-1960s); and views of nightclub patrons (ca. 1940s).

 
Additional collection materials can be identified with the help of the reference librarian. Please contact them directly to inquire about research topics and access. SchomburgPhotography@nypl.org
 
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Eddie Mallory conducts Mills Blue Rhythm Band at the Cotton Club." New York Public Library Digital Collections.