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:
- David Levering Lewis “Voices from the Renaissance” collection [audio]
- Eulalie Spence audio collection
- Interview with Joseph Delaney (Hatch-Billops oral history audio collection, artists)
- Interview with Robert Earl Jones (Hatch-Billops oral history audio collection, theater)
- Interview with Leigh Whipper (Hatch-Billops oral history audio collection)
- Interview with Dick Campbell (Hatch-Billops oral history audio collection)
- Sissle & Blake’s Shuffle Along [LP, 1976]
- An archival re-creation of the 1921 production featuring members of the original cast, including Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Gertrude Saunders, and the Shuffle Along Orchestra
- An archival re-creation of the 1921 production featuring members of the original cast, including Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Gertrude Saunders, and the Shuffle Along Orchestra
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:
- From These Roots: the review of the “Harlem Renaissance” [documentary film, 1974]
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.
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Me And My Song [an episode of Black Heritage, 1969 TV series]
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
- Uncommon Images: the Harlem of James Vanderzee
- Against The Odds: Artists of the Harlem Renaissance
- Jacob Lawrence: An Intimate Portrait (Morgan & Marvin Smith audio and moving image collection)
- M&M Smith: For Posterity's Sake
- Lois Mailou Jones: Fifty years of painting
- Views the life and art work of Lois Mailou Jones, Afro-American artist.
Video Oral History Interviews [from the Schomburg Center Video Oral History Program] 
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Bruce Nugent (writer and painter)
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Regina Andrews (writer and librarian)
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Frank Leslie Thompson (engineer and activist)
Recorded Events
- Talks at the Schomburg. The new Negro Renaissance beyond Harlem
- Augusta Savage and the Art Schools of Harlem (Schomburg Public Programs collection)
- The Queens Grapevine: Harlem Renaissance Photographers
- Before 5: Madam Walker and A'lelia Walker
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
Photograph Collections:
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).