A Research Guide to Black Librarianship at the Schomburg Center: Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division

The 135th Street Branch Records document staff activities as they serviced the information needs of the Harlem community. The collection contains lists of acquisitions, circulation statistics, library card registrations, and fines. There are also annual Children's Room reports from 1922 to 1950. Of particular note is correspondence pertaining to Dorothy R. Homer, who became the first Black librarian to head the 135th Street Branch Library following Ernestine Rose's retirement in 1942.

The records of the Schomburg Center document the activities of the six individuals who managed the library, dating to its establishment by Ernestine Rose. The records are divided into the following series: General Correspondence, Reference Correspondence, Memoranda, Subject Files and Visitors' Registers. The majority of the material consists of subject files containing a considerable amount of correspondence.

The New York Public Library purchased Arthur A. Schomburg's collection of books, pamphlets, prints and photographs in 1926 with funds from the Carnegie Corporation and housed at the 135th Street Branch Library of The New York Public Library. L. Hollingsworth Wood was appointed in 1925 by the Board of Trustees of The New York Public Library to purchase and provide guidelines for the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature.

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.

The Lawrence D. Reddick papers reflect Reddick's activities as a historian, professor, and advocate for the study of Black history, as well as his involvement in the civil rights movement as both participant and documentarian.

The papers document Andrews' personal life and professional career and activities. Correspondence, reports, printed material, and writings are included. Andrews' professional activities at the Washington Heights Branch of the New York Public Library are, in part, very well documented by a series of scrapbooks containing photographs, broadsides and other printed material of the "Family Night at the Library" programs.

Jean Blackwell Hutson (1914-1998) was a librarian who served as curator of the Schomburg Collection from 1948 to 1972, then chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from 1972 to 1980. The Jean Blackwell Hutson papers include materials relating to Hutson's personal life and family, library career at the Schomburg Center and the University of Ghana, and teaching, writing, and other activities.

Papers include correspondence from notable figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Leigh Whipper, Mary McLeod Bethune, Langston Hughes, Ralph J. Bunche, James Weldon Johnson, Fannie Hurst, Booker T. Washington, Franz Boas, Benjamin Brawley, Countee Cullen, and others; as well as other librarians and professionals at Black institutions. Also included are minutes of the Bi-Racial Committee in which the motion to establish a separate Alabama Negro Library Association was passed in 1952.

First published by the New York Public Library in 1925, this selected bibliography was compiled by the 135th Street Branch Library staff and published at five-year intervals until the 1950s.

Vivian Hewitt is a former librarian and collector of Haitian and African American art. Her papers date from 1929 to 2015, and primarily document her social and family life, volunteer work, and art collection. Hewitt's papers also include materials concerning her career as a librarian.

Gladys H. MacDonald was a Harlem-based librarian, community organizer, and founder of the community organization, Harlem Speaks. The Gladys MacDonald papers include documents from MacDonald's personal life and Harlem Speaks.

This collection is mostly comprised of correspondence, meeting minutes, financial reports, and newspaper clippings pertaining to Black librarianship. There is a folder of minutes for the Black Librarians Caucus of Queens, the NYBLC predecessor, as well as policy statements from both American Library Association (ALA)'s Black Caucus and the NYBLC.

Project began in 1965 with funding from the New York Public Library and state and federal sources to demonstrate the value of intensive library services in a disadvantaged community through strengthened book collections, relevant programs, and in-service training.