Guide to the Schomburg Center's Photographs and Prints Division: Personal and Corporate Collections

Personal Collections

The P&P Division includes many photograph collections assembled by notable people during their lifetimes. These often contain personal and family photographs documenting individuals' lives and careers.

P&P's personal and corporate collections are often part of larger collections, which are separated within the Schomburg Center's Divisions according to format. The Sonny Rollins photograph collection, for instance, was originally part of Sonny Rollins' personal archive, along with the Sonny Rollins papers in the Schomburg's Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division (MARB), and the Sonny Rollins audio and moving image collection in the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division (MIRS).

Some of the personal collections in the Division include (among many others):

• James Baldwin photograph collection
• Malcolm X photograph collection
• Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee photograph collection
• Augusta Savage photograph collection
• Harry Belafonte photograph collection
• Fab 5 Freddy photograph collection

Other Personal Collections

The Division also holds a number of collections assembled by historians or other specialists, and typically devoted to a specific subject area. Examples include:

• Helen Armstead-Johnson collection (documenting the contributions of African Americans to the performing arts)
• Joe Nash Black dance collection
• Kurt Fisher Haitian history collection

Corporate Collections

The Division holds a significant number of collections assembled during the course of organizations' affairs, or originally issued by organizations.

Notable examples include:

• Farm Security Administration collection
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) collection
• American Negro Theater Alumni photograph collection
• New York Jazz Museum collection
• Club Cubano Inter-Americano collection