Details

Inclusive Dates

1886 - 1968

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The Schomburg Center scrapbooks are a collection of 296 volumes assembled by library staff between the 1920s and 1960s, to supplement the collection of Black history resources that would later form the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The staff were strategic in their clipping, choosing to highlight Black voices and topics of particular interest to the African American community. The Schomburg scrapbooks may have grown out of the clipping file, when librarian Catherine Latimer assigned WPA workers to clip African American and mainstream newspapers and assemble them into scrapbooks. Two or three scrapbooks on Marcus Garvey went missing around 1960. The staff who assembled the scrapbooks noted their initials alongside the articles they clipped. The staff responsible for these volumes are ABJ, AJ, A McD, AM, AMC, AVR, BB, CMN, EJ, EMN, EW, FNR, GG, JC, JP, LS, MB, MN, MPT, MS, MSRD, MW, SC, VK, and WA. Initials EJ likely belong to E. Johnson and MS likely belong to M. Starke, both of whom clipped periodicals at the 135th St. New York Public Library branch. Initials VK likely belong to Vincent Kerr, Assistant Research Worker. Initials MN likely belong to Marie Neal, Library Clerk, and RS likely belong to Ruby Scott, Clerk-Typist, both assigned to the 135th St. branch through the Works Progress Administration. The scrapbooks were compiled and bound by The New York Public Library. The scrapbooks are organized by topic and consist primarily of newspaper clippings, unless otherwise noted. The publications represented include African American newspapers such as the Afro-American (Baltimore), Boston Chronicle, Boston Guardian, Chicago Bee, Chicago Defender, Chicago Whip, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Louisiana Weekly, Negro World (Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League newspaper), New York Age, New York Amsterdam News, New York News and Harlem Home Journal, Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, St. Louis Argus, and Washington Tribune Additional newspapers include Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, New York Post, The New York Times, and Newsweek, among others.. Not all clippings include date or source information.

Sites of Teaching & Learning

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Location

• Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
  515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10037, USA