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How One Private Collection Built a Public Institution
By Steven
Fullwood
Consider
for a moment if distinguished Puerto Rican-born Black scholar and
bibliophile, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, never had the notion to collect
black historical materials. That would mean several things, one being
that the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the largest
repository for Black materials in the world, wouldn’t exist.
Fortunately, it does and we are grateful that Mr. Schomburg deemed black
culture important enough to collect it.
Schomburg amassed an astounding amount of materials created by or about
Africans and people of African descent. Prior to his collection's
purchase by the New York Public Library, Schomburg’s house was filled to
the brim with books, papers, documents, pamphlets and prints that
covered his walls.
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The Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture
135th and Lenox Ave., Harlem, NY |
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Schomburg served as curator of the collection from 1932 until his death
in 1938. Renamed in his honor in 1940, the collection grew steadily
through the years. In 1972, the collection was designated as one of The
Research Libraries of The New York Public Library and became the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Schomburg's collection
forms the core of the Center’s collections. Today, the Schomburg
Center's mission is to collect, preserve and make available its
voluminous and diverse collections.
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So is it likely that that the Schomburg Center will come knocking at
your door for that stack of old Ebony magazines collecting dust in your
basement? Well, don’t hold your breath.
One of the ways the Center fulfills its mission is to curate exhibitions
that interpret collections it already owns. Howard Dodson, Chief of the
Center, speaks about that mission. “The exhibitions interpret the
collections we have here [at the Center]. The ideas for our exhibitions
emanate from that vantage point.”
There are however exception to the rule. “If there is not enough breadth
within the Center’s collections, then that’s when we will approach
private collectors,” remarked Dodson.
One of the current exhibitions, “Lest We Forget: Triumph Over Slavery,”
takes great pains to illuminate the Transatlantic Slave trade. Although
the exhibition is comprised primarily of materials from the Center’s
collections, it also contains items from private collectors.
“Because there was a three-dimensional aspect to the exhibition, we
sought material from private collectors to enhance the visual experience
of the exhibition,” Dodson said.
Bobbi Yancy, Assistant Director for Public Affairs and Development,
added that Lest We Forget was a rare exception. “Generally our
exhibitions are totally constructed from our collections,” Yancey
remarked.
These collections that include books, papers, fine art and audio and
video media come to the Center in a variety of ways: donations, gifts
and sometimes purchases. Over the years, the exhibitions have ranged
from slavery, artists and photographers and the planning of each
exhibition is highly individualized.
For example, the Center produced “Who’s Uptown Harlem,” an exhibition of
artists who lived and created in Harlem. A survey conducted to identify
artists helped Center personnel construct the exhibition and as a
result, some artists’ works were purchased by the Center to fill gaps in
its collections. In 1998, Schomburg’s “Black New York Artists of the
20th Century: Selections from the Center Collections” celebrated the
presence and role of Black artists in the making of both the city’s and
nation’s heritage. Artists' donations coupled with a collection
development component augmented the Center’s already tremendous
collections.
As the Schomburg continues to celebrate its 75th Anniversary with well
over 5 million items in its collections, it will continue to feature
exhibitions that inform, captivate and dazzle the public. Just keep in
mind that it was one man’s collection that started it all and it was
more than just a stack of dusty magazines.
M
February 2001 |
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