Mar 01, 2012 - Sale 2271

Sale 2271 - Lot 294

Price Realized: $ 2,880
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
LOCKE ON BLACK STUDIES AT HOWARD (EDUCATION.) LOCKE, ALAIN LE ROY. To the President and Board of Trustees. . . It is respectfully suggested . . . Proposal for a Black Studies Department at Howard University. A total of 16 pages, 4to, typed ribbon copies, signed four times by locke. should be seen. Washington, D.C. 1913-15
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Alain Le Roy Locke," (1885-1954), first African descended Rhodes scholar, educator, author and editor was the guiding light for the establishment of what is today The Moorland-Spingarn Library at Howard University. Locke was the author-editor of "The New Negro," (1925) and is generally regarded as the "godfather" of the Harlem Renaissance. These five documents follow the establishment and progress of the Founders Library at Howard University. The first part is a letter, addressed to the Board of Trustees, dated February 3, 1913, outlining in five points how and why a "Negro-Americana" Library and studies department should be set up at the school:
"It is respectfully suggested and recommended that in view of the recent acquisition of the Moorland Collection, and the general interest the University should take in this special field of Negro Americana, that 1. A Curatorship of Negro-Americana be established, the Curator to take charge of the installation and maintenance of the special collections of Race Literature in the library, his duty being to superintend, also the further collection of such items of Negro-Americana by donation, purchase and exchange, with a view to making the collections as complete as possible." The second item, dated May 20, 1915 is a very detailed letter addressed to Doctor Jesse Moorland, enclosing a "prospectus" put together by Locke and Kelly Miller announcing and outlining the plans for the research library and clarifying several points in the earlier presentation. The third part, (undated but probably circa 1915) is a discussion of the nomenclature regarding the Negro Americana collections: how the different categories were to be referred to etc. Finally, a fourth section (six pages, undated) explains how the Library might be supported (salaries etc) and where the Library might acquire material, both permanently and on loan. A substantial part of this section includes quotes and "reviews" from numerous scholars with their very positive reaction to the proposal. The very last page of this section has a sample "donors form." Tremendously important history of the establishment of probably the most important repository of African Americana in the country.