Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -

Sale 2697 - Lot 241

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(HISTORY.) Correspondence between two titans of Black history librarianship, Arthur Schomburg and Dorothy Porter. 5 Letters Signed from Schomburg to Porter (two of them autograph and the others typed), plus 2 retained carbons of typescript responses from Porter to Schomburg and one stamped and postmarked envelope; minor wear. Various places, 1931 and 1938
Request Condition Report Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Arthur A, Schomburg (1874-1938) was an influential scholar of Black history whose collection was purchased by the New York Public Library in 1926, and became the basis of the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art. He was hired to curate the Negro Collection at Fisk University in 1929, and spent his final years as curator of the collection he had gathered at New York Public Library. His correspondent Dorothy B. Porter (1905-1995) graduated from Howard University and became its librarian in 1930, building what is now the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

The first two letters in this lot are Autograph Letters Signed from Schomburg on his Fisk letterhead, 15 and 22 April 1931, when Porter was just beginning her career. They describe his scholarly efforts in detail: "I have in mind Richard Allen's Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade. . . . I am only running down orations and addresses. So far, have had copies of 13 before 1827 by notable Negroes. I have run down one by Paul Cuffe that is very interesting. I have real orations, not written articles passing for the real thing. I hope you have successes with your checklist. I heard from the New England libraries that you were there. How much you got, I don't know, but Loggins' work will be hard to excel."

The other three Schomburg letters are typed on New York Public Library letterhead in January and February 1938, months before his death. He asks Porter for information on a Richard Greener address at Howard in 1878, and then tries to coordinate a complete run of the 1827-1829 magazine Freedom's Journal "to micro-film the entire collection and make it available to students and others engaged in the study of Negro periodicals." Porter's short responses to these queries are also included.

Also in This Catalogue