Harlem's Schomburg Center Opens 6 Archives To Public

HARLEM, NY — Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will open up six of its prominent archives to the public this Black History Month, New York Public Library officials announced.

The archives of activists, artists and writers such as Maya Angelou, Anne Petry, Kathleen Collins, Gertrude Hadley Jeannette, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis will be made fully accessible to the public as part of the Schomburg Center's "Home to Harlem" initiative.

Many of these collections, such as Angelou's, were already available for research but have been fully processed with updated finding aids, library officials said. Items in these collections include Angelou's correspondences with famous figures such as Coretta Scott King, James Baldwin and Malcolm X and original manuscripts for works such as "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The Schomburg Center acquired many of these items in 2010, and the Aneglou collection has remained one of the center's most popular research archives.

Archives for Petry, Collins and Jeannette will also feature new finding aids. The Dee and Davis archives will be open to the public for the first time.

"Together, these significant archives represent the pinnacle of Black excellence, with a particular focus on Black women. The collections also connect with other prominent recent holdings, from the James Baldwin archive to the Malcolm X papers, to the Schomburg Center’s longstanding archives such as the Lorraine Hansberry and Julian Mayfield papers," a Schomburg Center press release reads.

Many items in the center's Angelou, Dee and Davis archives will also be featured in the "Traveling While Black" exhibit set to open at the Schomburg Center in March.