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Africana Studies: JSTOR Digital Collections

ARTSTOR Black History Collections

  • Central Pennsylvania African American Museum Collection – Images from an exhibition at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute featuring manuscripts, transcriptions, translations, and photographs that tell the story of the earliest Black inhabitants of the Americas.
  • Chatham University: Oral History, Neighborhoods and Race Recordings Collection – Recordings of conversations focusing on the racial dynamics of American cities, especially Pittsburgh, since World War II.
  • Cornell: Gail and Stephen Rudin Slavery Collection – More than 500 documents, letters, and other items on the devastating history of the sale, hire, purchase, and debt payment of slaves in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America.
  • Cornell: Hip Hop Party and Event Flyers – With more than 500 party and event flyers ca. 1977-1984, this is the largest known institutional collection of these scarce materials, which have become increasingly valued for the details they provide about early Hip Hop culture.
  • Cornell: Loewentheil Collection of African-American Photographs – This collection stands to make a major impact on the study of African American visual culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as it reveals volumes about black life and struggles in rare photographs.
  • Hampden-Sydney College: Tiger Civil Rights Articles – A survey of articles from the student newspaper addressing race relations at Hampden-Sydney College and in the community, giving a window into attitudes in the 1950s and ’60s.
  • Tuskegee University’s Civil Rights audio collections – Recordings and photographs of speeches from prominent leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. We also interviewed archivist Dana Chandler, who digitized the original reel-to-reel tapes.
  • Wilson College Pat Vail Civil Rights Collection – More than 100 photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, and ephemera from a student volunteer in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964.
  • Open Artstor: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York Public Library) – 2,000+  images from the Schomburg Center, one of the world’s leading cultural institutions on the African American experience. Most focus on early community leaders and institutions in the United States: schools, churches, the military, and businesses. The works range from glimpses of Africa in the 1800s to 20th century protests.
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  • Open Artstor: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture – Close to 2500 images offering a broad interpretation of African American culture, presenting diverse histories including the enslavement of the people, protest and civil rights movements, and the lives of celebrated citizens and everyday people:  art, artifacts, fashion, musical instruments, letters, portrait photographs books, broadsheets, political buttons and all types of ephemera.
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  • Amistad Research Center – Nearly 300 images from artists of the Harlem Renaissance. View in Artstor | View in JSTOR
  • Bob Gore: Faith-based communities – Bob Gore documents expressions of faith in more than 300 photographs, mainly across African American communities and in the Caribbean. View in Artstor | View in JSTOR
  • Eugene James Martin – Around 200 images of the paintings, collages and drawings of the artist’s (1938-2005) self-described “satirical” abstracts. View in Artstor | View in JSTOR
  • Howardena Pindell – 20 images of the unconventional abstractions by the artist that address political and social issues. View in Artstor | View in JSTOR
  • Image of the Black in Western Art – From the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University, the IBWA collection of more than 24,000 images provides a cross-section of western works of art of diverse types, origins and periods that feature depictions of Africans and African Americans. View in Artstor | View in JSTOR
  • Mott-Warsh Collection – more than 300 images of the work of modern and contemporary African American artists. View in Artstor | View in JSTOR
  • Romare Bearden Foundation – Nearly 800 images from the 20th century from the innovative collage artist (1911-1988). View in Artstor | View in JSTOR
  • Wangechi Mutu – More than 100 images of the provocative collages of the Kenyan-born artist. View in Artstor | View in JSTOR
    • Abolitionist Papers (1855-1872) (Roger Williams University) – 14 images of correspondence related to civil rights leader George T. Downing (1819-1903), including letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Charles A. Sumner, and Ambrose E. Burnside.
    • City College Dominican Library First Blacks in the Americas (CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at The City College of New York) – Nearly 125 photographs document the history of the earliest people of Black African descent in the Americas from 1492 onwards on the island of Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Republic of Haiti).
    • Civil Rights Movement Photographs (Queens College) – More than 325 photographs of Queens College students and other Northerners in the Civil Rights Movement, including Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Virginia Student Help Project, the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) Project, and the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR).
    • Eugene Sparrow Papers (Meadville Lombard Theological School) – Close to 50 images of papers of African American Unitarian minister and activist Eugene Sparrow –  personal documents, correspondence, work documents, and sermons, dating from 1944-1978.
    • Mahogany: The Newsletter of Chatham College’s Black Student Union, 1994 (Chatham University Archives) – Two issues of the university newsletter
    • P. H. Polk Family Collection (Tuskegee University) – 100 photographs by P. H. Polk, official photographer of Tuskegee University who for more than four decades captured iconic images of life on the campus. 
    • Xavier University of Louisiana 
      • Archives Photographs Collection – Nearly 200 historic photographs from the XULA Archives of people of African descent in and around New Orleans, including notable citizens and institutions, local persons and events, and  fraternal organizations and churches.
      • Arthur P. Bedou Photographs Collection – Around 150 images from Arthur P. Bedou, leading black photographer from New Orleans during the first half of the twentieth century. Highlights include the final pictures of Marcus Garvey in the United States and documentation of Booker T. Washington’s last speaking tours.
      • Basile Barès Collection – Images of items relating to African-American composer, and New Orleans Native, Basile Jean Barès (1845-1902), including sheet music, photographs, and correspondence.
      • Charles F. Heartman Manuscripts of Slavery Collection – Nearly 6100 images of documents dating from 1724-1897, and relating directly to the social, economic, civil, and legal status of enslaved Negroes and Free People of Color in Louisiana, especially New Orleans. The manuscripts are written in French, Spanish, and English.
      • The New Orleans Crusader Newspaper Collection (1889-1896) – Nearly 140 clippings from the Black Republican newspaper founded by politician, attorney, and journalist Louis André Martinet (1849-1917), and descendants of Free Persons of Color in New Orleans, in 1889. The newspaper served to inform the African American public on issues like racial injustice, inequality, and segregation. At the height of its popularity, during the 1890s, it was the only Black Daily Newspaper available in the United States.
      • Oral History Collection – Around 20 documents from the interviews with members of the Xavier University of Louisiana Faculty, Staff, & Alumni, as well as associated Orders offering the perspective of those who lived during some of the most trying times in Southern history. This Collection serves as the permanent repository for the interviews of those who worked, lived, and sacrificed to build the University to its place as the oldest Historically Black Catholic University in the nation.
      • Slavery & Freedom in Louisiana Collection – More than 165 images of manuscripts from slave records in Louisiana dating from 1784-1860. These rare documents, including freedom papers, wedding certificates, affidavits on runaway slaves, slave revolts, police records, and slave sale receipts, expand the historical knowledge of slavery in Louisiana and surrounding states. Documents are in French, Spanish, and English.

     

JSTOR Black History Collections

Black American Independent Voices (Reveal Digital)
Independent Voices provides scholars unprecedented access to writings and thoughts of those who led and participated in movements such as Black Power, the Black Arts Movement, Black Nationalism, Separatism, and Black Feminism.

Black Perspective (Lehman College, CUNY Leonard Lief Library)
A student-initiated cultural publication, Black Perspective was published from April 1972 to October 1974, and its 20 issues focused on the perceived needs and concerns of Black people at Lehman College and in society at large.

Black Empowerment Collection (Meadville Lombard Theological School)
This collection consists of records of and related to the activities of the UUA’s Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus, (BUUC)/Black Affairs Council (BAC), Full Recognition and Funding of BAC (FULLBAC), and the Black and White Alternative (BAWA), with emphasis on Black Empowerment. Materials date from 1961 to 1983 and include correspondence, printed announcements, newsletters, organizational administrative and financial documentation, by-laws, periodicals and published material, some sermons, and audio cassettes.

Blockson Pamphlets (Temple University)
Pamphlets, maps, and lithographs from holdings in the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection. It blends the distant Black past with recent events.

Charles Waddell Chesnutt Collection (Cleveland Public Library)
Family photographs, memorabilia, and manuscripts relating to prominent African American author Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932). Chesnutt gained fame for his short stories, essays, and his biography of the anti-slavery leader Frederick Douglass. His stories focused on the folk life of African Americans, civil rights, and racial intermarriage.

Compton Communicative Arts Academy Collection (California State University, Los Angeles)
The Compton Communicative Arts Academy (CCAA) Archive is a project to preserve and provide access to a collection of images that document African American art and culture in Los Angeles during the early 1970s. These photographs, all taken by Willie Ford, Jr. illustrate buildings and places; the Academy’s programming, artwork, and performances; and artists, artwork, important people, and events.

  • Dr. Mary E. Branch Papers
    The daughter of former slaves who became part of the small but developing Black middle class, Branch joined the faculty at Virginia State College and taught there for twenty years. During her career she would be awarded two honorary doctorates: the Doctor of Pedagogy from her alma mater Virginia State College and the Doctor of Laws from Howard University.
  • Dr. John Q. Taylor King papers
    Dr. John Quill Taylor King, Sr. was president of Huston-Tillotson from 1965 to 1988. Dr. King obtained the rank of major general in the army, and in 1985 was appointed to be a lieutenant general in the Texas State Guard. Dr. King also served as dean of Huston-Tillotson starting in 1960, a position he held until being appointed as president of the college in 1965. He retired in 1988 and was named chancellor and president emeritus. He continued to serve the college after this, being named the director and chairman of the Center for the Advancement of Science, Engineering, and Technology, a research branch of Huston-Tillotson.
  • Dr. Karl E. Downs papers
    Dr. Karl Everett Downs became Samuel Huston College’s president at the age of 31, becoming the youngest president of a college or university at the time. While in this position, enrollment increased significantly, from 174 students to more than 600. Downs also invited Jackie Robinson to be the head of the athletics department of Samuel Huston College before his rise to fame as a baseball player.
  • Dr. Reuben S. Lovinggood papers
    Dr. Reuben Shannon Lovinggood was Samuel Huston College’s first African American president in 1900 and remained in that position until his death in 1916.
  • Huston-Tillotson Charter Day Collection
    Huston-Tillotson Charter Day occurred on October 24, 1952, and was the merging of two local African American Colleges in Austin, Texas: Samuel Huston College and Tillotson College. Charter Day is celebrated each year in October.

  • The Louisiana Works Progress Administration (LWPA): Slave Narratives collection (Southern University)
    Fifty first-person accounts and some reproductions of interviews with former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1940s as part of the Louisiana branch of the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Please note that some of the words and descriptions in the collection can be considered offensive; the materials are presented to provide a true historical treatment of how Black Americans were treated.

    Malaika Handbooks (University of Miami)
    Handbook published by the United Black Students organization in the 1970s and 1980s that lists resources and organizations by and for Black students and faculty.

  • Yvonne Seon Papers
    The personal papers of Unitarian minister, activist, and African American Studies scholar Reverend Dr. Yvonne Seon from 1983 to 2014. It includes correspondence, sermons, ministerial organization and congregational papers, photographs, and other writing.
  • Lewis McGee Papers
    The personal papers of Unitarian minister and activist Reverend Lewis A. McGee  from 1915 to 1982. McGee, one of the first African American ministers in the Unitarian church, was a humanist, and his experience in an integrated Army led to his interest in creating an interracial congregation. The collection includes sermons, orders of service, correspondence, church bulletins, and newspaper clippings.

  • Obama Visual Iconography (Cornell University)
    Political campaign publicity and memorabilia documenting the campaign and election of President Barack Obama, providing a unique visual iconography of the election of America’s first Black President.

  • Nancy Elizabeth Prophet Collection (Rhode Island College)
    The first woman of color to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1918, Prophet is remembered for her work in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

    Verdell Burdine and Otto G. Rutherford Family Collection (Portland State University)
    Verdell A. Burdine Rutherford (1913-2001) and Otto G. Rutherford (1911-2000) helped lead the struggle for civil rights in Oregon in the twentieth century. The Rutherfords’ tireless community engagement including work with social, church, uplift, and labor organizations, is reflected throughout the collection which includes materials related to the Portland NAACP, local women’s social organizations such as the Culture Club, the Freemasons and other fraternal organizations, railroad workers’ unions, and local and regional Black-owned businesses. In addition, the collection boasts hundreds of photographs spanning over one hundred years of family history and local community life.

    Carver College Records, 1957-1965

  • Records relating to a two-year college in Charlotte that served Black students during the era of segregation. Contains catalogs, annual reports, curriculum proposals, planning documents, and building plans.
  • Fred D. (Frederick Douglas) Alexander Papers
    Papers and photos of the first African American member of the Charlotte City Council in the 20th Century (1965-74) who also served as a North Carolina state senator (1975-80).
  • Taylor and Richardson families album, 1876-1953
    Photographs and other materials that document the life of an African American barber, soldier, and firefighter active in social and political causes in Charlotte, NC, and his family.

  • Williams W. & Mary E. Williams Collection (Mount Zion Baptist Church Preservation Society)
    A digital album showcasing selected materials from the Williams W. & Mary E. Williams Collection. The collection includes photographs of Black life in Ohio from the mid-1800s to the 2000s. Material types include tintype, carte de visite, cabinet card, Polaroid, and other photographic and paper records.

  • We Choose Freedom: Samaná, Dominican Republic (The City College of New York)
    Documents from the African American residents of Samaná, who emigrated in 1824 from different ports along the Eastern United States to what was then the Republic of Haiti. Many of these new immigrants were given land and established communities in Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, and Samaná in what is today the Dominican Republic. The collection contains birth, marriage, and baptismal records from 1909 to 1970.