ARTURO
ALFONSO
SCHOMBURG
Legacy of an Afro-Boricua
The Puerto RicanFather of Black HistoryThe Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, a branch of the New York Public Library.I was in the fifth grade, attending my new school, P.S. 175-Manhattan in my new neighborhood Harlem, New York City. One day, while playing, I just happened to drift across the street, and noticed a bust of a black man in front of a two-story brownstone building specializing in black literature. Little did I know that it would years before I learned that this site was a the cornerstone of The New York Public Library's Division of Negro Literature, History, and Prints, which would later grow into the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
January 24, 1874 (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
to June 8, 1938 (Brooklyn, NY)
It all started in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when a school teacher told a young black kid that blacks have no history and has never accomplished anything of note. This young black kid was so inspired to prove his teacher wrong, that he began his own readings and collected books on the accomplishments of black people all over the world. As he grew older, he got into debates with his classmates about the contributions of blacks.
The old Schomburg Collection located on 135th Street in Harlem, across from my elementary school P.S. 175-Manhattan.
As an adult, he moved to New York City, where at first, he was involved in the revolutionary movements of immigrant Cubans and Puerto Ricans. Meanwhile, he met an African-American journalist who introduced him to New York's black intellectual community and continued to increase his knowledge and expanded his personal collection of books by and about black people. During this time he got involved in the Harlem Renaissance (originally the new Negro movement), a black social and literary movement that spread through black communities nationwide.
Arturo Alfonso loaned objects from his personal library to the New York Public Library until his total collection of 10,000 items was purchased by the Library with the assistance of the Carnegie Corporation. Today, at the current site of the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, there are more than 5,000,000 items such as artifacts, recordings, manuscripts, motion picture films, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, prints, recorded music discs and sheet music. In addition, there is an 11,000 item digital library that can be accessed world wide by computer where you can browse more than 11,000 relating to African the African continent and the African Diaspora going all the way back to the 17th century.
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Relying on the expertise of distinguished curators and scholars, Digital Schomburg provides access to trusted information, interpretation and scholarship on the global black experience. Users worldwide can find, in this virtual Schomburg Center, exhibitions, books, articles, photographs, prints, audio and video streams, and selected external links for research in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Online Exhibitions
Digital Schomburg’s online exhibitions, using images, full-length books and articles, manuscripts, maps, and essays by renowned scholars present an in-depth look into specific themes. These exhibitions—some with lesson plans and educational activities—are comprehensive presentation and interpretation of essential historical, political and cultural topics in the global black experience and, taken together, give you access to the latest research as well as tens of thousands of pages of texts and several thousand images.
Books
Digitized Books from In Motion and The Abolition of the Slave Trade
You can access more than 430 full length books, book chapters and articles, as well as dozens of manuscripts and tables covering the African and African Diasporan experience from the transatlantic slave trade and slavery and the fight against them to contemporary migrations to, within, and out of the United States.
African-American Women Writers of the 19th Century
An essential collection of 41 full length books representing several genres such as autobiographies, poetry, novels, compilation of slave testimonies, and memoirs. Authors range from the famous like Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs, Elizabeth Keckley, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Mary Prince, to the anonymous “Old Elizabeth.”
Images & Illustrations
Images of African Americans from the 19th Century
View a portfolio of 500 images documenting the social, political and cultural world of African Americans from slavery through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and beyond.
Africa and the African Diaspora
Browse more than 11,000 items ranging from prints and photographs to historical documents relating to African and African Diasporan history and cultures from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
Africana Heritage Newsletters
Audio/Visual Resources
Watch or listen to recordings from past public programs as well as oral histories and more.
Selected Links
These selected sites offer access to free, high-quality, and large databases of books, articles, oral histories, images, maps, interviews, and television programs. Some sites are specifically devoted to Africa and/or the African Diaspora, while others are more general but include materials of interest to research in the history and cultures of the black world.