Recommended By the Schomburg Center: Photographs & Prints
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's digital collections include manuscripts, maps, photographs, recorded conversations, digital exhibitions, and more.
Over 1,000 collections reside in NYPL's Digital Collections and over 300 recorded programs are located on the Center’s Livestream channel.
Can't decide which collections or talks to explore first?
Michael Mery, acting curator of the Photographs and Prints Division, shares his picks.
“Even though the site provides only a small glimpse into the entirety of the Schomburg Center’s holdings, the Digital Collections serves as an excellent introduction to the scope and content of the Center’s treasures that can be beneficial to either someone working remotely because of our current circumstances, or for someone conducting research from a great distance away,” he said.
FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT—THEATER STILLS COLLECTION
Overview: The Federal Theatre Project – Theater Stills Collection (1935–1939) documents the theatrical performances of the Negro Theater Project in New York. It was sponsored by the Works Progress Administration which employed African American artists, writers, directors, and theater workers during the Great Depression. The New York Negro Unit of the FTP was located at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem which staged some thirty productions. Depicted is a scene from the 1938 Federal Theatre production of William DuBois’s Haiti featuring Rex Ingram as Christophe and Elena Karam as Odette, staged at the Lafayette Theatre.
Why: “The Federal Theatre Project was noted for its support of racial integration between Black and White Americans, not just in society as a whole but in the staging of their productions, which triggered the fears of racist and anti-communist White politicians who would eventually defund the project,” Mery said.
HELEN ARMSTEAD-JOHNSON PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION
Overview: The Helen Armstead-Johnson Photograph Collection documents the contributions of African Americans to the performing arts, both in the United States and abroad, from the nineteenth century to the 1990s.
Why: “The collection includes portraits and the work of both significant and lesser-known actors, dancers, musicians, singers and comedians as well as playwrights, composers, songwriters, producers, directors and choreographers who all contributed to the variety and expansion of the performing arts,” Mery said. In the photograph above is a 1910 group portrait of the New Amsterdam Musical Association (NAMA). Founded in 1904 it is the oldest African American musical organization in the United States. Conductor Egbert E. Thompson, a veteran of British Army military bands, the leader of a professional military band in Harlem, and, briefly, leader of the 15th N.Y. National Guard Regiment band in 1916-17, is seated front row, center.
MILITARY COLLECTION
Overview: The Military Collection documents the contributions of African Americans in the United States armed forces, from the American Revolution to the mid-1980s. It depicts mostly the wartime activities of the United States military from World War II to the mid-1950s.
Why: The photographs are a “valuable resource in exploring the contributions of African Americans in the United States Armed Forces, even as racism often kept them separated from their White counterparts, during the American Revolution to the mid-1980s,” Mery said.
“Of note are SPARS Olivia Hooker, of Columbus, Ohio, and Aileen Anita Cooke, of Los Angeles, California, in training at the dry-land ship nicknamed the "USS Neversail” in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York, 1945, who were two of five African American women who got to serve in the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve during World War II.”
STREET SCENES
Overview: The collection consists mainly of views of streets in west and central Harlem from the late 1800s–1970s. Much of the collection covers the 1930s–1950s, depicting Harlem thoroughfares, such as 125th Street, 135th Street and Lenox Avenue, and residential buildings.
Why: “The Street Scenes Collection is a visual resource that reflects the growth of the community of Harlem from the late 1800s to the 1970s,” Mery said. “Of note is a view of Seventh Avenue, looking north from West 125th Street, in 1934. The RKO Alhambra Theater is on the left. The steeple of the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church is in the center background. Herbert’s Jewelry Store is at the far right, on the corner now occupied by the plaza of the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building.”
To see more online materials from the Photographs and Prints Division, visit NYPL’s Digital Collections.
Return to Recommended by the Schomburg Center’s main page.