Treasures of The New York Public Library

Black History and Culture

<hr><br />
Aaron Douglas. <i>Aspects of Negro Life: The Negro in an African Setting</i>.<br />
Oil on canvas, 1934.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

Aaron Douglas's Magisterial Aspects of Negro Life

Inspired by heroes like Crispus Attucks, thousands of American blacks fought on the side of the colonists during the War of Independence, while others responded to Lord Dunmore's call and joined the British.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<i>Boston Massacre, March 5th, 1770</i>. Color lithograph by J.H. Bufford after W. Champney, 1856. Published by Henry O. Smith, Boston.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

The Boston Massacre: Martyrs to American Independence

In the storming of Fort Wagner, the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and 116 of his men were killed. About 40,000 black soldiers died during the Civil War "” 30,000 of infection or disease.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<i>Storming Fort Wagner</i>. Color lithograph, July 5, 1890. Published by Kurz & Allison, Chicago.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

Slaves to Soldiers: Storming Fort Wagner

It was the great French poet and critic Théophile Gautier who christened Cordier's bust of an African woman as the "African Venus," the name by which the sculpture is now generally known.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier. <i>African Venus</i>. Bronze, 1852.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division, Gift of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

Cordier's African Venus and SaÃ¯d Abdallah

The cover of the first (and last) issue of <i>Fire!!</i> was designed by Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), who was considered the foremost visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Douglas combined angular Cubist rhythms and seductive Art Deco dynamism with traditional African and African American imagery to develop a radically new visual vocabulary that evoked both current realities and hopes for a better future.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<i>Fire!! A Quarterly Devoted to the Younger Negro Artists</i>. New York. 314 West 138th Street. Vol. 1, no. 1 (November 1926).<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

"Fire Burns": An Avant-garde Journal for the Harlem Renaissance

Important items relating to the black experience both in America and in Africa are housed not only in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, but throughout the Library. Here, from the Spencer Collection, the Library's magnificent collection of illustrated books and book bindings, is a 15th-century illuminated manuscript from Ethiopia, a beautiful example of Ge'ez, the literary and ecclesiastical language whose calligraphy is derived from South Semitic script.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<i>Gadla Estifanos e Abakerazun</i> [The Gospels of Stephen and Abakerazun]. Manuscript on vellum; in Ge'ez. Tigre, Ethiopia, 15th century. Illuminated at the monastery of Gundé Gundié.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Spencer Collection.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

The Gospels of Stephen and Abakerazun: A Beautiful Ethiopic Manuscript

The engraved frontispiece portrait of Phillis Wheatley in the first edition of her <i>Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral</i>.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
Phillis Wheatley. <i>Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral</i>. London: Printed for A. Bell, Bookseller, Aldgate; and sold by Messrs. Cox and Berry, King-Street, Boston, 1773.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

The First Book Published by an African American Poet

Standing, left to right: Robert C. De Large, Jefferson M. Long. Seated, left to right: H. R. Revels, Benjamin S. Turner, Josiah T. Walls, Joseph H. Rainey, R. Brown Elliot.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<i>The First Colored Senator and Representatives. In the 41st and 42nd Congress of the United States.</i> Lithograph, 1872. New York: Published by Currier & Ives, 125 Nassau Street.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

The First African Americans to Serve in Congress

The central panel of this lithograph memorializes a Fifteenth Amendment celebration in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 19, 1870.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
Thomas Kelly after James C. Beard. <i>The Fifteenth Amendment. Celebrated May 19th 1870</i>. Lithograph, 1870.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division.<br><br><br />
<hr><br />
<br />

Celebrating the Fifteenth Amendment: Equality Before the Law