Special Collections and Archives

Special Collections and Archives, 25th floor, Du Bois Library (Open Monday through Friday, 10-3) holds several historical manuscript collections of importance to African American Studies. Among them are:

• The papers of W.E.B. Du Bois document his remarkable life and work in letters to and from him, in writings, speeches, photographs, and more. There is, as well, a supporting reference collection and the opportunity for consultation on how to make use of the papers. Some of the manuscript materials are also available on microfilm in the Library's microforms area, open the same hours as the Library. A related manuscript collection is the James Aronson (editor, National Guardian)-W.E.B. Du Bois collection.
• The papers of Horace Mann Bond include personal and professional correspondence, records of his presidencies of historically Black colleges, research data and writings pertaining especially to the history and sociology of Black education and the educational and political conditions in African countries, photographs and subject files.
• The papers of Gordon Heath, expatriate actor, director, musician, writer, club owner and performer, include correspondence, production scrapbooks, and photographs that document his personal and professional life, largely in Paris, from 1940s to 1991.

Abolitionist materials include a large collection of pamphlets (see Library Catalog under "anti-slavery pamphlets" as title, then click on the call number for complete list), the papers of Erasmus Darwin Hudson, Sr. (an anti-slavery organizer who kept journals and wrote vivid letters to friends and family), and microfilmed research materials pertaining to John Brown, collected from many repositories.

Additional kinds of primary sources available and useful for African American Studies include account books, family papers, town records, organizational records (social service agencies, missionary societies, Niagara Movement and NAACP materials in Du Bois papers). Genealogical materials in the Du Bois papers mention Western Massachusetts family members. Such primary sources, used with manuscript census data available in the microforms area or with newspapers of the era, make rich research possibilities.

The University records, also held in this department, include holdings pertaining to racism on campus, protests and demonstrations, affirmative action, the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, the Five College Black Studies Program, Black student organizations and publications, institutional statistics, and materials about faculty, alumni and honorees.

Significant published materials available in Special Collections and Archives include a first edition of Phillis Wheatley's Poems on various subjects, religious and moral, 1773; James Baldwin's Gypsy & Other Poems,1989, with portraits of Baldwin by Leonard Baskin; publications of the Broadside Press, 1968-1975; and the Atlanta University Studies, which contain some of the social studies made under the direction of Atlanta University and the proceedings and papers of some of the Conferences for the Study of the Negro Problems, 1896-1913.

For further information, visit Special Collections and Archives on the web or contact the department for research assistance.