NAP

Levi Sandy Alexander Gumby (February 1, 1885 – March 16, 1961), an African American archivist, historian, bookseller, and cultural steward, was devoted to the preservation of Black history by painstakingly assembling more than 300 scrapbooks documenting African American history, culture, politics, and achievement.  Alexander Gumby , photograph courtesy of Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University These volumes—filled with newspaper clippings, programs, photogra

John Edward Bruce, photograph courtesy of Wikipedia John Edward Bruce (1856–1924), often remembered as a journalist and activist, was also one of the great bibliophiles and collectors of Black history in the early 20th century. Bruce relentlessly gathered books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and fragments of the Black past that others overlooked—or sought to erase. His collecting was not a hobby, nor an indulgence. It was a deliberate act of preservation, driven by the conviction t

Dorothy B. Porter photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1951 Dorothy Louise Porter Wesley (May 25, 1905 – December 17, 1995) was the consummate librarian, bibliographer, and curator, who built the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. Porter was the first African American to receive a degree in library science from Columbia University. She published numerous bibliographies on African American history. Prior to her intervention, the Dewey Decimal System only had

By Steven G Fullwood Andre Elizee 1991 On Sunday February 28, 2010, the Schomburg Center memorialized Andre Elizee, archivist and intellectual in what was more than a simple acknowledgment of his extraordinary 26 years of service. It was a ceremony that featured testimonies from his coworkers, colleagues, scholars and researchers, and readings from his guides to the collections which illuminated for many the indelible footprint he left on the Center’s collections and the Cen