NAP Archivists We Love: L. S. Alexander Gumby

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, photographs, letters, essays, and rare printed materials—were not casual compilations. They were acts of resistance. Gumby collected what others overlooked, recognizing that everyday ephemera could become tomorrow’s indispensable historical record. In 1950, Columbia University acquired his life’s work, where it remains as the Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana, one of the most important archives of early Black cultural history in the United States.

During the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, Gumby’s commitment to preservation extended beyond paper. With financial support from Charles W. Newman, a wealthy stockbroker who believed in the value of his work, Gumby relocated his growing archive to a studio at 2144 Fifth Avenue in Harlem. This space became known as Gumby’s Bookstore, which functioned simultaneously as an archive, exhibition space, research center, and salon. Within its walls, Black intellectual life was not only discussed—it was created, documented, curated, and safeguarded.

Gumby’s studio became a gathering place for the architects of the Harlem Renaissance. Writers, artists, performers, and thinkers such as Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Alain LeRoy Locke, Aaron Douglas, Dorothy West, and Augusta Savage passed through his doors. Gumby cultivated a space where Black brilliance could flourish—and importantly, where it could be preserved. He saved programs from readings, drafts of poems, correspondence, and clippings that might otherwise have disappeared. 

His style and presence in his salon earned Gumby the nickname “The Great God Gumby,” reflecting both his theatrical flair and the seriousness with which he approached his mission. His passion for collecting won him other monikers as well: “The Count” and “Mr. Scrapbook.” These names acknowledged the meticulous care and almost ceremonial reverence he brought to archiving Black life.

Gumby also attempted to formalize and circulate the cultural conversations taking place in his studio through the Gumby Book Studio Quarterly, a literary journal. Though only one issue was produced and never widely distributed, the effort reflects his desire not only to collect history but to actively shape and disseminate it.

Today, the Alexander Gumby Collection stands as a testament to one man’s determination to ensure that Black cultural history would endure. Through scrapbooks, salons, and scholarship, Gumby transformed preservation into an act of love and responsibility. 

To learn more about the collection, follow this link. https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/archives/cul-4078845