African American Archives and Libraries: Difference between revisions

==== Allen County Public Library ====

:Allen County Public Library is the second-largest genealogy collection in the United States<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_County_Public_Library Allen County Public Library] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'' (accessed 28 April 2010).</ref> and the largest genealogy collection in a public library. Its holdings include more than 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000 items on microfilm and microfiche.<ref name="ACPLGC">[http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/genealogy/ Genealogy Center] in ''Allen County Public Library'' (accessed 28 April 2010).</ref> It has a premier genealogical periodical collection, local histories, genealogies, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, ethnic sources including African Americans, and Canadians. They have a great '''African American''' collection.<ref>[http://www.genealogycenter.org/docs/default-source/resources/aboutusbrochure.pdf?sfvrsn=2 Genealogy Center Collections] in ''Genealogy Center'' (accessed 27 February 2015).</ref>

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==== Library of Congress ====

:See the tutorial at the FamilySearch Learning Center on {{LearningCenter2|172|"African American Genealogical Research at the Library of Congress"}}. The Library of Congress "Local History and Genealogy Reading Room" has moved to the main reading room, but services are unchanged. They are part of the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, and collections of manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, and published material, strong in North American (including '''African Americans'''), British Isles, and German sources.<ref>[http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/lhgcoll.html The Collections] in ''Local History and Genealogy Reading Room'' in ''The Library of Congress'' (accessed 8 January 2014).</ref>

::*[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture] <br><br>

==== National Archives I ====

:Nationwide censuses, pre-WWI military service and pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources (including '''African Americans''') , prisons, and federal employees. The National Archives Building in Washington, DC (Archives I), houses textual and microfilm records relating to genealogy, American Indians, pre-World War II military and naval-maritime matters, the New Deal, the District of Columbia, the Federal courts, and Congress.<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington/researcher-info.html Information for Researchers at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC] in ''National Archives'' (accessed 31 December 2013).</ref> <br><br>

==== National Underground Railroad Freedom Center  ====

:The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is more a museum (few original manuscripts) than an archive. However, it has a [https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/about FamilySearch center] for research help and Ancestry.com access on the Internet. They tell the history of the guides, safe houses, and transportation network used to smuggle runaway enslaved African Americans out of the slave states to freedom in the North before the American Civil War. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center reveals stories about freedom’s heroes: the men, women and children who challenge inequities to pursue greater freedom for their brothers and sisters.<ref>[http://www.freedomcenter.org/enabling-freedom Enabling Freedom] in ''National Underground Railroad Freedom Center'' (accessed 30 May 2016).</ref><br><br>

==== Birmingham Civil Rights Institute  ====

:Papers of civil rights activist leaders (ministers, organizers, judges, politicians, newspaper editors, educators), school desegregation, 500 desegregation oral history interviews, 1,260 Jim Crow era oral histories, vertical files, TV documentaries, and legal cases collection.

==== Duke University Perkins Library  ====

:Largest manuscript collection in the South, including newspapers, county records, Bibles, and journals. They also have many census records originally at the National Archives.<ref name="DB85" />  

:*Nannie M. Trilley, and Noma Lee Goodwin, ''Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the Duke University Library'' (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1947). {{WorldCat|2112391|item|disp=At various libraries (WorldCat)}}. {{FSC|183374|item|disp=FS Library Film 899894; Book 975.6 B5d ser. 27–28.}} This guide lists about 8,000 names of individuals, families, and historical subjects, and it is indexed.  

==== Godfrey Memorial Library  ====

:Their collection features digital copies of six African American newspapers in the 1800s.<ref>"[http://www.godfrey.org/news/2008-7%20African%20American%20Records.pdf African American Records]" in ''INTERNET Genealogy'' (June/July 2008): 85.</ref> The overall collection is national in scope with many [http://www.godfrey.org/scholar/login.html online records] in addition to its physical collection. They compiled the {{WorldCat|865629740|item|disp=''American Genealogical and Biographical Index (AGBI)''}} including many African American biographies and autobiographies. This library is an excellent genealogical facility including many New England town records, guidebooks, indexes, biographies, and genealogies.<ref name="DB25">Dollarhide and Bremer, 25.</ref><br><br>

==== John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library ====

:Emphasis is on the history of colonial British America, the American Revolution, and the early United States with books, manuscripts, images, Civil War materials, family Bibles, and databases for research in the political and economic life of the thirteen colonies, the new republic, and African American studies.<ref>[http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary.cfm John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library] in ''Colonial Williamsburg'' (accessed 7 January 2014).</ref><br><br>

==== New England Historic Genealogical Society  ====

:Best overall collection for New England vital records and probates, and excellent collection for Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and Europe. The manuscript collection for members-only has diaries, letters, account books, business papers, church and town records, sermons, maps, wills, deeds, unpublished town and family genealogies, photos, and papers of the region's best genealogists since 1850.<ref name="Wik">"New England Historic Genealogical Society" in ''Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia'' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Historic_Genealogical_Society (accessed 30 August 2010).</ref> <ref>[http://www.americanancestors.org/education/learning-resources/read/using-the-nehgs-library/ Using the NEHGS Library] in ''American Ancestors" (accessed 21 September 2015).</ref> <ref name="DB55759">Dollarhide and Bremer, 5, 57, and 59.</ref><br>

==== Newberry Library  ====

:The Newberry is a private, non-circulating library free and open to the public. It is a research library for humanities and social sciences with 1.5 million books, 5 million manuscript pages, and 500,000 maps. This includes good African American, American Indian, railroad archives, Chicago history, and cartography collections.<ref>Wikipedia Contributors, "Newberry Library" in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newberry_Library (accessed 29 October 2010).</ref>

:*Jack Simpson and Matt Rutherford, ''A Bibliography of African American Family History at the Newberry Library'' (Chicago: The Newberry Library, ©2005). [http://www./sites/default/files/researchguide-attachments/af-amer-bib.pdf PDF version online]. {{WorldCat|60689421|disp=At various libraries (WorldCat)}}. {{FSC|1410543|item|disp=FS Catalog book 977.311 F23s}}.<br><br>

==== University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries  ====

'''[[University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries]]'''

Website: [https://library.unc.edu/ UNC Chapel Hill Libraries]