African American Archives and Libraries: Difference between revisions

: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>

:They have federal and state censuses showing where '''African Americans''' lived, vital records, biographies, cemeteries, church records, Freedman's Bank, Freedmen's Bureau, court records, directories, genealogy, local histories, land and property (may include lists of free Blacks and enslaved persons, bills of sale), manumissions, maps, military records, newspapers, obituaries, periodicals, probate records (may list enslaved persons freed or bequeathed), slavery and bondage, and societies. Holds 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints records.<br><br>

:See the tutorial at the FamilySearch Learning Center on "African American Genealogical Research at the Library of Congress.  [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/709703 See book at the FamilySearch Library]. 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>

::*[https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/709703 The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture] <br><br>

: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>

:There are 2 main branches, 11 regional branches, 16 records centers, 2 personnel records centers, and 15 presidential libraries nationwide, as well as "affiliated archives." Each regional branch has copies of key records in Washington, as well as their own regional records. For example, the Atlanta Regional Branch for the Southern States region preserves records of Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, and '''African American''' history.<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/atlanta/ National Archives at Atlanta] in ''National Archives'' (accessed 30 May 2016).</ref><br><br>

:The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center museum houses the John Parker Library and FamilySearch Center. Patrons can view limited-access FamilySearch and Ancestry databases. 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.

: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.

:By appointment only. Resources regarding the social and cultural experience of African Americans in the Kansas City metropolitan area and in the surrounding region. This includes oral histories, valuable rare books, and a reference collection, personal papers, records of civil and health service organizations, schools, churches, political organizations, sports groups, and clubs and other voluntary associations.<ref>[https://blackarchives.org/all-resources/ Resources] in ''Black Archives of Mid-America'', accessed 16 November 2023.</ref><br><br>

: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" />  

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

:*[http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/franklin/ John Hope Franklin Research Center] collects, and preserves published and unpublished primary sources for understanding the history and culture of Africa and people of the African Diaspora in the Americas.<ref>[http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/franklin/ John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture] in ''Duke University Libraries'' (accessed 30 May 2016).</ref> The Franklin Center is part of the Rubenstein Special Collections Library on the 3rd floor of the Perkins Library.<br><br>

: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.  The AGBI is found at {{FSC|193375|item|disp=FS Catalog books 973 D22am (multiple) and digital Volumes}}. 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>

: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>

:Prominent artifacts include documents signed by Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Booker T. Washington, Fredrick Douglas, Dorothy Height, Elijah Muhammad, Ralph Bunche, Coretta Scott King, Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, and Angela Davis.<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/310160369817/photos/a.335992159817.153613.310160369817/10152926924519818/?type=3&theater Facebook Timeline photo] in ''Black History 101 Mobile Museum History Museum'' (accessed 30 May 2016).</ref><br><br>

: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>

: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, Native American, 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>

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

:The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture located in Harlem, New York, is a research unit of The [[New York Public Library]] system. It focuses exclusively on African-American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. It accomplishes this through art, artifacts, research and reference collections, manuscripts, archives, rare books, photos, moving images, sound recordings, educational programs, and digital collections.<ref>[http://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture] in ''New York Public Library'' (accessed 30 May 2016).</ref><br><br>

:The Anacostia Museum Branch Library has over 5,000 books, and close to 100 periodical titles in various formats. It collects materials relating to the preservation of family and community history through education, advocacy, and documentation. Primary focus is on east of the Potomac River communities. Their new focus is community museology, urban communities, issues that impact urban communities, and the people who reside in urban communities.<ref>[http://library.si.edu/libraries/anacostia Anacostia Community Museum Library] in ''Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum'' (accessed 30 May 2016).</ref><br><br>

:'''''Wilson Special Collections Library''''' <br>200 South Road Wilson Library (Campus PO Box #3948)<br>UNC Chapel Hill, NC 27515-8890<br>Telephone: 919-962-1172<br>Email: [mailto:nccref@unc.edu nccref@unc.edu]

:'''''Davis Library''''' <br>208 Raleigh Street (Campus PO Box #3916) <br>UNC Chapel Hill, NC 27599<br>Telephone: 919-962-1151<br>Email: [http://library.unc.edu/ask/ Email a Question] form <br>

::'''''Wilson Special Collections Library ''''' is home to: the famed [http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/shc/ Southern Historical Collection] with strengths in plantation records, slavery, the Civil War, Civil Rights, communities, family, race relations, and religious communities<ref>[http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/shc/shcabout.html About the Southern Historical Coillection] in ''UNC Chapel Hill Libraries'' (accessed 11 February 2014).</ref>; the [http://www2.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ North Carolina Collection] of published works on North Carolina and its people and biographical index<ref>[http://www2.lib.unc.edu/ncc/genealogy.html Family History and Genealogy Resources in the North Carolina Collection] in ''UNC Chapel Hill Libraries'' (accessed 11 February 2014).</ref>; the [http://www2.lib.unc.edu/rbc/ Rare Book Collection]; the [http://www2.lib.unc.edu/wilson/sfc/ Southern Folklife Collection]; the ''Manuscript Department '' collection of personal papers, letters, and diaries of early North Carolina residents; and the ''Map Department''.<ref name="DB85">William Dollarhide and Ronald A. Bremer. ''America's Best Genealogy Resource Centers'' (Bountiful, Utah: Heritage Quest, 1998), 85. {{WorldCat|39493985|disp=At various libraries (WorldCat)}}. {{FSC|728550|item|disp=FS Library Ref Book 973 J54d}}.</ref>  

::'''''Davis Library ''''' has humanities, and foreign language materials, maps, a federal documents depository, and microforms.<ref>[http://hours.lib.unc.edu/#view-davis Davis Library] in ''Libraries and Hours'' in ''UNC Chapel Hill Libraries'' (accessed 11 February 2013).</ref>

::'''''Digital Online:''''' [http://docsouth.unc.edu/index.html Documenting the American South] digital project description, and [http://docsouth.unc.edu/browse/collections.html Collections] descriptions of 16 thematic digitized collections.<br><br>

:The African Studies Center coordinates course offerings in anthropology, demography, economics, history, language, literature, politics, religion, and sociology. The [https://www.library.upenn.edu/vanpelt Van Pelt Library] holds most of the African collection. For more details see [https://www.africa.upenn.edu/ African Collection at Penn].<ref> in ''Penn Libraries'' (accessed 30 May 2016).</ref> See also the [https://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/subject/african-studies-collection African Studies Collection] at Penn Libraries.<br><br>

:The library houses material on the African Americans, Africans, and Caribbean cultures in the following disciplines: Arts, Education, History, Literature, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Sociology, Sports, and Religion.<ref>[http://www.library.pitt.edu/african-american-collection African American Collection] in ''University of Pittsburgh Library System'' (accessed 30 May 2016).</ref><br><br>