Schomburg Center “Uncovers” Original Collection of One of the World’s Most Famous Black Bibliophiles

Beginning May 7: Arturo Schomburg is seen anew through an exhibition featuring his founding collection and a newly published book, during the Center’s centennial anniversary

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture continues its centennial celebration with an exhibition of rarely seen Black diasporic books, art, and other materials – each of which belonged to Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo Schomburg. 

“To Uncover and Reveal to the World: Arturo Schomburg’s Library” opens on May 7 and showcases more than one hundred items from the famous bibliophile’s remarkable collection. The exhibition is supported by the publication of Black Studies on 135th Street: The Founding and Future of the Schomburg Collection, a book co-edited by Barrye Brown, Laura E. Helton, and Vanessa K. Valdés, published by Yale University Press. The book chronicles Arturo Schomburg’s original collection, which he sold to the 135th Street Branch Library in 1926. This acquisition became the basis for the Schomburg Center’s vast collections. Barrye Brown is curator of the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division at the Schomburg Center. Laura E. Helton is the author of Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History. Vanessa K. Valdés is the author ofDiasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.

The book and exhibition kick off the second phase of the Schomburg Center’s centennial as one of the world’s largest and oldest research libraries dedicated to the preservation of Black diasporic history. “To Uncover and Reveal to the World” and Black Studies on 135th Street are part of the Home to Harlem initiative—a multiyear effort by scholars, archivists, and librarians to catalogue every object in Arturo Schomburg’s original collection. While his collection, known as the “seed collection,”  has always been part of the Schomburg Center, a Home to Harlem grant from the Mellon Foundation allowed staff to identify, research, and enhance access to almost every item in his personal collection.

Exhibition: To Uncover and Reveal to the World

Standout items in the exhibition include:

• The oldest book in Arturo Schomburg’s library, Junilius Africanus’s 1550 De partibus divinae
• Harlem Renaissance writer Eric Walrond’s 1926 novel Tropic Death, which is inscribed by the author to Schomburg: “For Arthur Schomburg, to whom every Negro writer is exceedingly indebted.” 
• A Qur’an, likely originating from Ottoman Bilād al-Shām (Greater Syria) between the late 18th and late 19th century, and used by Mayor Zohran Mamdani during his swearing-in ceremony earlier this year.

“The design of the exhibition space was inspired by photographs of the parlors where Arturo Schomburg and his fellow Black bibliophiles gathered in the 1910s. Just as Schomburg loved to host friends in his library, we are excited for the public to be immersed in the powerful collection that he built,” said Dr. Laura Helton, the exhibition’s guest curator. “I hope visitors will feel at home in the gallery and be inspired to carry on Schomburg’s work of creating archives—work that is as urgent now as it was a hundred years ago.”

There will be multiple opportunities for visitors to engage with the historical world of Schomburg during opening week:

• May 5 – Black on Screen: Inner Lives, Outer Frames, featuring Losing Ground (1982) directed by the late filmmaker and writer, Kathleen Collins, whose archival collection is at the Schomburg Center, and Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s Cleopatra at the Mall (2024). A talkback with the filmmakers will follow the screenings.
• May 7 – Opening day of the exhibition, featuring an opening performance and a conversation with the co-editors of Black Studies on 135th Street. The exhibition accompanies the newly published book.
• May 9 – Mic’d at MIRS presented by The Lot Radio, the next installment of an intimate series of live “mini concerts” and DJ sets within the library’s research divisions. This installment will feature sounds inspired by bibliophile culture and the legacy of Arturo Schomburg.

To Uncover and Reveal to the World guides visitors through Arturo Schomburg’s collection, allowing them to learn more about how these materials were identified, including by bookplates, signatures, and other clues that link them to the bibliophile. Discoveries about the collection include a wide variety of portraits and a remarkable collection of linguistic diversity, with more than 100 languages represented. 

Upcoming Public Programming

The Centennial celebration continues with a new slate of programming, including the final edition of the Schomburg Centennial Festival on June 13th. 

Upcoming programming includes explorations of the world of Black Neo-Noir cinema (April 14), Nikki Giovanni (April 22) and Losing Ground (May 5).  A lecture-concert celebrating Arturo Schomburg, presented by the Harlem Chamber Players (April 16), will focus on Black and Brown classical composers in Schomburg’s era. The Schomburg Center will honor the life of Chadwick Boseman (April 28) with a reading of his play, Hieroglyphic Graffiti. Boseman was a cherished acting instructor for the Center’s Junior Scholars Program between 2002 and 2009.

New Book: Black Studies on 135th Street

On April 21, Yale University Press will publish Black Studies on 135th Street: The Founding and Future of the Schomburg Collection, co-edited by Barrye Brown, Laura E. Helton, and Vanessa K. Valdés. Framing the list of original materials are essays and reflections written by an interdisciplinary group of scholars on the development of the Black intellectual tradition, both in Arturo Schomburg’s time and today.

The book will be available in the Schomburg Shop on April 21.

Leadership support for the Schomburg Center’s Centennial is provided by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and Andreas C. Dracopoulos.

Lead support for To Uncover and Reveal to the World and the Home to Harlem Initiative is provided by the Mellon Foundation. 

Major support for centennial exhibitions is provided by the MetLife Foundation. Additional support is provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation. 

About the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the preservation, research, interpretation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diasporan, and African experiences. As a research division of The New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center features diverse programming and collections totaling over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global black history, arts, and culture. Learn more at schomburgcenter.org.

About The New York Public Library

For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming, and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.