Main entry:

Helton, Laura E., author. aut

Title & Author:

Scattered and fugitive things : how Black collectors created archives and remade history / Laura E. Helton.

Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2024]
©2024

Description:

xx, 305 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm.

Series:

Black lives in the diaspora : past / present / future

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-289) and index.
Value, Order, Risk : Experiments in Black Archiving -- Thinking Black, Collecting Black : Schomburg's Desiderata and the Radical World of Black Bibliophiles -- A "History of the Negro in Scrapbooks" : The Gumby Book Studio's Ephemeral Assemblies -- Defiant Libraries : Virginia Lee and the Secrets Kept by Good Bookladies -- Unauthorized Inquiries : Dorothy Porter's Wayward Catalog -- A Space for Black Study : The Hall Branch Library and the Historians Who Never Wrote -- Mobilizing Manuscripts : L. D. Reddick and Black Archival Politics.

Summary:

"During the first half of the twentieth century, the efforts of archivists like Arturo Schomburg or Howard University librarian Dorothy Porter shaped the Black imagination and the direction of social and political movements. Every act of acquisition was an argument about the nature of the meaning of Black history. These decisions determined which stories would persist or disappear in the archival spaces of Black memory. In Scattered and Fugitive Things, Laura E. Helton follows these archival efforts across the storylines of six collectors. Their biographies reflect the diverse trajectories of diasporic thinkers in the United States. The self-taught Afro-Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo Schomburg. Virginia-born Alexander Gumby was a working-class denizen of Harlem's gay underground and a prolific scrapbook maker. Vivian Harsh, the daughter of formerly enslaved parents, organized a collection on Chicago's South Side. Librarian Dorothy Porter became a central character in the Howard University intellectual scene and served briefly at the National Library of Nigeria. Virginia Lee stayed in the South, working within (and sometimes secretly against) the limits of Jim Crow restrictions on Black reading spaces. Historian L. D. Reddick served as curator of Schomburg's collection in the 1940s before joining the southern civil rights movement as its participant-chronicler. In a racially segregated information landscape, these archivists, as well as other Black thinkers, necessarily made their arguments through files and filing systems as well as through poetry and prose. The making of information systems is deeply entwined with Black intellectual history, and this book recovers that strain of practical criticism"-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780231212748 (hardcover)
0231212747 (hardcover)
9780231212755 (trade paperback)
0231212755 (trade paperback)
electronic book
9780231559546

Subject:

African Americans Archives History.
Archives United States History 20th century.
Archivists United States History 20th century.
African Americans Intellectual life 20th century.
African American intellectuals History 20th century.
African American book collectors History 20th century.
African American librarians History 20th century.
African American historians History 20th century.
Libraries Special collections African Americans.
Archivistes États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle.
Noirs américains Vie intellectuelle 20e siècle.
Intellectuels noirs américains Histoire 20e siècle.
Historiens noirs américains Histoire 20e siècle.
Bibliothèques Fonds spéciaux Noirs américains.
Bibliophiles noirs américains Histoire 20e siècle.
Bibliothécaires noirs américains Histoire 20e siècle.
African Americans.
African American book collectors
African American historians
African American intellectuals
African American librarians
African Americans Intellectual life
Archives
Archivists
United States

Form/genre:

History
Informational works.
Documents d'information.

Added entries:

Black lives in the diaspora.

How Black collectors created archives and remade history

Holdings:

Location: Library main 325958
Call No.: 325958
Copy: 1
Status: Available