African American Studies at Beinecke Library

The E. L. McGlashan Collection of Documents Concerning Slavery in the United States consists of manuscript bills of sale, receipts, estate appraisals, deeds of gift, manumission statements, promissory notes, and other papers documenting slave ownership and the slave trade in the United States between 1770 and 1863. The bulk of the material documents slavery in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama.

Claude McKay (1890-1948), one of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote several collections of poetry, novels, short stories, non-fiction, and autobiographical books. He lived in the United States, primarily in New York, from 1913-1919, and then spent most of the next 15 years in England, Russia, France, Spain, and Morocco before returning to New York in 1934.

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of the papers of Lloyd Richards, theater pioneer and Professor Emeritus of the Yale School of Drama. Mr. Richards ranks among the most significant figures in the history of African American culture.

Search Orbis for the complete records of the following nineteenth and twentieth century titles recently added to the James Weldon Johnson Collection. W. L. Haskell, “Onward,” [Alabama], 1903. An inspirational broadside printed in honor of W. E. B. DuBois and featuring captioned portraits of DuBois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Black Patti, and others.

Links to Yale Library Collections, Resources, and Research Tools Orbis: Search for books and manuscript collections in the Yale Libraries Finding Aid Database: Search for manuscript collections at the Beinecke Library Digital Library: Search for images in the Beinecke Collections