Beinecke Top Tens: Paul Robeson

Lobby cards for 1933 motion picture “Emperor Jones” starring Paul Robeson and directed by Dudley Murphy, from the stage play by Eugene O’Neill: BrSides 2013 18

Close Up Magazine Photograph File: YCAL MSS 337
Photographs documenting Borderline (1930), an experimental silent film by Kenneth MacPherson and the POOL Group, which starred Paul Robeson (1898-1976) and explored intersections of racial values. See also: H. D. Papers (YCAL MSS 24) & Bryher Papers (GEN MSS 97)

For Freedom and Peace: address by Paul Robeson at Welcome Home Rally, New York, June 19, 1949: JWJ Zan R5494 949F 

Carl Van Vechten Papers, Correspondence and Photographs: Various Call Numbers

Langston Hughes Papers, Correspondence and Photographs: JWJ MSS 26

Black America by Scott Nearing, New York: Vanguard Press, 1929. Paul Robeson’s copy, with his signature and bookplate of his wife, Eslanda Robeson. With laid in review by Langston Hughes from Book League Monthly, 1929. From the Bradford H. Gray Collection in the History of Social Thought (Various Call Numbers)

Theatre Guild Archive, Correspondence: YCAL MSS 436

Federal Writers’ Project Negro Group papers, 1927-1940: JWJ MSS 40
Collection consists of Drafts and transcriptions of essays by African American authors on the history and culture of African Americans in the United States and on the contributions African Americans, including Paul Robeson

Roy DeCarava : Twelve Photogravures, including 1950 photo of Paul Robeson: JWJ MSS 62 (Folio)

Meet the cast of Othello, Program-Magazine of the New York City Center, May 20th, 1945: JWJ Zan R5494 +W945M

Clippings File of the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection: JWJ MSS 89
The Clippings File of the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection includes pamphlets and clippings documenting the African American experience in the twentieth century. The collection especially highlights the achievements of individual African Americans, the work of community and education organizations, and areas such as film, theater, music, sports, politics, and civil rights. 

Search Beinecke Collections for more Robeson.

Beinecke Top Tens gather (approximately) ten related items to give an at-a-glance look at some of the Library’s interesting, important, strange, compelling, beautiful holdings. To see more lists, click here: Beinecke Top Tens. To suggest a list subject, contact us: Top Ten Ideas.