Gwendolyn Bennett papers, 1918-1976.

Call Number: JWJ MSS 106

Gwendolyn Bennett (1902-1981), African-American poet and artist. The collection provides evidence of the personal and professional life of Gwendolyn Bennett. The papers are comprised of correspondence, writings, and personal papers, which shed light into Bennett’s career as a writer and educator, as well as her private life, particularly her relationship with her parents. Correspondents include Langston Hughes, who accompanied his letters with typescripts of four poems inscribed to Bennett: “Hotel Boy” (1926), “Stalingrad” (1942), “Goodmorning, Stalingrad” (1943), and “Give Us Our Peace” (1945). The papers contain materials pertaining to Bennett’s writing career, such as mock-ups for her column for Opportunity, “The Ebony Flute,” and drafts of articles and a short story.

 

Walter O. Evans collection of James Baldwin

Call Number: JWJ MSS 107

The Walter O. Evans Collection of James Baldwin is comprised of a typescript draft of Baldwin’s Another Country (New York: Dial Pub., 1962) and correspondence sent from Baldwin to Mary Garin-Painter, David Adams Leeming, and Eugene Lerner dating from 1953 to 1987. In his letters Baldwin discusses his writing projects and personal life (ranging from his relationships to his experience living abroad in France and Turkey). Baldwin also reflects on his experience at the MacDowell Colony where he was in residence while working on his novel Giovanni’s Room. The correspondence constitutes a window into Baldwin’s creative process and life during this period.

 

John Charles Brownell papers relating to Mississippi Rainbow, 1923-1961.

Call Number: JWJ MSS 132

The collection consists of correspondence, scripts, contracts, photographs, a production program, press clippings and other materials documenting the script development and production history of John Charles Brownell’s play, Mississippi Rainbow. Correspondents include Rowena Woodham Jelliffe of the Karamu Theatre, Playhouse Settlement, Cleveland; Frank J. Sheil of Samuel French Play Publishers and Authors’ Representatives; Richard Madden of the Richard J. Madden Play Company; staff members of the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Theatre Project in New York and Chicago, including Shirley Graham (later Shirley Graham DuBois), Thomas J. McElhany, Bennet R. Finn, George Kondolf, and Hallie Flanagan; Theodore Ward, an actor in the Chicago production of Mississippi Rainbow, and an aspiring playwright whom Brownell mentored; New York theater critic Brooks Atkinson; and other correspondents from whom Brownell sought financial and professional assistance. Undated typescripts for Mississippi Rainbow and a one-act play, The Closet, are also included. Photographs include portrait photographs of Brownell and production photographs from the New York production of Brainsweat and the Chicago production of Mississippi Rainbow.

 

Bourne family papers, 1793-1919

Accession Number: 2014.genam.3

Correspondence, writings, printed material, ephemera, and other papers by, to, or relating to members of the George Bourne family: George (1780-1845), minister, journalist and abolitionist; Mary Oland Stibbs Bourne, his wife (1780-1850), his son Theodore (1822-1886), minister and co-founder of the African Civilization Society, and writings from elder brother Roland (1811-1886) who preached the gospel to slaves in Plaquemines parish, Louisiana. Includes George Bourne’s original 48 page manuscript for his “Anti-Slavery Lecture delivered in Newburyport, Massachusetts on July 4th, 1837,” correspondence to and from George Bourne and family members, including Theodore’s correspondence to and from Africa.

 

 

 

Hannah Crafts. “The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, a Fugitive Slave Recently Escaped from North Carolina.” Unpublished Manuscript: [ca. 1853-1861].

JWJ MSS 29

 

Robert Reed.  “The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict, or the inmate of a gloomy prison. With the Mysteries and Miseries of the New York House of Reffuge [sic] and Auburn Prison Unmasked. With the rules and regulations of Auburn Prison from 1840 up to the present time and different modes of punishments. / The Life and Adventures of Rob Reed. His Fifteen Years Imprisonment. With the Mysteries and Miseries of Auburn Prison. With the rules and regulations of the prison unmasked. The troubles and sorrows of the prisoner from the time he enters the prison until he is discharged.” ca. 1858. Unpublished manuscript.

JWJ MSS 54

(Pictured)

 

Du Bois, W.E.B. “Renaissance of Ethics: A Critical Comparison of Scholastic and Modern Ethics.” 1889. Includes notes and comments by William James;  Fragment from The Souls of Black Folk. Autograph manuscript.

JWJ MSS 8 Box 3 

 

RL Simpson Collection Cabinet Card Photos

Uncat JWJ MSS 59 box 6-a

 

Richard Wright papers, Native Son mss; Native Son film stills

JWJ MSS 3 43 and 44 & JWJ MSS 3 Box 68

 

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God MSS

JWJ MSS 9 Box 2

 

Langston Hughes papers: The Big Sea, “Research Materials and Notes” (JWJ MSS 26 Box 278), The Big Sea, “Lawyer’s Corrections” (JWJ MSS 26 Box 279);  Photographs of LH in Cuba and Haiti (JWJ MSS 26 Box 458); Scrapbook from Haiti trip (JWJ MSS 26  Oversize Box 6380;  LH’s journals, incl. log book from trip to West Indies with Zell Ingram (JWJ MSS 26 Box 492); LH correspondence with Nicolas Guillen ( JWJ MSS 26 Box 70)

 

Anthology of Revolutionary Poetry (compiled and edited by Marcus Graham; with an introduction by Ralph Cheyney & Lucia Trent). From the library of Langston Hughes; includes manuscript notes and draft poems by Hughes in margins, flyleaves, etc. 

JWJ Zan H874 Zz929A    

 

The Book of Negro Folklore. Annotated by Langston Hughes.

JWJ Zan H874 958B copy 2