African American Studies and Black History Materials in Special Collections

Over 45 serial titles represent magazines and newspapers from all areas of the United States. Some are of a political nature, such as The Black Panther, newspaper of the Black Panther Party. Others are samples of popular magazines not generally retained by research libraries, like Jet and Sepia. Cataloged collections of over 50 African American related film scripts and over 100 pieces of sheet music support studies of the Black presence in mainstream American popular culture.

The Comic Art Collection includes significant works of African American artists (in published form); among them are Oliver Harrington, Barbara Brandon, Brumsic Brandon, Turtel Onli, and Morrie Turner. The collection includes comics about Black history, notably a complete 16-issue run of Golden Legacy.

Among the American Radicalism collections in Special Collections are many historic pamphlets, leaflets, and other documents of the civil rights movement. Since the 1970's, the Special Collections department has documented social change movements and popular trends in a collection of over 2,000 vertical files filled with clippings, pamphlets and miscellanea. Many of these contain material devoted to the Black Liberation and Black Nationalism movements. Especially strong subject areas include the Black Muslims, the Black Panthers, and the general topic of Racism.

There are over 120 African American cookbooks in the collection dating from the early 19th century to the present. A first edition of Robert Roberts, The House Servant's Directory (1827), the first cookbook written by a Black American and first book on any subject written by a Black American to have been printed by a commercial publisher, distinguishes the collection. Additionally there are charity cookbooks, Black dialect items, and celebrity cookbooks. The collection is complemented by strong holdings in Caribbean cookery and African cookery.

Special Collections was one of the original depositories for the transcripts of the Black Women Oral History Project, conducted at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College, and these typescripts are still available for use. In addition, the rare book collections include early works on slavery and the anti-slavery movement.