Library Guides: African American Studies: Archives and Special Collections

Archives and Special Collections

Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora
The African-Americana and the African Diaspora collections contain materials relating to African American, African, Latin American, and Caribbean history and culture. The Blockson Collection focuses not only on African-Americana, but more broadly documents the African Diaspora, the pattern of human migration that reaches back hundreds of years and traces the movement of Blacks from their African homelands to areas around the world.
Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists
Multi-layered compilation of documents, sound recordings, and visual images documenting the activities of the Montgomery Improvement Association, photographs and surveillance tapes of sit-ins, the Selma March, the Poor People's Campaign, oral histories of the white activists, and films of African-American activists.
Slavery Documents Collection, 1836-1876 [mostly 1839-1854]
Receipts for the sale of slaves, apprentice indentures, certificates of authentication receipt against a deed of trust, receipt for the sale of land, and one partial, illegible receipt [perhaps an indenture for separation] from the Gatlin/Conley family of Tennessee.
Vivian Virtue Papers, 1938-2000
Correspondence, original works, publications, translations, broadcasts, newspaper clippings, research, and photographs of the Jamaican poet, translator, broadcaster, and son-in-law of black poet Claude McKay.

Harry B. Henderson Collection
Focusing on African American artists, Henderson, a Penn State Alum, author/editor, amassed a private collection of books, letters, journals/diaries, oral history interviews, and photographs created by, and about, African American artists. His collection led to the publication of A History of African-American artists: from 1792 to the present. The collection includes more than 500 books and 50 cubic feet of archival records.

Cyril Griffith Papers
Penn State faculty member [1970-1995] who specialized in African American history, the Griffith papers include his extensive research into African American history, religion, and culture - including detailed work on A.M.E. churches. Griffith was the first director of the Black Studies Program at Penn State.