The African American Pamphlet Literature Catalog was created by the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library and the Digital Programs and Systems Division of the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University. Support for this project was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. We have identified and cataloged pamphlets of importance to American history; stabilized, re-housed and provided conservation and repair for them; and created this web portal to serve as a single access point for bibliographic information. Our goal is to make this print material more widely known and accessible to the scholarly community and the general public.
Why Black Print Culture?
This project reflects Emory’s commitment to the acquisition of black print culture, the world of black-authored and black-published material created primarily within and for the African American community. The Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library collects the full panoply of such printed material, from books, periodicals, and pamphlets to broadsides, sheet music, serials, and printed ephemera. Black print culture offers a critical field for scholarship. It has been produced by and for the African American community by black college and university presses, newspapers, religious institutions, fraternal organizations, business associations (e.g., national funeral home and insurance organizations, beauty culture and medical societies), political and educational organizations, and other voluntary associations. These pamphlets are a window on the world of African American reading, writing and publishing. This project was designed to pry open that window to encourage greater scholarship on African American history and culture.
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What We Have Done The pamphlets have been cataloged to recognized international standards with the standard access points of author, title, and subject, as well as genre terms, names of printer and/or publisher, illustrator, and former owner (provenance). Many of the items in this collection required original cataloging, and all of those records have been added to OCLC. Many other bibliographic records were enhanced by the addition of subject headings, including, where appropriate, African American author, African American publisher, and African American illustrator. Every pamphlet received the subject heading African American pamphlet. We have been particularly attentive to the addition of birth and/or death dates of African American authors, where this could be determined. In addition to the work of the catalogers described above, Emory’s conservators oversaw sleeving and performed repair and conservation as needed. Many of these pamphlets were printed on inexpensive paper, distributed by hand, and retained without thought for posterity. Our goal has been to ensure the longevity of these fugitive materials for future generations. |
Links to Significant Collections of African American Pamphlets at Other Institutions
The Library of Congress -- American Memory
Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet CollectionFrom Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909
