In 1925, the New York Public Library system established the first public collection dedicated to Black materials at its 135th Street branch in Harlem, now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
"It was a banner day in the history of American libraries — and in Black history. On May 25, 1926, the New York Public Library announced that it had acquired the celebrated Afro-Latino bibliophile Arturo Schomburg’s collection of more than 4,000 books, manuscripts and other artifacts. A year earlier, the library had established the first public collection dedicated to Black materials, at its 135th Street branch in Harlem. Now, the branch would be home to a trove of rare items, from some of the earliest books by and about Black people to then-new works of the brewing Harlem Renaissance. Schomburg was the most famous of the Black bibliophiles who, starting in the late 19th century, had amassed impressive 'parlor libraries' in their homes. ..."
The 135th Street branch in 1938. Catherine Latimer, the first curator of the division of Negro history, literature and prints, sits in the background on the left.
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