Arturo Alphonso Schomburg – The Man
By
John C Abercrombie
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg is a name that has been around for years, but not many people know of the man and the passion that he developed and spent his life fulfilling to the benefit of us all. The connection of Schomburg and the amazing collection of materials relating to the life of descendants of Africa is incredible. Yet the name does not have the ring of a Black man of such renowned acclaim.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was an Afro- Puerto Rican historian. He moved to the United States and during his lifetime collected materials journaling the accomplishments of people belonging to the African diaspora.
He was born January 24, 1874, in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. His mother was Maria Josefa, a free Black woman from St. Croix which is located in the Danish Island are now known as the Virgin Islands. His father was Carlos Federico Schomburg a Puerto Rican of German descent which explains the name of Schomburg.
While in the 5th grade, In Puerto Rico, he asked one of his teachers about Black history and was told that there was none, that there were no notable people of African descent, and that Black history held no achievements. Rather than being deflated by this rude and demoralizing response, he turned it into his lifelong passion, and we benefit from his passion and commitment.
Arturo Schomburg was educated at the San Juan’s Instituto Popular where he learned commercial printing. He also studied at St. Thomas College on St. Thomas in the West Indies where he studied Negro Literature.
Schomburg became a historian, writer, researcher and curator all the while accumulating a huge collection of 10,000 items related to Black history and items from around the world attributed to the African diaspora. This collection was sold the New York Public Library. While there were others seeking to get the collection, he wanted the collection to remain public.
The collection is now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and has amassed a collection of over 11,000,000 items and attracts scholars from around the world.
After moving to the United States, he settled in the Harlem section of Manhattan in a Puerto Rican enclave of the Cuban area, known for its nationalist intellectuals.
Continuing his studies to untangle the African links in history and the very fabric of the Americas. Experiencing racial discrimination in America he began calling himself “Afroborinqueño” which means “Afro-Puerto Rican”
Schomburg was influential in the Harlem Renaissance in the United States and a supporter of independence for his native Puerto Rico.
It was 1891 when Schomburg moved to New York City at the age of 17 where he held a number of jobs including elevator operator, bellhop and printer. It was during this time that he took classes at Manhattan Central High.
Schomburg also worked for independence of Puerto Rico and Cuba from Spain. At the endo f the Spanish-American war in 1898, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States.
Schomburg spent his time going to rare bookstores, utilized his contacts with book dealers in Europe and people all over the United States. He also asked friends to search used furniture stores in Black neighborhoods.
Schomburg used his job at the Bankers Trust Company from 1906 to 1929 to seek items. He was valuable to the company as he could read and write, English, Spanish and French and used this skill to reach out around the world in his quest for artifacts.
Arturo accumulated over 10,000 items covering areas where Blacks had settled around the world demonstrating that there were indeed accomplishments everywhere they were. These included works by Phyllis Wheatley, a well known poet and Toussaint L’Ouverture, a former Haitian slave who led the only successful slave revolt in modern history. He also had musical works by Chevalier Saint-Georges. His collection included many others such as John James Audubon the well known birder, whose mother was of Haitian heritage. as well as Ludwig Van Beethoven.
Through 1926, Schomburg accumulated more than 10,000 items demonstrating the breadth of Black and African achievements. These included slave narratives, poems by Phillis Wheatley, correspondence from Toussaint L’Ouverture and music composed by Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Schomburg also researched the African antecedents of people like John James Audubon and Ludwig van Beethoven, whose mother was a Moor, a group of Muslim North Africans who conquered parts of Europe. They made Spain their capital in excess of 800 years. His collection included many private communications of Frederick Douglass.
Zora Neale Huston used Arturo Schomburg’s collection extensive in her writing as did others. This rich collection is very much in use and demand today.
Arturo Schomburg and John Edward Bruce also known as Bruce Grit or JE Bruce=Grit, an American journalist, historian, writer, orator, civil rights activist and Pan-African nationalist cofounded the Negro Society for Historical Research in New York.
The Negro Society for Historical Research brought together African, West Indian and Afro-American scholars. This organization bought together scholars, editors and activists to refute racist scholarship and to promote Black claims to individual, social and political equality. This material would be published and showcase the history and sociology of African American life.
There was rapidly growing interest in African American life and in 1915 Carter G Woodson co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. This organization is now known as the Association for the study of African American life and History. They founded the Journal of negro history.
The Harlem Renaissance movement spread to other African American communities. American and Caribbean people led the flourishing of arts, intellectual and political movements.
Schomburg was co-editor of the 1912 edition of Daniel Alexander Payne Murray’s Encyclopedia is the Colored Race.
In 1916 Schomburg published what was the first notable bibliography of African-American poetry, A Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro Poetry.
In March 1925 Schomburg published his essay “The Negro Digs Up His Past” in an issue of Survey Graphic devoted to the intellectual life of Harlem. It had widespread distribution and influence. The autodidact historian John Henrik Clarke told of being so inspired by the essay that at the age of 17 he left home in Columbus, Georgia, to seek out Mr. Schomburg to further his studies in African history. Alain Locke included the essay in his edited collection The New Negro.
In 1926 the New York Public Library purchased his collection for $10,000 with the help of a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The collection formed the cornerstone of the Library’s Division of Negro History at its 135th Street Branch in Harlem. The library appointed Schomburg curator of the collection, which was named in his honor: the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Schomburg used his proceeds from the sale to fund travel to Spain, France, Germany and England, to seek out more pieces of Black history to add to the collection. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Schomburg on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
Hampshire College honors Schomburg by awarding a $30,000 merit-based scholarship in his name for students who “demonstrate promise in the areas of strong academic performance and leadership at Hampshire College and in the community.”
The College of Arts and Sciences at University at Buffalo also has a fellowship named in honor of Schomburg.
In 2020, the United States Postal Service featured Schomburg on a postage stamp as part of the series on the Harlem Renaissance.
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This post is a 3 part mini-series about the Schomburg. To see the second post in the series about the Museum, click here.
To see the third post about events at the world class Schomburg, click here.
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Global Blackness and the Legacy of Arturo Schomburg |
Mi Gente Afrodescendiente Did you know one of the most influential curators of black history was Afro-Puerto Rican? His name is Arturo Schomburg and his work helped create the blueprint of modern black studies.
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Schomburg:
The Man Who Built a Library Amid the scholars, poets, authors, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance stood an Afro–Puerto Rican named Arturo Schomburg. This law clerk’s life’s passion was to collect books, letters, music, and art from Africa and the African diaspora and bring to light the achievements of people of African descent through the ages. When Schomburg’s collection became so big it began to overflow his house (and his wife threatened to mutiny), he turned to the New York Public Library, where he created and curated a collection that was the cornerstone of a new Negro Division. A century later, his groundbreaking collection, known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, has become a beacon to scholars all over the world.
ABH – Schomburg the Man Who Built A Library
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ABH – Office and School Supplies
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Arturo Alphonso Schomburg:
An Afro-Puerto Rican Historian On A Mission Arturo Alphonso Schomburg An Afro-Puerto Rican Historian On A Mission In 1935, a librarian named Ernestine Rose who represented the New York Public Library purchased Schomburg’s extensive collection of African historical information and artifacts, for the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art housed in the 135th street branch of the New York Public Library. Schomburg was so impressive and influential a whole cultural center was named after him. The Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art was eventually renamed the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Schomburg was the curator of the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
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Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Examines the life of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg through the lens of both Blackness and latinidad.
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Welcome to the Schomburg Center
Founded in 1925 as the Negro Literature, History and Prints Division of the 135th Street Branch Library by Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the leading cultural institutions in the world devoted to the preservation of materials focused on African-American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Recognized for its prominence in digital humanities, scholarly research, and vast collection spanning over 10 million items, the Schomburg Center won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2015. Today, the Schomburg serves as a space that encourages lifelong education and exploration with diverse programs that illuminate the richness of black history and culture, and in 2017 it was named a National Historic Landmark.
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Software
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Arthur Alfonso Schomburg:
Black Bibliophile & Collector (African American Life This is the first full biography of the pioneering black collector whose detective work laid the foundation for the study of black history and culture. Born in Puerto Rico in 1874, Arthur Alfonso Schomburg came to New York militantly active in Caribbean revolutionary struggles. He searched out the hidden records of the black experience and built a collection of books, manuscripts, and art that had few rivals. Today it forms the core of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for research in Black Culture, one of the leading collections in the field. At the center of the Harlem Renaissance, Schomburg was a generous friend of many of the writers, artists, performers, collectors, scholars, and political figures who made Harlem the capital of Black America. A contributor to the major black journals of the period, he went on to head the Negro Collection at Fisk University and became curator of his own collection in the New York Public Library until his death in 1938.
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The 2015 Puerto Rican Day Parade Honors Arturo Schomburg
Schomburg Director Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Aysha Schomburg, great-granddaughter of Schomburg founder Arturo Schomburg, discuss his importance in black history in a FOX-TV interview connected to the 2015 Puerto Rican Day Parade, which honored him.
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Papers of the American Negro Academy. (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 18-19.) This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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Harlem on My Mind:
Arturo Schomburg | Into America Podcast – Ep. 101 | MSNBC This Black History Month, Into America presents “Harlem on My Mind,” a four-part series that follows the interconnected lives of four Black creators in and around the Harlem Renaissance. In part 2, host Trymaine Lee explores the story of Arturo Schomburg—specifically, how his personal collection of Black books and art grew into the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center, an 11 million piece archive. Trymaine talks to author Vanessa Valdés, curator Shola Lynch, and Schomburg’s grandson, Dean Schomburg, to better understand who Arturo was and the impact of his legacy on Black identity and culture.
This post is a 3 part mini-series about the Schomburg. To see the second post in the series about the Museum, click here.
To see the third post about events at the world class Schomburg, click here.
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In Arturo Alphonso Schomburg we see a man who challenged the system after being told in the 5th grade that there was no Black history or achievements. What could have been a demoralizing situation and turned it into one of the greatest treasure troves of Black history and achievement. There is a story here of what YOU can do if you Just Do It!