Teacher Resources - Educators
Arthur Schomburg (1874-1938) Archivist
Arthur Schomburg was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and obtained his early
education there. He continued his studies at St. Thomas College in the Danish
West Indies and graduated from the Institute de Instruccion in San Juan. An
aspiring lawyer, he left Puerto Rico for the U.S. in April 1891.
Although he read law in New York for five years, he found work with African
Americans to be more fulfilling than a career in law. In 1911, he founded the
Negro Society for History Research and served as secretary. From 1922 to 1926,
he served as president of the American Negro Society. He worked for a while as
a clerk for the New York Bankers Trust Company. He went on self-funded trips to
Europe, North Africa, and South America to acquire books, manuscripts, and
etchings.
In 1926, the Carnegie Corporation bought Schomburg’s collection for $10,000.
Schomburg then left his job at the bank to become the curator of the African
American collection at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1932, he
became the curator of the Harlem (135th Street) Branch of the New
York Public Library. After his death in 1938, the collection was renamed the
Schomburg Collection in his honor. Containing thousands of books, periodicals,
pamphlets, manuscripts, and microfilm reels of African American newspapers, and
hundreds of scrapbooks and pieces of African art, the Schomburg Collection
provides extensive resources for scholars from around the country.
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