Alyssa’s Big Apple Adventures Part Two

Alyssa’s Big Apple Adventures Part Two: “The Collector”

In the final days of being in New York, I was able to reach out to and come in contact with the curator for the Schomburg Center. Cheryl Beredo is officially recognized as the Curator of Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books at the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture of The New York Public Library in Harlem, NYC. On my final visit to the Schomburg Center, I was able to arrange a meeting so I could pick her brain about the collection process. We sat together in a conference room where many of the archives can be viewed.

We discussed how the New York Public Library has a mission to preserve and optimize the accessibility of African American historical information from all time and all places. Restricted access to certain artifacts is meant to preserve the integrity of the product, so not everything is on display in exhibitions within the center at all times. They have many different mediums of artifacts. They are known for having many photograph prints that are simple snapshots of everyday life from

various eras. They take pride in the artistic nature of artifacts as moving images. They have bites of recorded sound, African art, holdings from apartheid, personal papers, and photographs. There are many personal papers that have been donated to the center, which was my favorite type of artifacts to look at and read in the exhibitions. They have lots of Lawrence Reddick’s original work which I was able to see some of in the MLK exhibition that was open on my first visit to the Schomburg. There was also a lot of information on Malcolm X available. The curator could not say off of the top of her head the exact distribution of mediums of artifacts but there is a large variety which also includes city politician papers, gentrification documents, and documents from churches; their access to these types of materials surprised me the most.

Most of the information they collect is from donations. I asked if most donations came in large bulks like a lot of those that helped create the MLK exhibit, but she said that honestly, it varies. They are very fortunate to receive large donations, but sometimes all someone has to contribute is one artifact, and all by itself it could be the gem that makes an exhibition. That is why the Schomburg Center works to collect all of the information they have available and organize them into well-rounded exhibits. When people retire, estates go on the market, individuals pass away they often donate to the center. They have had many instances where an active collector bequeaths their collection to the Schomburg, especially if what they have is New York related.

Cheryl Beredo was also able to communicate with me how sometimes they purchase artifacts to help complete collections or begin new ones. Usually, patrons can read about such purchases in the New York Times because they are usually very large! A lot of the materials on James Baldwin were bought. Malcolm X’s unpublished parts of the autobiography were bought at an auction. Fab 5 Freddy and Sonny Rollins, both musical geniuses, had materials brought over in huge crates. MTV rap has 120 crates that were purchased.

Once a collection comes in the staff looks at it. They have standardized organizing principles for the center. They keep everything in the ORIGINAL ORDER which is very important for the preservation of the intended or unintended message behind the original display design. This is the best way to recreate the pieces and organize what the original person did. This methodology of organizing the pieces was established by Jean Blackwell Hutson who was a former chief of the Schomburg Center.  It was really interesting talking to Cheryl about this, especially the why and how questions as they relate to the preservation of artifacts. It was nice because I was able to apply a lot of knowledge from the History of Science 97: Sophomore Tutorial's discussions on artifacts.

The Harlem Renaissance is a prominent collection, and that collection exhibits a prominent time for the growth of content in the Schomburg. The center even has the ashes of Langston Hughes which are integrated into the artwork on the floor (pictured above). There are also many beautiful  Aaron Douglas murals decorated in the center. The theatre that is
located in the basement of the Schomburg is also renown for launching careers and being a great place to perform. Even today the center has after school programming for youths to learn about art curating and put on shows. Deborah Willis, a MacArthur Genius Grant Award winner was very helpful an influential associate of the Schomburg as a photography curator and artist which is very cool!