Arthur (originally Arturo) Alfonso Schomburg was a collector of books and manuscripts pertaining to black history and culture, whose collection formed the basis for the Schomburg Center for Black Culture. This chapter dispels the common charge in Schomburg’s time, and even in our own, that he abandoned his Puerto Rican roots and assimilated into the US Black community. It will be, without a doubt, the book recommended to curious community members who see Schomburg’s portrait on the wall of the SCRBC, or a graduate student who wants to know more about this iconic figure. For example, I was very interested in her section on his impact on the development of Fisk’s Negro Collection, since that topic has received less attention than the SCRBC, but she provides only two pages on this section. Arthur Alfonso Schomburg (also known as Arturo Alfonso Schomburg), a native of Puerto Rico, was a noted bibliophile and scholar of African and African American history.
The material about Schomburg contains papers relating to Schomburg's life and family background.
Valdés’s strongest intervention is her analysis of photographs and portraits of Schomburg.
institution.
Two of the articles—"The Negro Brotherhood of Sevilla" and "Negroes in Sevilla"—were published in Opportunity magazine. Also present are two bookplates used by Arthur Schomburg featuring a Patrick Reason engraving, and a photocopy of a letter to Schomburg from British writer and activist Nancy Cunard discussing her book Negro: An Anthology. The collection has grown through the years, beginning with the rare treasures from Arturo Alfonso Schomburg's personal holdings. In addition to Brau, she argues that five other Puerto Rican and Cuban intellectuals shaped Schomburg’s Afro-Latinx subjectivity: from Ramón Emeterio Betances he learned of Afro-Puerto Rican resistance, from Eugenio María de Hostos educational philosophy, and from Lola Rodríguez de Tío, Rafael Serra y Montalvo and José Martí he came to value pan-Caribbean activism. Find details about locations, services, and requirements, and learn more about accessing our remote resources. However, until very recently, scholarly research on Schomburg himself has been sparse. https://aaregistry.org/story/arthur-schomburg-a-meticulous-historian Largely ignored in previous works, Valdés’s close reading of a commonly circulated photo immediately grabs the reader’s attention.
This examination of his engagement, and especially his resistance, to photography is powerful because it focuses on Schomburg’s agency over his body. In Chapter Three, Valdés focuses on Schomburg’s published essays, which “broaden the parameters of his audience’s conceptions of blackness so as to include the Spanish-speaking populations of African descent” (72). This is filed with a brief biography of Schomburg and a list of Schomburg's memberships in various organizations. Arthur (originally Arturo) Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938) was a collector of books and manuscripts pertaining to black history and culture whose collection formed the basis for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Valdes’s Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (2017) is the premier work for any scholar seeking more information on Schomburg’s multiple roles as an independentista, collector, and writer. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Schomburg moved to New York City in 1891, settling in Harlem and later, Brooklyn. She sees Brau’s motivation as “firmly establishing Puerto Rico as an inheritor of Spanish cultural values” and Schomburg’s as outside of the nationalist framework, focused instead on “collective histories of peoples of African descent” (96). Today I want to present another monumental figure of the Puerto Rican diaspora, noted book collector, historian, researcher, writer, and activist Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.
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For those seeking an extended depiction of Schomburg’s diasporic identity, Valdés’s study can be placed alongside Flor Piñiero de Rivera’s 1992 collection of his writings and Elinor Des Verney Sinnette’s 1990 biography. However, Valdés succeeds in introducing the reader to “representative pieces that reveal not only [Schomburg’s] dedication and commitment to the acknowledgment of Afro-Latinx contributions to the hemisphere but that also highlight the complexities of Afro-Latinx subjectivity” (72). He dedicated his life to collecting and sharing books, papers, and artifacts about the black experience, and to promoting the achievements of people of African descent. She completed her PhD in English at The University of Texas at Austin in May 2018. The file of family background information includes documents such as Schomburg's baptismal and death certificates, a Prince Hall Mason membership certificate, and a copy of a questionnaire completed by Schomburg concerning his family background. option. Across the remaining chapters, she presents Schomburg as institution builder, writer/historian, archivist, and portrait subject.
In the first chapter, she contextualizes the Antillean independence movement, focusing especially on the Puerto Rican and Cuban figures that make up Schomburg’s “intellectual genealogy” (27).
Arthur (originally Arturo) Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938) was a collector of books and manuscripts pertaining to black history and culture whose collection formed the basis for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. His mother was a freeborn Black midwife from St. Croix, and his father a mestizo merchant of German heritage. JSTOR®, the JSTOR logo, JPASS®, Artstor®, Reveal Digital™ and ITHAKA® are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions She has published in Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Culture.
The family background information was acquired during the preparation of the 1986 exhibit "The Legacy of Arthur Alfonso Schomburg: a celebration of the past, a vision for the future," with later accruals from Dolores Schomburg Thomas in 1991 and Susan Schomburg in 2014. At a relatively slim 138 pages (with 26 pages of endnotes), this book provides an excellent introduction to students and scholars seeking an accessible portrait of Arturo Schomburg. © 2001 University of Illinois Press
For a timeline of Schomburg's life, see the Arthur Alfonso Schomburg Papers. A Black Puerto Rican–born scholar, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874–1938) was a well-known collector and archivist whose personal library was the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. By examining the photographic representation of Schomburg as an Afro-Puerto Rican man, taking up space across a variety of communities, most of which were uncomfortable with his ambiguity, Valdés gives us a new way to see Schomburg. The Press publishes more than 120 new books and 30 scholarly journals each year in an array of subjects including American history, labor history, sports history, folklore, food, film, American music, American religion, African American studies, women's studies, and Abraham Lincoln. Access supplemental materials and multimedia. In 1926, Schomburg sold his collection to the New York Public Library, and served as curator of the Division of Negro Literature, History, and Prints from 1932 until his death in 1938. In A Black Puerto Rican–born scholar, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874–1938) was a well-known collector and archivist whose personal library was the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. Journal of American Ethnic History
This item is part of JSTOR collection The Arthur Alfonso Schomburg collection is arranged in two series: The typescripts were purchased in 2005. The Migrations of Arturo Schomburg: On Being Antillano, Negro, and Puerto Rican in New York 1891-1938 JESSE HOFFNUNG-GARSKOF HISTORIANS REMEMBER Arturo Alfonso Schomburg principally for his magnificent collection of books and documentary materials about black history and culture. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Schomburg moved to New York City in 1891, settling in Harlem and later, Brooklyn.
Regina Mills is an Assistant Professor of Latinx and US Multi-ethnic Literature in the Department of English at Texas A&M University. The introduction lays out Valdés’s primary concern: how Schomburg illuminates “definitions of blackness, masculinity, citizenship, and nation” and how his engagement “with these multiple discourses throughout his life, and his interpretation of said notions offers an assessment of Afro-Latinx subjectivity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States and its commonwealth, Puerto Rico” (3). For example, in her reading of Salvador Brau’s tribute to Rafael Cordero, who started the first school open to students of all colors and backgrounds in Puerto Rico, she details how Brau represents Cordero in opposition to Haitian blackness, invoking a politics of respectability (48). She makes the case that “Schomburg’s historical articles,” though written primarily in English, should be viewed as crónicas, a Latin American genre of vignettes often written for periodicals, following closely Susana Rotker’s definition in La invención de la crónica (1992). African American Intellectual History Society. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, known to many by his anglicized name Arthur A. Schomburg, is no stranger to most African American and diaspora studies scholars. The impressive collection that he donated to the New York Public Library has formed the foundation of much of the scholarship in the field. She specializes in Latinx Literature, African Diaspora Literature, immigrant fiction, and life writing studies. The manuscripts by Schomburg, dating from approximately 1920-1938, are typewritten articles, some annotated, primarily concerned with the history of Africans and people of African descent. Valdés’s emphasis on Schomburg’s embodied existence is apparent throughout the book and provides readers an image of the man as more than just a disembodied mind, an image that may have contributed to the erasure of his complex identity.
Like many Afro-Latinx Studies scholars, she often describes Schomburg using “bridge” language, viewing him as “a link” and “a conduit” (5) in the circles in which he traveled, continuing a common trope of the Afro-Latinx figure as a bridge between Black and Latinx communities.
The Press is a founding member of the Association of American University Presses as well as the History Cooperative, an online collection of more than 20 history journals.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg In yesterday's post, we learned about trailblazing librarian and storyteller Pura Belpre.
Her current book project is entitled, Life Writing Across the Ethno-Racial Divide: A Literary History of Afrolatinidades. Personal insults and mean spirited comments will not be tolerated and AAIHS reserves the right to delete such comments from the blog. This collection includes typewritten manuscripts written by Schomburg, a memorial tribute by Alain Locke, and genealogical research conducted by his descendants. Schomburg is never just a symbol; he is a fully embodied subject. While much of his writing fits a particular kind of respectability politics, focusing on Black excellence rather than the ordinary humanity of blackness, Valdés’s analysis of Schomburg’s embodied choices depicts his defiance and Antillean revolutionary spirit. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, a self-described "Afroborinqueño" (Black Puerto Rican), was born January 24, 1874, of María Josefa and Carlos Féderico Schomburg. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Schomburg moved to New York City in 1891, settling in Harlem and later, Brooklyn. In particular, she provides detailed and helpful historical context for the reader, so they can better appreciate, for example, Schomburg’s 1912 article in Crisis entitled “General Evaristo Estenoz,” written in the middle of what would be known as the Race War of 1912 in Cuba.