author
Arthur Alfonso Schomburg
1874–1938
A tireless collector and historian, he devoted his life to preserving the history and achievements of people of African descent. His work helped lay the foundation for what became one of the world’s best-known research centers for Black culture.
1 Audiobook
Papers of the American Negro Academy. (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 18-19.)
by Archibald Henry Grimké, John Wesley Cromwell, Lafayette M. Hershaw, William Pickens, Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, T. G. (Theophilus Gould) Steward
About the author
Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in 1874, Schomburg later made his life in New York, where he became a historian, writer, curator, and activist. He is widely remembered for challenging the silence around Black history and for building an extraordinary personal collection of books, manuscripts, and other materials about the global African diaspora.
That collection became central to the New York Public Library’s holdings in Black history and culture and helped shape the institution now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He also wrote and lectured, arguing that history could restore the stories and achievements that racism and slavery had pushed aside.
Known in the United States as Arthur A. Schomburg and elsewhere as Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, he left a lasting mark on scholarship, public history, and cultural memory. He died in Brooklyn in 1938, but his influence continues wherever readers, researchers, and libraries work to preserve neglected histories.