Today’s Flashback Friday honors Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, the distinguished Puerto Rican-born Black scholar and bibliophile, as well as the curator of the New York Public Library’s Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints from 1932 - 1938. It was Mr. Schomburg’s personal collection that won the 135th street Library international acclaim and in 1940, the New York Public Library renamed the collection in his honor. Today, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the premiere research libraries in the country and contains over 10,000,000 items.
For his great contributions to our cultural history and in celebration of his birthday this week, we present this portrait of Mr. Schomburg and encourage everyone to stop by the Schomburg Center, in person or online. It’s never too late to learn!
