NARRATOR: The books in front of you were part of Arturo Schomburg’s private collection. He sold them to The New York Public Library in 1926 to help fund his research trip to Spain.

BARRYE BROWN: There’s actually a widely circulated story about Schomburg and what led to his motivation behind this passion. When he was a school child, he asked a teacher when would they get to learn about Black history? And the teacher told him there was no such thing. That Black people didn’t have a history. Even as a child Arturo Schomburg knew that that could not be correct.

My name is Barrye Brown, and I am the Associate Curator of the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was mostly known as a Black Puerto Rican bibliophile, historian, writer and activist. He was born in Puerto Rico in 1874 and he migrated to the U.S. in 1891.

I love the selection because the majority of the books are by people of African descent that were in Spain but they are also about people of African descent in Europe. That really sparked a passion in him to collect what he later called in his adult life, “vindicating evidences.”

NARRATOR: These took the form of rare books as well as archival materials and material culture from the African diaspora. Today they’re a physical testament to Schomburg’s investment in the exploration, collection, and dissemination of knowledge about the African diaspora’s history and culture.

BARRYE BROWN: One of the books in particular, the Juan Latino Ad Catholicum, was actually a crown jewel in Schomburg’s collection.

These evidences serve as examples of Black brilliance, creativity and resilience.

For me as a Black archivist and curator it’s really moving to continue doing this work on the foundation that Arturo Schomburg laid. This very important work of really centering the lived experiences of people of African descent globally.