Woodson Regional
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature
Vivian Harsh (1890-1960), the first Black librarian in the Chicago Public Library system, was named head of the George Cleveland Hall branch in 1932. She immediately began establishing a "Special Negro Collection" which became an integral part of the branch's community service. While developing this collection as a research and programming center for Chicago's community of Black scholars and activists, Harsh won the support and assistance of such leaders and writers as Richard Wright, Arna Bontemps, Langston Hughes and Horace Cayton.
Assisted by the pioneering Black children's librarian, Charlemae Hill Rollins, the collection became an extraordinary meeting place that helped develop the work of many Black thinkers in the "Bronzeville" era of the 1930's and 1940's.
In 1975 the collection was moved to the newly-opened Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, where sculptor Richard Hunt created the massive bronze depiction of "Jacob's Ladder" for its central atrium.
In recent years, however, this space became inadequate to house the growing volume of Black history materials held in the Harsh Research Collection. In 1992, land adjacent to the Woodson Regional Library was purchased and a new wing was added in 1998 bringing the total square footage to 25,000. The refurbished and expanded Harsh opened on January 25, 1999.
Resources and Services
The largest African American history and literature collection in the Midwest, the Harsh Collection contains a wealth of precious documentation of the Black experience.
The strength of the collection is concentrated in African American history in Illinois. Special bibliographies have been prepared to assist researchers with many topics. Its holdings include:
- 70,000 books, many of them rare
- 500 periodical titles, current and retrospective
- 75 microfilm research collections, totaling over 5000 reels, bringing together the most significant primary source materials from other Black Studies research collections across the country.
Among the most significant and unique materials at the Harsh Research Collection are its manuscript holdings. Manuscript collections most consulted by researchers include:
- The Illinois Writers Project / "Negro in Illinois" paper
- The Heritage Press archives
- Original manuscripts by Richard Wright, Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps
- The papers of Horace Cayton, Era Bell Thompson, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, and Eugene Winslow
- Ben Burns Collection
- The Cyrus Colter Papers, 1892-2002
- View a complete list of all archival collections.