2

Slavery period--struggle for freedom

(1623-1865)

15. Phillis Wheatley. 1772, etc. editions of her poems; picture.

16. ADDRESS TO THE NEGROES OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK (1787) by Jupiter Hammon.

17. Sermons of Lemuel Haynes.

18. Ira Aldridge: programs, playbills, statue, etc.

19. Crispus Attucks: photos.

20. CLOTEL (early editions) by W. W. Brown.

21. Banneker's ALMANACS, 1792 and 1793 (in Schomburg) Other editions in Reserve Room, 42nd St.

22. COLORED PATRIOTS and MISSING PAGES IN AMERICAN HISTORY by Nell.

23. Slave deeds (New York) and passes and papers of manumission.

24. Haitian Manuscripts on slavery and revolt.

25. Slave revolts in America.

26. Jamaica Manuscripts on riots.

27. Toussaint L'Ouverture, Dessalines, Maceo: papers, prints and photos.

28. Placido's life by Schomburg.

29. Sojourner Truth: books, photo.

30. FREEDOM'S JOURNAL (1827) - newspaper on microfilm.

31. Abolitionists' photographs - Garrison, etc.

3

32. Pages of the EMANCIPATOR.

33. Harriet Tubman: photos, papers, manuscript of Conrad's biography.

Continuing into freedom

34. Manuscripts of Buckmaster's books on the Underground Railroad.

35. Pictures of the underground stations.

36. Richard Allen and the activity of the church in relief and education.

37. LIFE AND WORKS and SPEECHES of Frederick Douglass.

38. Booker T. Washington's letters and speeches - segregation in education and vocational education.

39. BLACK RECONSTRUCTION and social studies by DuBois.

40. THE NEGRO IN CONGRESS and portrait of five Congressmen in Reconstruction days.

41. Chesnutt's works (1900-

42. Excerpts from the Williamson Collection on Negro Freemasonry (Prince Hall)

43. Dunbar's letters and poems.

44. Niagara Movement and the establishment of the N.A.A.C.P., Urban League.

45. Williams and Walker (photos) - vaudeville
Johnson and Johnson (songs) "
W. C. Handy (the Blues)

46. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EX-COLOURED MAN by J. W. Johnson.

47. NIGGER HEAVEN by Van Vechten.

48. THE NEW NEGRO by Locke.

4

49. THE NEGRO IN THE ARTS by Alain Locke.

50. Claude McKay - SC has letters and manuscripts of HOME TO HARLEM, etc.

51. Harry T. Burleigh, Roland Hayes, etc.: books, photos.

52. CHECKLIST OF AMERICAN NEGRO POETRY by Schomburg.

Freedom, 1865-

53. Establishment of the Schomburg Collection in 1925.

54. THE NEGRO IN OUR HISTORY by Carter Woodson and his Association.

55. THE BLACK PHALANX by Wilson.

56. HISTORY OF THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR by Scott.

57. THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION, etc. by Charles S. Johnson.

58. NATIVE SON, etc. by Richard Wright.

59. Robeson, Marian Anderson, Dorothy Maynor: photos.

60. William Grant Still's symphonic music and "Troubled Island."

61. Mrs. Bethune - N.Y.A. - Government.

62. Gordon Park's photography.

63. Jacob Lawrence - painting (Migration series) Alston, Bearden, Woodruff, et al.

64. Richmond Barthe's sculpture.

65. Augusta Savage's theme piece at World's Fair and "A Small Boy."

66. Book illustrations by Elton Fax and Louise Jefferson (keeping to the theme of Negro history.)

5

67. NEGRO YEARBOOKS - Tuskegee research.

68. BIBLIOGRAPHY by Work.

69. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEGRO (introductory volume) by DuBois.

70. THE AMERICAN DILEMMA by Myrdal.

71. The Myrdal manuscripts on the Negro press and articles to tell the story of Negro newspapers.

72. NEW WORLD-A-COMING by Roi Ottley.

73. THE NEGRO IN WORLD WAR II by Silvera.

74. Tribute to the Negro soldier by Helen Gahagan Douglass.

75. 99th Pursuit Squadron and 92nd Division newspaper ("The Buffalo.")

76. March on Washington Movement.

77. Drew - blood plasma: papers and photographs.

78. Photographs of Brigadier General Davis and Colonel B. O. Davis, Jr.

79. INTEGRATION OF THE NEGRO IN THE NAVY by Nelson.

80. Photographs of Captain Mulzac, liberty ship Booker T. Washington. SC has the shell fired at the christening.

81. Architects - photos of Williams, Tandy, Downing, etc.

82. BALANCE OF POWER by Moon and photos of Dawson and Powell.

83. Articles and papers on the Negro in science.

84. Dr. G. W. Carver - inventions and manuscript of Holt's biography of him.

85. Dr. Daniel Williams - heart surgeon.

86. Development of aureomycin at Harlem Hospital.

87. DuBois' paper before the United Nations.

88. Ralph Bunche - photograph.

89. FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM by John Hope Franklin.

90. Movies - "Home of the Brave" and "Lost Boundaries."

100. THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES by Frazier and manuscript of book.

101. Novelists - Yerby, Petry, etc.

102. TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - President's Committee on Civil Rights and the present struggle for civil rights.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT

SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
135TH STREET BRANCH
104 West 136th Street
New York 30, N. Y.

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York 35, New York

The New York Public Library
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
135TH STREET BRANCH
SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
104 WEST 136TH STREET
NEW YORK 30, N. Y.

New York,

March 17, 1950

Dear Langston:

Thanks a million for your gift
of Pasion Vagabunda by Olivella. I am
so glad you remembered that we need the
works of authors of Negro descent.

I would appreciate tips from time
to time as to who these people might be
because I am not familiar with South Amer-
ican literature except for the little bit
of knowledge I have picked up since work-
ing in the Schomburg Collection.

JB:sk

New York, July 14, 1950

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York, New York

Dear Langston:

I have called you several
times during the week to tell you
how thrilled everyone is with <u>Prelude to Our Age</u>. Miss Johnston will write
you, of course. She was very excited
on Monday when I sent her the original
copy.

You will be hearing from us
all in the interim. We are now busily
working toward the opening of the show
on October 2nd.

I am awfully glad you did
such a swell job.

JB:sk

The New York Public Library

New York, September 8, 1950

Dear Mr. Hughes:

This note comes to tell you that we are planning to include your photograph in an exhibition on the Negro in the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. We hope this will meet with your approval. The exhibition is to be on display during October and November in observance of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Schomburg Collection.

JB:sk

September 18

1950

Miss Jean Blackwell
Acting Curator
Schomburg Collection
New York Public Library
136th Street, West
New York, N. Y.

Dear Jean:

I was so amazed and delighted with the check and I am just
getting my breath back. Also, I have been slightly winded
for the past several weeks trying to keep up with these var-
lious shows of mine — one, Mike Todd has an option on that
was tried out in Maine this summer; another is in process of
being written; and THE BARRIER is in rehearsal to open in
Washington next Tuesday for two weeks, then Baltimore, then
Boston, probably Philadelphia, and then on to Broadway, the
date still to be set for Broadway. Meanwhile, SIMPLE has made
his appearance at the Club Barron and will be there every Mon-
day, Tuesday, and Wednesday for the next three weeks, quite
amusingly played, and I think you might like it.

I am going to Washington with THE BARRIER but will be back
by October 3rd or 4th, in time for the Schomburg opening.
After September 22, if you need to contact me in regard to
the program or anything else, I will be at the Hotel Statler,
Washington, D. C.

Of course, it is quite okay to include my photograph in the
collection at the downtown main branch. Naturally, I am de-
lighted.

I'll be seeing you upon my return to the city.

L H
HHS

December 27, 1950

Miss Jean Blackwell
Schomburg Collection
104 West 136th Street
New York, New York

Dear Jean:

When I was on the executive committee of the P.E.N. Club in 1948-49, we gathered gifts of books, clothing and food packages for writers abroad, sending them as gifts from American writers and their friends. The P.E.N. Club member in charge of dispatching these gifts was Mrs. Margaret Loring Thomas. In turn, a number of foreign writers made gifts of their own books to the P.E.N. Among the books received by Mrs. Thomas was an inscribed copy of MBALA L'ÉLEPHANT by René Maran. Mrs. Thomas saw the Schomburg exhibit downtown recently at the library and was so impressed with it that she felt that this book should go to the collection. So, the other day when I was speaking at her Quaker Meeting House Christmas luncheon group, she asked me to see that the book reached the Schomburg Collection. I am sending it to you herewith.

I know you will want to thank her for this gift. Her address is:

Mrs. Edward Thomas
266 West 125th Street
New York, New York

With very best regards to you and wishing you a Happy New Year,

LH/nvw

Enclosure

New York, December 29, 1950

Dear Langston:

We certainly are happy to
receive the copy of MBALA L'ELEPHANT
which was inscribed by René Maran and
Margaret Loring Thomas. We are send-
ing a thank you note to Mrs. Thomas
today.

Best Wishes for the New
Year.

JB:sk

BRONX CENTRAL STATION
1 CENT 1 2 CENTS

33

BRONX CENTRAL
JOHN ADAMS
1907-1981
2 CENTS

New York, February 15, 1951

Dear Langston:

We are very happy to acknowledge the receipt of a recording of *Freedom Train*. We have had some requests for this number.

I am pleasantly overwhelmed with your generosity in giving us manuscripts of your new book, *Montage of a Dream Deferred* and the libretto for *The Barrier* as produced in Washington, D. C. last fall.

Copies of the correspondence and telegrams in regard to the controversy in Baltimore will be very useful additions to the material that we already have on this subject. The programs and clippings that you enclosed will also enrich our collections.

It is really so very helpful to receive such donations from you.

JB:sk

33

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York, N. Y.

The New York Public Library

New York, March 6, 1951

Dear Langston:

Just a short note to express my appreciation for
the receipt of the packet which I received from you this
morning.

I see that you covered a lot of territory during
Negro History Week season.

Some gentlemen from the Workers Fellowship group connected with the Ethical Culture Society want to form an evening program around you and the Schomburg Collection. They would like to have this program on May 21st. Will you be in town on that date? They have written to Miss Glantz, Director of Public Relations, as you probably know, requesting our cooperation. In the letter they mentioned that they would like to have you. Their main interest, I believe, is to help publicize the Schomburg Collection on the West Side of Manhattan. We helped them celebrate Negro History Week, and they afterwards became very enthusiastic about making the resources of the Collection known to their members. I guess it was your poem, "Prelude to Our Age," which made them think that we would be able to persuade you to participate in such an evening.

JB:sk

39

SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
135TH STREET BRANCH
104 West 136th Street
New York 20

BRONX CEN. TRA
STATE 3 CENTS 3

September 26, 1951

Miss Jean Blackwell,
Schomburg Collection,
104 West 136th Street,
New York 30, N. Y.

Dear Jean,

Your note has been forwarded to me here in the country. I've
been in one woods or another all summer, first Lake Candlewood
now Greenwood Lake, finishing a musical and a at present battling
with former Parole Commissioner Battle's biography. For recent
Harlem background material I'll have to do a little research, so
will probably be dropping by your collection soon.

I'd be delighted to lend the 115th Street Branch some of my books
in foreign translation and other material on my shelves that you
or they might not have, if they'd like, for their October exhibit.
I think I'll be in town Monday and can probably sort it out then,
as I've still got to come back to the country for a stretch.

P.S. Please tell Miss Homer I was sorry to miss
the changing of the name of the Library, and
would have sent a wire had I had the date with
me here in the country.

BRONX CENTRAL

CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
104 WEST 136TH STREET
NEW YORK 30, N. Y.

New York, October 4, 1951

Dear Langston:

The young woman, Miss Peggy Dixon, who arranged the exhibit of your works at the 115th Street Branch Library feels that she already has sufficient material to show off well in the space allotted for exhibition in that Library. She was very pleased that you were willing to lend more material, and she asked me if I thought you might possibly come to see the exhibition. I suggested that they invite you to tea some day. The exhibition will be on view throughout the month of October.

By the way, did you know that there was a bibliography of your works published in the CLA Bulletin from Fort Valley, Georgia. Lawrence Jordan gave me this note, but so far I have not obtained a copy.

I am looking forward to your biography of former Parole Commissioner Battle, not so much because of my interest in your subject, but because it is your first venture in biography so far as I know. Of course, I remember your autobiography, but I imagine telling one's own life-story is quite different from telling someone else's. You know you surprised a lot of people in Harlem when you did our script for the Schomburg Collection. They had decided you were not capable of serious writing, so I certainly look forward to their reaction to your new project. I am sure you will have to be "serious" to tell Battle's story!

JB:sk

Mr. Langston Hughes

20 East 127th Street

New York, New York

The New York Public Library

CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT

New York, December 10, 1951

Dear Langston:

Just a short note to acknowledge
receipt of the Beloit Poetry Journal.

Please keep us in mind whenever
you are published in special publications.
It is easy to follow you through the
standard publishers, but we don't often
see university journals or such limited
publications.

JB:sk

New York, March 19, 1952

Dear Langston:

I have been trying to buy
for the Schomburg Collection:

Cesaire, Aimé

Memorandum on my Martinique,

which you stated in the bibliographical
notes to Poetry of the Negro was published
in the United States in 1947. Would you
be so kind as to give me the name of the
publisher?

I am sorry to ask this favor of
you, but I have tried every lead I could
think of in my efforts to obtain this
item.

JB:sk

IN THE SPIRIT OF PAUL REVERE

Mr. Langston Hughes

20 East 127th Street

New York, New York

MATERIAL RE CLAUDE MCKAY

belonging
to
Langston Hughes

leht to the
Schomburg Collection
April, 1953:

THREE PHOTOGRAPHS; 2 on postcards by Carl Van Vechten made after McKay's return to the U. S. A. to live and die.
1 photograph about 1924 made in Europe (small one).

THREE LETTERS FROM CLAUDE MCKAY IN HIS OWN HAND to Langston Hughes:

Dated: September 22, 1924, from Marseilles Toulon.
October 28, 1924, from Paris.
April 8, 1925, from Toulon.

ONE TYPEWRITTEN LETTER FROM CLAUDE MCKAY to Langston Hughes:

Dated: April 30, 1927, from Marseille.

ONE POST CARD FROM CLAUDE MCKAY to Langston Hughes:

Dated: August 25, 1925, from Treboul.

SCHOMBURG COLLECTION

IN THE SPIRIT OF

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York, N.Y.

The New York Public Library

New York, March 26, 1954

Dear Langston:

Can you lend us some interesting material about
Lincoln University which we could exhibit in
the Schomburg Collection for the month of April
in honor of the Centenary of the University?
We do not have too much space - just three ex-
hibit cases which are approximately three by
one-and-a half feet - but they have locks and
do protect valuable materials from being handled
by the public.

We hesitate to ask the University for such
materials because they would need all they can
get for the celebrations to be held at Lincoln.

Thank you for any consideration you may give
this request.

JB/pc

March 26, 1954

Dear Jean:

Langston is still out of the city
but as soon as he returns to New York, I will
be sure and bring your note to his attention
immediately. Thought you'd like to know
this so as to understand the delay.

All the best,

Miss Jean Blackwell
Schomburg Collection
Countee Cullen Branch Library
136th Street and Lenox Avenue
New York, N. Y.

July 3, 1955

Dear Jean:

In September Simon and Schuster are publishing a book of photographs of Harlem life by Roy DeCarava for which I have done the text, THE SWEET FLYPAPER OF LIFE. On a Guggenheim Fellowship Mr. DeCarava took some 500 photographs, very excellent ones indeed, of Harlem, four of which were included in the recent FAMILY OF MAN show at the Museum of Modern Art. Our book is able to reproduce only about 100 of these pictures, so there are many others which the public will not see unless they are exhibited. I am wondering if the Schomburg Collection might like to hold in September or any time later in the fall an exhibition of whatever size may be feasible to you of the Harlem photographs of Roy DeCarava? If so, you would have the publicity collaboration of Simon and Schuster, of course, and Mr. DeCarava himself would mount and help to hang the photographs. So kindly let me know.

Aaron Douglas is planning to have an exhibit of his at Fisk, and also the Art Institute of Chicago is interested in a possible exhibit there.

With all good wishes to you,

Miss Jean Blackwell
Schomburg Collection
101 West 135 Street
N. Y.

New York Public Library
Schomburg Collection
103 West 135th Street
New York 30, New York

<table><tr><td>SAVE THE</td></tr><tr><td>BUY U.S.</td></tr><tr><td>PAYROL</td></tr></table>

SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
103 West 135th Street
New York 30, New York

June 21, 1956

Mr. Herbert Michleman
Crown Publishers
419 Fourth Avenue
New York, New York

Dear Mr. Michleman:

Enclosed please find the last two sections of Pictorial History of the Negro in America. You will see that I found fewer errors.

Only the spelling of a few names deserves attention-- that of Georg Olden on page 283 (he omits the second "e"), on page 284, Banneker (without the "c"), and Judge Waring's first name on page 285 ("Waties" rather than the way it is typed).

In the picture captions, 304-305, I supplied for Harriet Tubman the birthdate of 1821, which should properly be published with a question mark (?) because it cannot be exactly verified, for Mrs. Bethune the death date of 1955, and for Autherine Lucy, the birth date of 1930.

On page 290, please note that the last year in which there were almost two lynchings a month was 1935, and in 1936 there were only eight mob murders. The record of lynchings published in the *Negro Yearbook* of 1952, page 278, really does not show that the number of lynchings *steadily* decreased, but it is true that there was only one in 1950 and in 1951, the last years in which lynchings were recorded.

I am going on vacation today, but will be in next week to get my paycheck, and could receive any message from you.

JB/pc

cc: Langston Hughes

March 13, 1957

Dear Langston:

Many thanks for the envelope of programs, leaflets, etc. delivered
to me yesterday. I infer that you are extremely busy because you
addressed the envelope to the Schomburg Collection at our former
address and noted your home address as 20 East 137th Street!

I tried to persuade a former sailor of the Garvey ship *Booker T. Washington* to ask you to work over his manuscript - to make it more readable - but he said you were too busy and now I see evidence that he might be right.

Ollie Harrington's address is:

6 Bis Rue Cadix
Paris 15, France

If you want to tell him that you got it from me because his mother
is friendly with me and my small daughter, it might be helpful.
He doesn't write to his family and she seldom gives out his address.
She obtained this one from the *Courier*. I wrote him twice on her
behalf and he cabled her a Christmas greeting with no news of him-
self. It is sad for his mother because he evidently was her heart,
"the love child" as the psychiatrists now say.

Best regards. Jeannie and I will come to see you when you are re-
laxing some weekend afternoon.

JB/pc

March 25, 1958

Dear Jean:

I am sending you the lists of various
materials, including drafts of my books,
letters and foreign editions of my works
which I have given to the James Weldon
Johnson Memorial Collection housed at
Yale University Library. Also, material
which I have given the Music Collection
at Fisk University.

I thought this might be of interest and
guidance to persons doing research at the
Schomburg Collection in the event that
they might want to find additional source
material relating to my writing.

With cordial regards to you, I am

Mrs. Jean Blackwell Hutson
Schomburg Collection
New York Public Library
103 West 135 Street
New York 30, N. Y.

Schomburg Collection

103 West 135th St.
New York 30, N. Y.

<table><tr><td>GIVE</td></tr><tr><td>RED CROSS</td></tr><tr><td>FUND</td></tr></table>

May 12, 1958

Dear Jean:

I have just been informed that the U. S. Information Agency has issued my juvenile, FAMOUS AMERICAN NEGROES, in Hindi. This is the first of my books to have been translated into an Indian language. If you would like to have a copy, you may write:

Mr. Claude B. Hawley
Information Center Service
U. S. Information Agency
Washington, D. C.

With warm regards, as ever

Mrs. Jean Hutson
Schomburg Collection
New York Public Library
103 West 135 Street
New York 31, N. Y.

The Schomburg Collection
103 West 135th Street
New York 30, New York

September 24, 1958

Dear Langston,

The packet of programs and other materials, including the Hindi
translation of _Famous American Negroes_, arrived in the Schomburg
Collection before June 3rd because that is the date on which I wrote
you a brief note of thanks for them. Perhaps my little "thank you"
was overlooked in your heavy correspondence.

It is a pleasure to add another "thank you" on behalf of the
Schomburg Collection, this time for the Bengali translation of _Famous
American Negroes_. We appreciate your sharing these translations with
us because the present budget does not permit many such items.

An elderly autocratic "Miss Nehru" from India was brought to
visit the Schomburg Collection this summer by Mrs. Arrington, the Direc-
tor of the Harlem Y. W. C. A.. I found her quite amusing because she
had asked to see the Collection but would not allow me to tell her
anything about it besides answering the questions she already had for-
mulated. After that she told me what she knew about American Negroes
and that information included familiarity with your writings.

The Schomburg Collection
103 West 135th Street
New York 30, New York
July 22, 1959

Dear Langston,

This note comes to you in acknowledgment of the most recent packet of materials sent to the Schomburg Collection. I found it on my desk when I returned to work this month. Thank you for all the interesting programs, the typescript of *Gospel and Religious Poems*, the Japanese edition of *Selected Works*, et cetera.

I suppose you know we subscribed to the typing bill and purchased micro-film of your plays in the University of Kansas project. We have received the microfilm and will mail our share of the typing cost as soon as the Accounting Office makes up the check.

It was kind of you to send me a "get-well" message during the time I had to devote to that process. That was my first experience with boredom and the bright roses on your card were very helpful one dull day. Suffering I have known but boredom is strange for me. It came about because I was too weak to do the interesting things I wanted to do, even too weak to read the "heavy" books in my home library.

I hope all goes well with you and yours.

JBH:ba

The Ira Aldridge Society

P. O. BOX 193
MANHATTANVILLE STATION
NEW YORK 27, N. Y.

115

March 17, 1960

Dear Langston,

I hope you will be pleased to know that months of hard and consistent work on the part of a small group of people have borne fruit and that the Ira Aldridge Society is now an incorporated and functioning organization.

In the initial stages of our existence, however, we must count on the moral and financial support of those who understand and are in sympathy with what we are trying to do and it is for that reason that we now ask you to fill in the application blank contained in the enclosed brochure and return it to the above address with your annual dues.

We look forward to hearing from you very soon and perhaps having the benefit of your active participation as your time permits.

October 10, 1960

Dear Miss Backwell,

An old family in Westport, Connecticut, has
written Langston Hughes asking if he knows
of a Library or Collection that might be
interested in having engravings, dated
pre-Civil War, of Wendell Phillips, William
Lloyd Garrison, and Theodore Parker.
Mr. Hughes has asked me to inquire as to whether
whether or not you would be interested in
having the engravings for the Schomburg
Collection.

You may reply by phone (after 3 p.m.).
Mr. Hughes is delaying his reply to the
donors until he hears from you.

October 18, 1960

Dear Jean:

The lady who wrote asking me to whom old
engravings of Garrison, Phillips, and
Parker might be of use and value, and to
whom I have just written that the Schom-
burg Collection would accept and appre-
ciate them as gifts, is:

Miss Emma Bourne,
111 Warton Road,
Westport, Conn.

Cordial regards to you toujours,

May 16, 1962

Dear Langston,

How good to find so much of your material on my desk as I came in
today! I am so grateful for your faithfulness to this Collection.

I am sorry I haven't caught up with any of the Harold Jackman Memo-
rial Lectures. I have been and still am as busy as a one-armed paper-
hanger with an itch. In addition to my usual obligations, I now have
the responsibility for History 50 - The Negro in the Western Hemisphere
at C.C.N.Y.! My friend, Joseph Borome, who was teaching the course had
a heart attack and arranged for me to teach it. Now my arms and my time
are filled with term papers and final exams.

JBH:ba

June 2, 1962

Dear Jean: On the eve of marching in procession to receive the degree, James Emanuel has brought me, the subject, a final typed script of his Ph. D. thesis:

THE SHORT STORIES OF LANGSTON HUGHES

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University, 1962.

You probably know the academic way of going about the securing of a copy for your library. It is a very thorough study, (446 pages) well written, provocative reading, and something I think you would like for your collection of Hughesiana. It weighs several pounds.

The Schomburg Collection
103 West 135th Street
New York 30, New York
September 11, 1962

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York 37, New York

Dear Langston:

I am as ever, grateful to you for your faithfulness to the
Schomburg Collection. I found the programs and books you brought
back from Africa and Europe on my desk when I returned from vacation
and they are most pleasant introduction to the work of the fall season.

I spent two weeks on Martha's Vineyard and saw a good deal of
Dorothy West who naturally sends regards to you. There was a
performance of *Cooling Waters*, a play about the Underground Railroad
by "Liz" White, while I was there. It was interesting to see how
"our folks" had taken over Oak Bluffs.

One day soon I'll try to bring " Jeannie " to see your uncle
because she has been asking to stop by your house and now she plays
the piano well enough to show off to him.

JBH:ja

Schomburg Collection
New York Public Library
103 West 135th Street
New York 30, New York
October 10, 1962

Dr. F. Lafenus Hutchins, M.D.
1503 West Ninth Street
Chester, Pennsylvania.

Dear Dr. Hutchins:

Langston Hughes passed on to me your request for information about any
group or foundation interested in starting or helping others start libraries.
This is a matter in which I have been interested in for several years. In
this connections I have worked for State and Federal aid to libraries.

To the best of my knowledge this is an accepted function of the State,
to encourage and underwrite community libraries. Therefore, I think you should
write to the Director of the Pennsylvania State Library for help in setting up
or reviving a library for Chester. I note that Ralph Blasingame, Jr. is the
name of the Director and his address is simply Harrisburg, Pa.

The American Library Association lists a Philadelphia District Library
Association with E. Irene Sayre, Community Free Library, Glenside, Pa. as
President. Perhaps she can be helpful.

Also I suggest writing to: Miss Eleanor Ferguson, Executive Secretary
Public Library Association, American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street
Chicago, Illinois; for literature on starting or supporting public libraries
in small cities and for standards to which libraries should conform.

Schomburg Collection
New York Public Library
103 West 135th Street
New York 30, New York
October 16, 1962

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th St.
New York, New York

Dear Langston,

Thank you for the broadsides the French paper back, *Portraits de Noirs Americains*, the rehearsal script of *the Gospel Glory* and the programs and type scripts included in the envelope you sent in yesterday. It's just wonderful having you such a good friend to the Schomburg Collection! We would never have many of these materials if you were less faithful.

Thanks too, for the tip about Wanda Wiener. She came in today and I bought
a deluxe edition of her poems for the Collection.

JBH:jb

December 7, 1962

Dear Mrs. Hutson:

I have posted under separate cover a
copy of Langston Hughes' FRONT PORCH
as you requested. I have only found an
original draft of JOY TO MY SOUL which
is very badly marked up, and is not the
final version. I doubt that Mr. Hughes
would want this reproduced. The play
was originally produced at Karamu House
and so Mr. Jelliffe might be able to
furnish you a copy of the produced
version. Otherwise, as for now, the
play is unavailable.

Mr. Hughes is in Westport for the week-
end and will probably write you personally
in reference to this matter on his return.

February 6, 1963

Mrs. Jean Hutson,
Schomburg Collection,
New York City.

Dear Mrs. Hutson:

This is to grant permission to the
Schomburg Collection and the New York
Public Library to release to other insti-
tutions and to interested scholars, micro-
films of my play, JOY TO MY SOUL, as well
as FRONT PORCH previously filmed.

LANGSTON HUGHES

20 EAST 127TH STREET
NEW YORK 35, N. Y.

February 6, 1963

Dear Mrs. Hutson:

This is to grant permission
to the Schomburg Collection and the New York
Public Library to release other institutions, and
to scholars, microfilms of my play, JOY TO MY
SOUL (as well as FRONT PORCH, previously
filmed).

Schomburg Collection
103 West 135th Street
New York 30, New York
March 11th, 1964

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York 30, New York

Dear Langston:

Thanks for the Detroit programs, etc. I am so glad you are being feted and celebrated so much these days. I attended your birthday celebration at the Brooklyn Academy of Music but didn't press forward to greet you because "Jeannie" and I had another engagement after that.

The note in your recent column brought some merry compliments into the Schomburg Collection. Just a few days earlier a pretty young woman had said she found her racial identity here. It was uncanny of you to know that could happen through reading! Pach Brothers who recently did a photograph of me recognized my name from your column. Evidently you are a skillful public relations man!

Here we do have copies of *Fire* and *Ebony and Topaz*. They may not appear in the catalogue but we have them in a special category of "Sample Issues" which is our file of short-lived periodicals.

Best regards to "Aunt Toy" and "Uncle Geechey."