African American History and Culture (Rose Library): Introduction

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Emory University's Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library (Rose Library) holds over 200,000 printed volumes, over 1,200 manuscript collections, photographs, motion picture film, audio recordings, and other visual media. Its renowned collections span more than 800 years of human history—with a special focus on modern literature, African American history, and the history of Georgia and the South. Everyone is welcome to use Rose Library collections: students, scholars, visiting researchers, and the general public.

This guide identifies manuscript collections that are related to African American history and culture. The Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library of Emory University houses a diverse body of African American primary sources, from literature and history to politics and popular culture. These include an extensive collection of correspondence, literary manuscripts, photographs, and ephemeral material as well as rare books, periodicals, pamphlets, and other printed matter.

The tabs in this research guide list the Rose Library's collections most directly related to African American history and culture. This guide is not intended to be a complete finding aid to the collections. It serves as a preliminary research tool, providing a brief description of holdings with basic information on size, inclusive dates, types of records, and broad subject areas. More detailed descriptions of the sources listed below are available through the EmoryFindingAids database. Please note that some collections may not yet have finding aids available and that this site is a work in progress. Researchers may also wish to consult a related guide, "Manuscript Sources for Civil Rights History and Post-Civil Rights Movements."

In addition to browsing these entries, you may wish to search our catalogs:

Find Manuscripts and Archives
This database searches detailed descriptions of manuscript collections, which are called finding aids. Finding aids generally include a description of the collection's creator and contents and a box and folder list. The database includes finding aids for unprocessed collections.

Find Books and More
The Emory Libraries Catalog contains records for the majority of materials held in the Rose Library and the other university libraries, including rare books, manuscript collections and archives, microforms, and audiovisual materials.

E-mail: rose.library@emory.edu
Phone: 404-727-6887

Please note that not all manuscript collections are housed in Rose Library. Some collections are located in an off-site storage facility and must be requested in advance. To ensure your timely accessibility to our collections on and off-site, we appreciate advance notice of the collections you intend to view.

We are happy to assist you as you prepare for your research visit. If you have any questions about our collections, questions regarding Rose Library's researcher policies, as well as how to make an appointment and register and register and request materials in advance, please email rose.library@emory.edu to the attention of Research Services, or call us at 404-727-6887.