Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection

The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection is one of the nation’s leading research facilities for the study of the history and culture of people of African descent. The core collection was donated to Temple University in 1983 by Charles L. Blockson, a Pennsylvania bibliophile and collector of Afro-Americana. Located in Sullivan Hall on the main campus of Temple University, this collection of over 500,000 items has materials on the global black experience in all formats: books, manuscripts, pamphlets, journals, broadsides, posters, photographs, and rare ephemera. In addition, the collection houses selected artifacts, including statues, busts, etc. Most of the titles are in English and others are in languages of areas in the world with sizeable black populations, including Africa and various parts of the Caribbean and South America.

• The African and Afro-American Slave Narrative Collection contains hundreds of works chronicling the slave experience, including those of Olaudah Equiano, Ignatius Sancho, Prince Lee Boo, Robert the Hermit, Bethany Veney, Ellenor Eldridge, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Cooper, Venture Smith, Benjamin Banneker, Robert Adams, Nancey Prince and Silvia Dubois.

• The Underground Railroad Collection contains over a thousand items on the members of the underground railroad as well ad historical pamphlets, broadsides and memoirs the leading figures of this organization. Among these highly valued materials are the letter of William Still.

• This visual arts collection is the repository of hundreds of prints and Black film posters which are annually loaned for exhibit to major museum historical institutions throughout the country. This collection also contains hundreds of rare slavery broadsides and pamphlets.

Photos (top): Bust Sculpture of African American Women. (top right) The sculpture “The Lantern Holder,” a symbol of an Underground Railroad safe house. Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection. Courtesy of Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.

Charles L. Brockson Afro-American Collection
Temple University (Sullivan Hall)
Address: 12th and Berks Mall Philadelphia, PA 19122
Phone: (215) 204-6632
Official Website
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