A Legacy Of Preservation

Amistad Research Center Facts:

• The Center’s collections assist scholars in writing hundreds of monographs, books, articles, lectures, and dissertations.
• Amistad is the first institution created to document the Modern Civil Rights Movement in America, and the Center is home to the largest number of primary sources relating to the movement.
• Amistad’s collection of African and African American paintings and drawings is the largest of its kind in the south and one of the best in the nation.
• Amistad houses correspondence, manuscript, and library collections from leading African American writers, including the personal libraries of poet, playwright, and civil rights activist Tom Dent and Harlem Renaissance poet and playwright Countee Cullen.

The Numbers

• Archive holdings of 20,000 books and 30,000 pamphlets.
• 900+ manuscript collections containing more than 15 million rare documents ranging from the 1780s to the present.
• A diverse assortment of more than 1,000 periodicals dating from the early 19th century.
• 250,000+ original photographs dating from 1859.
• 400+ oral histories documenting the experiences of musicians, civil rights activists, writers, military figures, and everyday citizens.
• 1,100 works of fine art and sculpture by African American and other ethnic artists dating from the 19th century.
• Efforts to add new collections and expand existing collections are ongoing.