Scope and Content Note
The papers of Carter Godwin Woodson (1875-1950) span the years 1736-1974, with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1915 and 1950. The papers are organized in two parts. Part I consists of material that Woodson donated to the Library between 1929 and 1938. Part II consists of material the Library purchased from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 2003. All of Part I and most of Part II have been microfilmed, and the film is available in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.
Part I
Part I, formerly titled the Carter G. Woodson Collection of Negro Papers and Related Documents, was assembled by Woodson as an outgrowth of his interest in collecting and preserving primary sources on African-American history during his tenure as executive director of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) and as editor of the Association's principal organ, the Journal of Negro History. Part I includes papers of Whitefield McKinlay, Washington, D.C., realtor and collector of the Port of Washington; Benjamin T. Tanner, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; and John T. Clark, officer of the Pittsburgh Urban League; as well as some early papers of Woodson. It is dated 1803-1936, but the bulk of the material falls in the period 1830-1927. The papers consist principally of correspondence on African-American history, the Journal of Negro History, appointment of blacks to federal office, race relations, racial discrimination, employment opportunities, state and national politics, and business matters. Addresses, diaries, clippings, the records of community organizations and other associations, and primary documents related to the slavery era such as bills of sale, certificates of freedom and “free colored” ledgers complete the collection.
In the Whitefield McKinlay and Carter Godwin Woodson papers of Part I, correspondents who generated a large number of letters are represented by separate folders. Persons represented by correspondence or other papers include John E. Bruce, George Washington Carver, William Demos Crum, Frederick Douglass, Christian A. Fleetwood, Timothy Thomas Fortune, Richard Theodore Greener, Henry Cabot Lodge, John Roy Lynch, Medill McCormick, Hiram Rhoades Revels, Theodore Roosevelt, Julius Rosenwald, Emmett J. Scott, Robert Smalls, Frederick Starr, Melville Elijah Stone, Booker T. Washington, and Charles Young.
Part II
Part II of the Woodson Papers spans the years 1856-1974 and relates chiefly to the operations of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and its publishing arm, Associated Publishers, particularly the Journal of Negro Historyand the Negro History Bulletin. Part II was arranged by University Publications of America, which processed and filmed most of the material prior to its acquisition by the Library and which published a finding aid and index to its contents, A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Papers of Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1915-1950, Bethesda, Md., 1999. This arrangement is retained, and except for a few changes resulting from the rehousing of the collection by the Library and the addition of a Miscellany series and other items not present in the microfilm edition, the order of the collection is the same as described in the published guide.
One of the larger series of Part II relates to the “Encyclopedia Africana,” a project Woodson started in 1931 as a comprehensive guide to African peoples, leaders, and luminaries in Africa, the United States, South America, the Carribean, and worldwide. Shortly after Woodson commenced work on the encyclopedia, W. E. B. Du Bois began work on a similar project, the “Encyclopedia of the Negro,” funded by the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Issues and controversies arising from the rival projects are aired in correspondence between Woodson, Sterling Allen Brown, Du Bois, Rayford Whittingham Logan, Charles H. Wesley, and others. The bulk of the series consists of articles written and compiled by Woodson, Logan, and their associates for the “Encyclopedia Africana,” which was never published.
Primary documents relating African-American life and history during the slavery, Reconstruction and “New South” eras can be found in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Publications, and the Subject File series.
Woodson served as an executor of the estate of his close friend, Francis J. Grimké, longtime pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., and civil rights activist. The Francis J. Grimké Estate series documents Grimké's personal finances and ministry and contains a register of communicants in his congregation.
Correspondents in Part II include Horace Mann Bond, Wendell Phillips Dabney, Victor Daly, W. E. B. Du Bois, J. Stanley Durkee, John Hope Franklin, Edward Franklin Frazier, Edwin Bancroft Henderson, Luther Porter Jackson, Rayford Whittingham Logan, Lewis B. Moore, Jules Rosemond, Francis Butler Simkins, Arthur B. Spingarn, William Warren Sweet, Alrutheus Ambush Taylor, and Charles H. Wesley.
The Miscellany series, which was not filmed, includes documents pertaining to the service of the 368th Regiment during World War I and legal and administrative files concerning the effort of “red caps,” railroad service workers, mainly baggage handlers, to organize and resolve pay issues. Because the Miscellany was not filmed, it is not included in the finding aid published by University Publications of America.