SU, HBCU histories displayed in digital library effort

This graduation announcement from 1887 is a part of the Southern University section of the HBCU Library Alliance Digital Collection.

Southern University’s John B. Cade Library is one of 10 libraries participating in the first Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Library Alliance Digital Collection. The collection can be viewed online at contentdm.auctr.edu.

The online collection contains more than 1,000 historical photographs, manuscripts, letters and publications chronicling the founding of participating HBCUs.

“Southern University has an incredible and rich history, so we felt it was important that the university took the lead in this project,” said Emma Bradford Perry, dean of Libraries at Southern and former member of the first Board of Directors for the HBCU Library Alliance. “This project will provide a window into the histories of these great institutions.”

Southern’s page contains a pictorial history of the institution with over 150 items that provide major historical and illustrative information about the institution from 1880-1960. Materials in the online collection were taken from Southern’s archives, and Special Collections Department of the John B. Cade Library.

“This collection is important because it shows the meager beginnings of these universities and how far they have come,” Perry said.

The project is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The collection, hosted by the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, is the first collective effort by HBCU libraries to make a historical collection digitally available and is the product of a partnership between the HBCU Library Alliance, HBCU institutions, the Southeastern Library Network and Cornell University.

Other participating institutions include Alabama State University, Atlanta University Center, Bennett College for Women, Fisk University, Grambling State University, Hampton University, Tuskegee University, Tennessee State University, and Virginia State University.

For more information, see article on 2theadvocate.com.