Black History Month is observed every February in the United States and Canada, and we’re celebrating by gathering a number of Artstor’s Public Collections about the history and culture of African Americans. These collections are freely available to everyone everywhere, no log-in required!

Photograph of Shirley Chisholm greeting a group of people

Shirley Chisholm. Not dated. Copyright: Tuskegee University Archives, 2016.

Tuskegee University’s Civil Rights audio collections
Recordings and photographs of speeches from prominent leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. We also interviewed archivist Dana Chandler, who digitized the original reel-to-reel tapes.

Cornell: Loewentheil Collection of African-American Photographs
This collection stands to make a major impact on the study of African American visual culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as they reveal volumes about black life and struggles in rare photographs.

Twin City Roller Rink event flyer, Sept. 10, 1981, featuring Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5, plus other Hip Hop performers.

Twin City Roller Rink event flyer, Sept. 10, 1981. Graphic designer: Buddy Esquire. Image and data from the Cornell University Library Hip Hop Collection.

Cornell: Hip Hop Party and Event Flyers
With more than 500 party and event flyers ca. 1977-1984, this is the largest known institutional collection of these scarce flyers, which have become increasingly valued for the details they provide about early Hip Hop culture.

Wilson College Pat Vail Civil Rights Collection
More than 100 photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, and ephemera from a student who volunteer in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964.

Hampden-Sydney College: Tiger Civil Rights Articles
A survey of articles from the student newspaper addressing race relations at Hampden-Sydney College and in the surrounding community, giving a window into attitudes in the 1950s and ’60s.

Cornell: Gail and Stephen Rudin Slavery Collection
More than 500 documents, letters, and other items on the devastating history of the sale, hire, purchase, and debt payment of slaves in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America.

Chatham University: Oral History, Neighborhoods and Race Recordings Collection
Recordings of conversations focusing on the racial dynamics of American cities, especially Pittsburgh, since World War II.

City College Dominican Library First Blacks in the Americas
Images from an exhibition at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute featuring manuscripts, transcriptions, translations, and photographs that tell the story of the earliest Black inhabitants of the Americas.

George Washington Carver Ladies Auxiliary. February 17, 1951

George Washington Carver Ladies Auxiliary. February 17, 1951. Image and data from the Central Pennsylvania African American Museum Collection

Central Pennsylvania African American Museum Collection
A selection of photographs documenting African American life and culture from the 1920s to the 1950s.

And of course there’s more! Check out our previous Black History Month post, which gathers some of Artstor’s pertinent licensed collections and additional resources.