Via Wikimedia Commons
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
1874–1938
Afro-Puerto Rican historian and bibliophile whose collection became the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was a historian, writer, curator, and activist of Afro-Puerto Rican descent who dedicated his life to documenting the history of the African diaspora. His collection of over 10,000 items was purchased by the New York Public Library in 1926 and became the foundation of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. He was a key intellectual figure of the Harlem Renaissance.