Randolph Linsly Simpson Collection of African American Life

The Randolph Linsly Simpson Collection at the Beinecke Library presents a vivid picture of black life and American racial attitudes from the 1850s to the 1940s...

For more than 25 years, Randolph Linsly Simpson, a white man, collected objects relating to the African-American experience. He developed a deep appreciation for African-American culture that dates to his childhood in Rochester, New York. His passion for collecting grew over the years, fueled by a desire to preserve the material record of black history in America which was rapidly disappearing.

The Collection is one of many housed in the Beinecke Library that documents American history in all its aspects. As a research library, the Beinecke is committed to acquiring and caring for materials that document as complete a record of America’s past as possible. (source: flicker.com)

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University has a Web site that makes available photographs, textual documents, illuminated manuscripts, maps, works of art, and books from more than seventy of the Beinecke’s collections. For further information see beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary.