The essays that comprise Elusive Archives raise a common question: how do we study material culture when the objects of study are transient, evanescent, dispersed or subjective? Such things resist the taxonomic protocols that institutions, such as museums and archives, rely on to channel their acquisitions into meaningful collections. What holds these disparate things together here are the questions authors ask of them. Each essay creates by means of its method a provisional colle...

Winner: St. Louis Mercantile Library Prize, Merle Curti Intellectual History Award, Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award, Arline Custer Memorial Book AwardHonorable Mention: Lawrence W. Levine Award, S-USIH Annual Book PrizeFinalist: ASALH Book Prize for Best New Book in African American History and CultureShortlisted: Modernist Studies Association First Book Prize, MLA Prize for a First BookDuri...

A centennial celebration of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and its vital role in the development of Black StudiesIn 1926, the Afro–Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo Schomburg’s collection of four thousand books, pamphlets, papers, and prints arrived at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. The collection contained works in many languages and formats, offering an unparalleled look into the richness and global reach of Black hi...