Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.
This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO related to African American visual artists.
It highlights holdings in the following areas:
● Selected Library Material
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO
Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.
Selected Library Materials
Encyclopedia of African American Artists by Dele Jegede
African Americans in the Visual Arts by Steven Otfinoski
San Francisco Lithographer: African American Artist Grafton Tyler Brown by Robert J. Chandler
Sargent Johnson: African American Modernist by Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins
Black Art [Claremont, CA, etc.: Black Art Quarterly, Ltd., 1976-c1984]
The International Review of African American Art [Santa Monica, Calif. : Museum of African American Art]
New Perspectives in Black Art [Art-West Associated North, Inc]
Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980 by Kellie Jones
South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s by Kellie Jones
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power edited by Mark Godfrey and Zoé Whitley
L.A. Object & David Hammons Body Prints [Tilton Gallery]
Art and Race Matters: the Career of Robert Colescott by Raphaela Platow
Betye Saar: Extending the Frozen Moment by Betye Saar
The Black Arts Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture by Jo-Ann Morgan
Black Artists in Oakland by Jerry Thompson
In Celebration of the African-American Artist [Ebony Museum of Art (Oakland, Calif.)]
Margo Humphrey by Adrienne L. Childs
Selected Archival Collections
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph Collection. Includes a portrait of Pauline Powell Burns (1872–1912), among the earliest African American artists to exhibit painting in California. Powell Burns was born in Oakland, California, and was first exhibited at the Mechanics' Institute Fair in San Francisco in 1890.
E. F. Joseph Photograph Collection. Photographer Emmanuel Francis (E. F.) Joseph (1900-1979) was born on November 8, 1900 in St. Lucia, West Indies. He was the first professional African American photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area operating a commercial and studio photography business in his home initially at 1303 Adeline St. and then at 384 50th St. in Oakland. The E.F. Joseph photograph collection includes 2,518 photographs from Joseph’s work as a portrait and commercial photographer. The collection is organized into four series: Portraits, Commercial photography, Assorted photographs, and Letter and customer cards.
Oakland Post Photograph Collection. Photographs appearing in the Oakland Post newspaper between 1963-2005 feature prominent Bay Area art exhibits and African American artists of the era. Selected photographs depict artists including Dewey Crumpler, Betye Saar, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Romare Bearden, Cleveland Bellow, Mary Ann Pollar (director of Rainbow Sign), Phillip Lindsay Mason, Rosalind Jeffries, Phoebe Beasley, Donald O. Greene, Eugene E. White, and many others.
Bayviewer Magazine Collection. Issues of the Bayviewer magazine (1967-?) include Evangeline "EJ" Montgomery's regular "Black Art Scene" feature with coverage on African American arts in the Bay Area. Montgomery founded the African American artists' advocacy group Art West Associated North (AWAN) in 1967 and served as "Black Art" consultant for the Oakland Museum and at Berkeley's Rainbow Sign gallery. Read more about Montgomery at the Oakland Public Library blogs.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Oral History Collection. Selected items include:
- Oral history interviews with social worker and artist Frances Dunham Catlett (1908 - 2014). After receiving a degree in social work from UC Berkeley in 1948, Catlett became one of the first African American social workers in the East Bay. She went on to receive a Masters in Art degree from Mills College in Oakland and began a career in painting. The AAMLO Oral History Collection includes interviews with Catlett discussing her family history, moving to the Bay Area in the 1940s, and her career as a social worker and artist. [View online Part 1, Part 2]
- Artist Milton Bowens discusses growing up the youngest of ten children, mentorship and his development as an artist, and the importance of Oakland, California in his life and work. [View online]
- Duane Deterville discusses the art community in Oakland, California. [View online]
- Daniel Galvez discusses his family's history and living and working as a muralist in Oakland, California. [View online]
- Morrie Turner discusses becoming a cartoonist, growing up in West Oakland in the 1930s, and the inspiration and popularity of his comic strip Wee Pals. [View online]
- Artist Arnold White discusses growing up in Campbell Village Housing Project in West Oakland, his family, and his artwork. [View online]
Leisure Arts Club Scrapbook. The Leisure Arts Club was founded on January 31, 1941 at the home of Althea Clark. Its purpose, as outlined in its constitution, was to "develop self culture, to study the arts, to do charitable work, and to cooperate with groups interested in racial betterment." In an effort to meet its stated goals, the club organized musical events, organized fundraisers for charities, and donated funds to the NAACP. Among its charitable activities numbered a layette sewing project for the Alameda County Welfare Project, preparation of Thanksgiving baskets, linen showers for the Fannie Wall Children's Home and Day Nursery, and the organization of picnics for servicemen during World War II.
Morrie Turner Papers. Morrie Turner, the first nationally syndicated African American cartoonist, was born on December 11, 1923 in Oakland, California. In the 1960’s Turner created “Wee Pals” a fully integrated comic strip about group of friends from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The “Wee Pals” originally appeared in only 5 newspapers and eventually grew to national syndication. In 1972 ABC produced 17 episodes of the “Wee Pals” as an animated series for their Saturday morning lineup. The Morrie Turner Papers consist of original drawings and comic strips of the Wee Pals as well as copies of those clipped from the newspaper. Also included are coloring books by Turner, family photos, professional correspondence and contracts as well as an oral history interview with Turner and original hand puppets based upon the Wee Pals. The collection has been arranged into five series: Comic strips, publications, correspondence, biographical material, photographs and artifacts.
Faricita Hall Wyatt Papers. Educator, poet, and artist Faricita Hall Wyatt (1912-1993) was born on October 29, 1912 to William M. Hall and Susie Sylindia Pinkney Hall. Wyatt published two books of poetry The River Must Flow (1965) and By the Banks of the River (1974) and was also an accomplished painter. The Faricita Hall Wyatt Papers include correspondence, poetry manuscripts, photographs, awards, and guest books that document the life and career of Faricita Hall Wyatt.
Charles E. Banks Papers. Bay area blues musician and artist Charles E. Banks (1938-2000) was born Charles Edward Banks in Taylorville, Illinois, December 4, 1938. The Charles E. Banks Papers include assorted biographical material, concert flyers, posters, programs, song lists, club advertisements, entertainment calendars, reproductions of artwork, photographs, handwritten poems, and three audiocassettes featuring Blues on Tap's live and studio recordings.
Bryant Family Papers. The Bryant Family papers include two original works by Margo Humphrey (born June 25, 1942) that were collected by the Bryants. The works are entitled Bright Moments (2008) and Crossing Over (2008).
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Includes ephemera such as exhibition announcements, newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, brochures, invitations to gallery shows, illustrations, small catalogs, and/or reproductions. Research material is held on several art-related subjects, including African American art and cultural centers, businesses, art festivals, exhibitions, and artist files. Selected items include:
- Program for "Night with the Negro poets and artists," held at the Oakland Museum Auditorium (1928)
- N.A.A.C.P. program honoring Sargent Johnson at the Linden St. Y.W.C.A. (1935)
- Research material related to the art collection of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company
- Ephemera related to activates of the Oakland Art Museum and the Oakland Museum under guidance of the Cultural and Ethnic Affairs Guild
- Correspondence from Ben Hazard, former Curator of Special Exhibits and Education of the Oakland Museum and later Director of the Crafts & Cultural Arts Department for the City of Oakland
- Art directories including Black art Black culture: where to go in the Bay Area (1976)
- Exhibition announcements for the Ebony Museum of Arts Oakland
- Biographical sketches of artists including Casper Banjo
- Oakland Public Arts press releases
- And many others
Black Panther Black Community News Service Collection. The Black Panther Black Community News Service Collection consists of 420 newspapers published by the Black Panther Party between 1967-1980. Each issue features prominent artwork from Black Panther's Minister of Culture Emory Douglas as well as artists Gayle "Assali" Dickson, Malik Edwards, Tarika Lewis, and others.
Additional Information
Search the library using the catalog.
Consult AAMLO's finding aids in the Online Archive of California.
We are working to create new resource guides. Have an idea for a new guide? Contact us at aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org.
