With holdings totaling more than 18,000 linear feet, the Manuscript Division provides extensive documentation of African American life and history. Currently more than 250 collections are available for research. These collections include the correspondence, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, writings and memorabilia of such notables as Alain Locke, E. Franklin Frazier, Frederick Douglass, Mary Church Terrell, Anna J. Cooper, Angelina Grimke, Lois Mailou Jones, Dr. Benjamin Mays and Amiri Baraka
All permission to publish inquiries for Manuscript Division printed materials and photographs are processed through the Prints and Photographs Department. To request information and to learn more about the collections please visit us at the MSRC Webpage. Any manuscript collections that are available on Digital Howard will not be pulled for on-site appointments as they are readily available for viewing on our website.
Browse the Manuscript Division Collections:
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Digital Archive
- Life and Writings of the Grimke Family
- Manuscripts by Anna Julia Cooper
- Personal Papers
- Published Materials by Anna J. Cooper
- Scrapbooks and Albums
Bethel Literary and Historical Association
Booker T. Washington Collection
- Booker T. Washington Collection - Autographs
- Booker T. Washington Collection – Letters
- Booker T. Washington Collection – Manuscripts
Campbell C. Johnson Collection
Freedmen's Hospital School of Nursing
- Freedmen's Hospital School of Nursing Images Collection
- Freedmen's Hospital School of Nursing Publications
Howard University Jazz Oral History Project
Howard University Men and Women in the Armed Forces
Mary Ann Shadd Cary Collection
- Articles, Editorials, Reports
- Biographical
- Certificates and Statements
- Correspondence
- Organizations
- Printed Material
- Programs
- Songs
- Speeches
- Unidentified and Incomplete Material
National Association of University Women
- The Bulletin of the National Association of University Women
- The Journal of the National Association of University Women
- Articles and Statements By and About General Howard
- Articles and Statements by Others
- Broadsides
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- First Congregational Church, Washington, D.C.
- Howard University
- Lyrics and Poetry
- Manuscripts
- Newspaper Clippings
- Personal Papers
- Photographs
- Programs and Invites
Pittsburgh Courier DC Image Collection
- Pittsburgh Courier: Buildings
- Pittsburgh Courier: Businesses
- Pittsburgh Courier: Children
- Pittsburgh Courier: Education
- Pittsburgh Courier: Entertainment
- Pittsburgh Courier: Groups
- Pittsburgh Courier: Men
- Pittsburgh Courier: Professions
- Pittsburgh Courier: Protests, Boycotts and Pickets
- Pittsburgh Courier: Religion
- Pittsburgh Courier: Social Events
- Pittsburgh Courier: Sports
- Pittsburgh Courier: Street Scenes
- Pittsburgh Courier: Transportation
- Pittsburgh Courier: Travel
- Pittsburgh Courier: Weddings
- Pittsburgh Courier: Women
Sarah Williamson Coleman Papers
The Archives of African American Architects Digital Collection
The Writer’s Club, Inc. Collection