Archival Collections

The Spelman Independent Scholars is a two-semester independent, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational learning experience open to students across all majors, the goal of SIS is to enhance students critical writing and thinking skills. It also allows students the opportunity to share research and grow in griot knowledge. In addition to learning sessions with the SIS faculty mentor, students are exposed to lectures by guest scholars including gerontologists, oral historians, museum curators, and physician-researchers. Through one on one independent student relationships and class seminars, the unique yearlong program allows and entrusts students to solicit, understand and archive stories of African-American women elders. A global component of SIS has included oral history research in Accra, Ghana; Benin, West Africa; and Kingston, Jamaica.

The Spelman Messenger was established in 1885, four years after the founding of Spelman College. It featured articles written by faculty, students, and staff, on a variety of topics alumnae news, prominent visitors to campus, health and wellness, history, and religion and often included photographs and local business advertisements. The Spelman Messenger is still currently being published in print and online, and serves as the official magazine of Spelman College and the alumnae.

The Spelman Spotlight was the name of the student newspaper from 1956 to 2014 (The paper is now known as the Blueprint). The Spotlight featured articles primarily written by Spelman students, and focused on campus events, national and international news issues, editorials, creative writing, and opinion pieces.

The vertical files held by the Archives Research Center contain materials on various subjects, some which are represented in this digital collection. Materials include newspaper clippings, programs, pamphlets, and other printed and published materials. The National Council of Negro Women was founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune. The organization was created with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African American women, their families, and communities. The items highlight the council's activities, programs, and events.

"The Official Publication of the Students of Morehouse College and Spelman Seminar"

The AUC Digest is a newspaper which serves the Atlanta University Center and surrounding communities and focuses on news concerning historically black universities and colleges, particulary those in the Atlanta area. It was started by Lorenzo "Lo" Jelks in 1976 and published by the WAUC-AM radio station until April 1982, when publication was taken over by the Collegiate Broadcasting Group, Inc., also owned by Lo Jelks.

The Joseph Echols and Evelyn Gibson Lowery Collection, circa 1900-2019, 1950-2013 (bulk), contains approximately 200 linear feet of personal papers, sermons, speeches, correspondence, SCLC and SCLC/WOMEN records, and hundreds of historical photographs and audiovisual records documenting the Lowery's struggle of justice and equality. The Lowery Trust granted sole ownership of the collection to Morehouse College in March 2021. Shortly thereafter, the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library was formally designated as custodian of the collection with responsibilities for housing and providing access for students, scholars, researchers, and the global community.

Thomas Clarkson (b. 1760 d. 1846) was a renowned English abolitionist who spent his adult life fighting to end slavery. As a leader in the British anti-slavery society, Clarkson was instrumental in getting the English Parliament to ban the slave trade in 1807 and to abolish the institution of slaver in 1833. The majority of this small collection is comprised of correspondence from Thomas Clarkson and his wife, Catherine, to her father, William Buck. Notable writings by Clarkson include the original essay An Liceat Nolentes In Servitutom Dare? [Is It Lawful to Make Slaves of Others Against Their Will?]. This essay, written in Latin, won the Chancellor's Prize at Cambridge College, England in 1785 and served as the basis for the expanded work, Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly The African published in 1786.

Top Shelf keeps Library users up to date on Woodruff Library events and activities undertaken in support of the academic missions of its AUC member institutions: Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College and Spelman College.

Trezzvant William Anderson (1906-1963) was an author and journalist best known for reporting on the injustices and inequalities of the Jim Crow South at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. A member of the 761st Tank Battalion of the U.S. Army during World War II, Anderson wrote the unit's history book "Come Out Fighting: The Epic Tale of the 761st Tank Battalion, 1942-1945." This digital collection including photographs, correspondence and audio recordings

On September 28-29, 2012, the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation presented the Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: "Hip Hop, Education and Expanding the Archival Imagination." The Tupac Amaru Shakur Conference was designed to combine AUC Woodruff Library's mission to facilitate scholarly research and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation's mission to encourage hip hop curriculum. Works posted to the Library's website from the Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference may be downloaded, archived, and/or printed for noncommercial, educational, and research use. Any further use or dissemination of these works requires the express written permission of the copyright holders.

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is a philanthropic organization that provides scholarship funds for black education. This collection includes UNCF organizational records. Finding aid only.

Virginia Lacy Jones (b. 1912 - d. 1984) was a librarian, educator, author, and among library educators known as "the Dean of Deans." She dedicated almost fifty years of her life to the library profession, thirty-six of which she spent as Dean of the School of Library Service at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University). Her career began at Atlanta University in 1939 as Catalog Librarian in Trevor Arnett Library.

Dr. Vivian Wilson Henderson was the 18th president of Clark College from 1965 until his death in 1976. A native of Bristol, Tennessee, Henderson completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from North Carolina College in Durham in 1947. He earned his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Economics from the University of Iowa in 1949 and 1952, respectively. The Vivian Wilson Henderson Papers document Dr. Henderson's personal and professional activities spanning the years 1940 to 1976. The photographs in the collection date primarily from the 1960s and document Henderson's activities at Clark College as well as his family life. Photographs of Dr. Henderson's wife, Anna, and children are included.

The Voter Education Project (VEP) began in 1962 as part of the Southern Regional Council. Initially VEP granted funds to civil rights organizations to support voter education, voter registration drives, and voting-related research. In 1964, Vernon Jordan, the second executive director of the VEP, expanded the programs goals to include citizenship training, voter education, and leadership training in the southern United States, while continuing to provide funds to independent voter and civil rights groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the League of Women Voters. The VEP’s work with the League of Women Voters is highlighted in the materials below. In 1971, VEP under the leadership of John Lewis, became an independent organization and functioned as a research center and became known as an authoritative source for statistics on southern elections and voter registration in general. Lewis also forged the VEP into an activist organization, launching Voter Mobilization Tours with Georgia state legislator and civil rights advocate Julian Bond.

The Walter Rodney Collection is a compilation of materials donated by a number of individuals and institutions. The donations help to broaden the documentation about the life, contributions, influence, and legacy of Walter Rodney. The collection also includes the work of the Walter Rodney Foundation in establishing the Walter Rodney Symposium and documents the annual symposia through video, ephemera, and photographs. The Walter Rodney Collection will continue to grow as more donations are made. The collection complements the Walter Rodney Papers that were donated to the Robert W. Woodruff Library in 2004.

Wayman A. Carver (b. 1905 d. 1967), jazz musician and music educator, achieved acclaim for his virtuosity and artistry as a flutist during his tenure from 1934-39 with Chick Webb and his Orchestra. In the series "Giants of Jazz" (International Musician April 1963), Leonard Feather credits Wayman Carver as being internationally recognized as the first and only jazz musician to play the flute during the decade of the 1930s. Wayman Carver, a graduate of the class of 1929, is among the most notable alumni of Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University). Carver was an outstanding student and assisted with instruction and band direction. In 1942, Carver accepted a faculty position in the music department at his alma mater. Carver served on the Clark faculty for twenty-five years and was held in high esteem by his colleagues and students. The Clark College students dedicated the 1952 yearbook to Carver, and the college presented him a trophy and plaque in appreciation of his contributions.

Dr. William Pickens directed Morehouse College's Interdisciplinary Humanities Program (Mirror Grant Project) in the early 1970s. The Mirror Grant Project was a program designed to teach freshmen and sophomores interdisciplinary mini-courses called "mirrors". These "mirrors" were half a semester in length and provided a humanistic thrust in learning and communication skills.