“We are looking at ourselves with new eyes and a new vision.”
— Alain Locke, The New Negro (1925)

The Reading Room is a living archive — a curated space for slow looking, critical reading, and historical return. Produced by ART | library deco, this digital collection highlights early African American art texts, exhibition catalogs, and rare cultural publications now in the public domain.

These materials are not simply documents; they are evidence of Black artistic authorship, institutional imagination, and cultural resistance. Readers are invited to engage directly with historic texts that shaped how Black art was written, exhibited, and preserved long before mainstream recognition.

All titles presented in this catalog are made available for educational and research use in accordance with their public-domain or open-access status. Where noted, links lead directly to free, full-text digital facsimiles hosted by libraries, museums, universities, and trusted cultural institutions.

This public-facing catalog represents a curated selection of a larger, continually expanding Reading Room collection. Access to the full catalog — including additional rare titles, extended bibliographies, teaching resources, and members-only research guides — is available exclusively to paid ART | library deco library members. Membership directly supports the ethical stewardship, preservation, and expansion of Black cultural knowledge while sustaining the Reading Room as a shared scholarly and community resource.

---

Featured Public Domain Books & Art Texts

Alain Locke — The New Negro (1925)

A foundational Harlem Renaissance anthology that reframed Black artistic identity through essays, criticism, and visual culture discourse. Locke’s editorial vision positioned Black artists and writers within a modern intellectual movement that reshaped American aesthetics.

Read Online:
Read The New Negro (Full Text)

---

Benjamin Brawley — The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States (1918)

One of the earliest surveys documenting Black artistic and literary production in America. Brawley’s text functions as an early cultural archive — mapping creative labor at a time when Black cultural institutions were still emerging.

Read Online:
Read via Project Gutenberg

---

W. E. B. Du Bois — The Negro (1915)

A historical and cultural study tracing African and African American artistic development. Du Bois situates art within broader social history, offering an early framework for understanding Black visual culture through intellectual scholarship.

Read Online:
Read via Project Gutenberg

---

Early Black Exhibition & Archival Resources

Library of Congress — African American Mosaic Exhibition

A landmark digital exhibition exploring Black history through archival objects, photography, and cultural documentation. The exhibition demonstrates how national institutions began presenting African American narratives through curated historical frameworks.

Explore the Exhibition:
View African American Mosaic Exhibition

---

Jacob Lawrence — The Migration Series

Lawrence’s iconic narrative paintings visualize the Great Migration as a living archive of movement, labor, and memory. The series represents a critical intersection of modern art and historical storytelling within Black museum practice.

View the Collection:
Explore The Migration Series

---

Public-Domain BLACK WOMEN WRITING ART, CULTURE & AESTHETICS

---

Anna Julia Cooper — A Voice from the South (1892)

A foundational intellectual text exploring education, representation, and Black women’s cultural authority at the end of the nineteenth century. Cooper’s essays position artistic and intellectual life as central to social progress and historical interpretation.

Explore the Text:
https://archive.org/details/voicefromsouthby00coop

---

Alice Dunbar-Nelson — Essays and Cultural Writings

Writer, critic, and cultural activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson documented Black creative life through essays, journalism, and literary criticism. Her public-domain writings offer a rare Black woman’s perspective on early twentieth-century artistic and cultural movements.

Explore the Dunbar-Nelson Collection:
https://archive.org/search?query=Alice%20Dunbar%20Nelson

---

Meta Warrick Fuller — Early Black Art Writings & References

---

Sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller appears in early twentieth-century publications discussing Black art, symbolism, and cultural identity. These texts provide primary-source insight into Black women’s presence within early art historical discourse.

Explore the Mini Documentary Above and her exhibition below:

In the Studio The Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller Collection

Meta Warrick Fuller papers

---

Belle da Costa Greene — Rare Books, Race, and Archival Legacy

---

Bella da Costa Greene (1879–1950) was a pioneering librarian and curator best known as the founding director of the Pierpont Morgan Library. Renowned for her expertise in rare books and manuscripts, she helped shape one of the most important research collections in the United States. Today, Greene is recognized for her lasting influence on librarianship, archival practice, and cultural stewardship.

View the Resources:
Belle da Costa Greene — Librarianship, Power, and Cultural Stewardship

---

Research the catalog

---

ART | library deco’s Reading Room centers materials that reflect early Black curatorial thought — long before the term BGLAM existed. Many of these publications emerged alongside WPA-era cultural initiatives and early independent exhibitions that challenged exclusion from mainstream museums.

Together, these works form a foundation for understanding:

• Black exhibition-making before institutional recognition
• Early cultural criticism and art history written by Black scholars
• The intellectual roots of contemporary Black archives and galleries

This collection will continue to expand as ART | library deco activates rare texts, catalogs, and archival readings that position Black art history as a living, accessible archive.

---

WORKS FEATURED IN THIS READING ROOM

READING ROOM BIBLIOGRAPHY

ARCHIVAL REFERENCES & EXHIBITION PUBLICATIONS Updated Monthly

📚 = book
🖼️ = artwork/exhibition
🏛️ = institution
📘 = catalog
🎨 = artist-focused text

📚 Driskell, David C., ed. Two Centuries of Black American Art. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976. Exhibition catalog.

🖼️ Perry, Regenia A. Selections of Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976. Exhibition publication.

🏛️ Dallas Museum of Art. Black Art: Ancestral Legacy — The African Impulse in African-American Art. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1998. Museum publication.

📘 The Studio Museum in Harlem. Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. 1987. Exhibition catalog.

🖼️ Philadelphia Museum of Art. Represent: 200 Years of African American Art. 2000. Exhibition catalog.

🏛️ National Gallery of Art. Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710–1940. 1990. Exhibition catalog.

📖 Baker, Houston A., Jr. The Black Image in the White Mind. 1992. Critical theory and visual culture text.

🎨 Driskell, David C., ed. Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties. High Museum of Art, 2008. Exhibition catalog.

📚 Lewis, Samella S. Black Art in America: The 20th Century. 1990. Art historical monograph.

🖼️ The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of the Harlem Renaissance. 1995. Museum publication.

📘 University of California Press. African American Art: A Century of Struggle and Achievement. 1985. Art history text.

🏛️ Smithsonian Institution. Contemporary Black Artists in America. 1992. Exhibition catalog.

📰 Ebony Showcase: African American Artists. Ebony Magazine, 1969. Exhibition publication.

🎨 Rutgers University Art Center. Black Women Artists: Past and Present. 1989. Exhibition catalog.

🖼️ Smithsonian American Art Museum. Visionary Art: African American Painters. 2001. Museum publication.

🏛️ Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Art of African American Artists. 1999. Exhibition catalog.

---

Become an art patron today and get exclusive access to the full catalog and library.