Helton will discuss her recent book, Scattered and Fugitive Things, which tells the stories of Black collectors who created the first enduring set of African American archives in the early twentieth century. In defiance of those who cast doubt on the idea of Black history, these collectors activated bibliophile Arturo Schomburg’s declaration that “the American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future.” That activation entailed both risk and pleasure, and it produced archival abundance—a proliferation of files and collections documenting the rich history of the African diaspora. Generations of scholars and readers have benefited from that abundance, but what did these archives mean at the moment of their founding? And what does this history teach us today, when Black history is again being challenged?

Laura E. Helton is a historian who writes about collections and how they shape our world. She is an Associate Professor of English and History at the University of Delaware, where she teaches African American literature, archival studies, and public humanities. Her first book, Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History, was published by Columbia University Press in 2024 and won multiple awards, including the Eliza Atkins Gleason Award from the Library History Round Table and the St. Louis Mercantile Prize from the Bibliographical Society of America. She currently serves as guest curator for “To Uncover and Reveal to the World: Arturo Schomburg’s Library” as part of the centennial celebration of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

This public program is made possible by federal Library Service and Technology Act funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which enable the New York State Library to champion lifelong learning.