Archival Collections
As a special collections library, a significant part of our mission is the preservation of items related to African American history. We have items available in our facility and online. We constantly collect materials to provide historical information that documents and focuses on the experience of African American residents, businesses, institutions and neighborhoods throughout Houston and the surrounding region.
The library serves students and instructors from elementary to the university level as well as a wide range of researchers. Additionally, researchers may also want to visit other Houston Public Library Special Collections at the Clayton Genealogical Library and the Houston Metropolitan Research Center. All materials are non-circulating and for library use only.
If you would like to donate items to our archival collection, please contact us to set up a meeting with an archivist.
Archival Items
Photographs
Many items in our photograph collections are available online through the Houston Area Digital Archive (HADA). Visual aids such as photos are clearly one of the most important components of historical research and something that virtually everyone in our visually-oriented society relates to. Click here to access our online collections: http://digital.houstonlibrary.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/gregory. Call or email us for information about items not posted online.
Manuscripts
We collect the personal and professional papers of African American Houstonians for researchers to use. The types of papers collected include the papers of businesses, religious organizations, social clubs, service organizations, families, individuals, and cultural organizations.
Government papers and records
Documents that are important to Houston’s African American history, such as those relating to the establishment of San Felipe Courts (later Allen Parkway Village), the effort to have Freedmen’s Town added to the National Register of Historic Places, or copies of military records relating to the 1917 Camp Logan race riot are within the scope of our collection policies.
Books, pamphlets, newspapers and clippings
We collect published works, including books and newspapers, relating to the history of African Americans in Houston, and any print materials that support the Archive’s manuscript collections. Reference works that assist researchers in their historical investigations will be included in the Gregory School’s collections.
Obituaries and Funeral Programs
These items are unique in African American communities due to their detailed descriptions of life stories and family connections. Funeral programs are not only useful for genealogists, but for cultural anthropologists and researchers interested in compiling data about African Americans in the area.
Ephemera
These items may include personal family archives that traces family history, as well as audiovisual materials on videos, DVD’s, LPs, and other formats that capture the African American cultural, musical, historical, and social experience.
Forthcoming: PDFs of our finding aids will be posted online in the coming months. In the meantime, you may access some of our finding aids here: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/browse/browse_aal1.html.
Oral histories are an important component of the Gregory School’s historic collections. Oral history interviews are conducted with people who have made important contributions to Houston’s African American experience. The videos are transcribed, and researchers may have access to both the typed transcripts and the recorded video. Some of the interviews will be posted online in order to broaden their availability to researchers unable to visit the Gregory School in person.
Click here for more information on our oral history collection.