The Heritage Collection
An exhibition of selections from the Chapin Library’s Heritage Collection of black literature and culture will be on view in the Chapin Gallery (Sawyer 406) from July 27 to September 25, 2015. An opening reception will be held in the Gallery on Tuesday, July 28, from 3:00 to 4:30 pm.
Born in the Netherlands in 1931, Paul Breman was led from a love of blues music to a study of black poetry. He met and corresponded with important figures such as Langston Hughes, William Waring Cuney, and W.E.B. Du Bois, he translated black poetry (into Dutch) and edited anthologies, and he published the Heritage Series of Black Poetry between 1962 and 1975. In the process, he formed a significant collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera, and recordings, which came to the Chapin Library in 2012 through the generosity of the collector’s family, the efforts of Robert Volz, former Custodian of the Chapin Library, and the advice of Prof. Darra Goldstein, a friend of Paul Breman’s widow, Jill Norman.
The Heritage Collection is available for use in the Archives/Chapin reading room (Sawyer 441). Its printed items are entered in the Williams online catalog FRANCIS under the local call number “Heritage”. Finding aids for manuscripts and other materials in the collection are being prepared for posting on the Chapin Library website. – WGH
Shown is the dust-jacket for The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes, with art by Miguel Covarrubias.