October 1, 2006: New York Bound

I have been waiting patiently for many many months and the time is now at hand. More than seventeen years ago, Luther Henderson donated a treasure trove of his personal papers to the Schomburg Library. Unfortunately, as is the case with many public institutions, they did not have the resources to catalogue Luther’s archives, so his papers sat in storage for all these years. A year ago I offered to document everything I saw if they would let me go through the boxes, but they demurred, probably due to my lack of a degree in library sciences. When Mrs. Henderson learned that Luther’s materials were not available to researchers, she expressed her dismay, and suddenly resources were found and applied to the project. Two archivists were hired, and they finally completed their task just last month. In the next day or two I will book my flight and sometime during the next few weeks I’ll get my first look at some of his older files.

The Schomburg is located in Harlem, so time and weather permitting, I’ll plan to take a walk to see the neighborhood and buildings that Luther frequented in the early days. Of course everything has changed, but we’ll see what, if anything, is still standing.