This pathfinder is intended to serve the students of Eckerd College in finding information sources, both print and electronic, in researching about the Harlem Renaissance.
The Harlem Renaissance was a flourishing period of artistic and literary creation in African-American culture generally and among the "New Negroes" of Harlem in particular during the 1020s and extending into the 1930s. Despite the contributions of various musicians, painters, actors, and other artists, most critics of the renaissance have focused on the writers who were drawn to Harlem: Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Claude McKay, and others. The artists of the period were supported and influenced by black editors---W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Fauset, Charles Johnson, Alain Locke, and white patrons, Charlotte Osgood Mason, the Spingarn family, and Carl Van Vechten, who have been variously referred to as "midwives" of the renaissance. The period can be seen as a precursor of later movements for African-American cultural autonomy and race consciousness.



The sources listed in this pathfinder include,
Dictionaries
Bio-bibliographies
Books in history and criticism
Exhibitions catalogs, music books and videos
Meta-Databases

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Subject headings

Standard subject headings can be helpful when searching for materials in the online catalog, some of them are provided in this pathfinder to help the search on the Harlem Renaissance.

• Harlem Renaissance
• American literature-African American authors

Go to basic search, enter any of the above subject headings and click subjet browse to obtain satisfactory results.

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Dictionaries

Dictionaries are helpful in providing definitions, word usage, etymology, synonyms, antonyms, word derivation and sometimes pictures. The dictionaries cited in this pathfinder provide us with concise information on the topic of interest.

• Harris, T. (Ed.). (1987). Dictionary of literary biography: Afro-American writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940 (Vol. 51). Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co. [Ref. PS 153 N5 A396 1987]

• Kellner, B. (Ed.). (1987). Harlem Renaissance: a historical dictionary of the era. New York, NY: Methuen Inc. [Ref. NX 511 N4 H37 1987]

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Bio-bibliographies

Bibliographies are alphabetized lists of authors or works in an specific subject. Some of the titles listed below present us with biographies which is information about people's lives and include bibliographies on them.

• Bassett, J. E. (Ed.). (1992). Harlem in review: critical reactions to black American writers, 1917-1939. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses. [Ref. PS 153 N5 B2 1992]
  

• Bloom, H. (Ed.). (1995). Black American prose writers of the Harlem Renaissance. New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers. [Online access, NetLibrary-eBook]

• Bloom, H. (Ed.). (1995). Black American poets and dramatists of the Harlem Renaissance. New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers. [Online access, NetLibrary-eBook]

• Randolph, R. E. & Roses, L. E. (Eds.). (1990). Harlem Renaissance and beyond: literary biographies of 100 black women writers, 1900-1945. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall & Co. ,  [Ref. PS 153 N5 R65 1990]

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Books in history and criticism

These books are just some example to many other titles that can be found in the stacks of Eckerd College library. Browsing through the shelves can provide you with more material on the topic of Harlem Renaissance.  The following range of call numbers represent the areas where most of the materials relevant to this topic can be found: PS 153 N5, situated in the second floor stacks. Reference books are in the same range but with the added prefix Ref. and can be found in the first floor.

• Hutchinson, G. (Ed.). (2007). The Cambridge companion to the Harlem Renaissance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. [PS 153 N5 C345 2007]

• Kramer, V. A. & Russ R. A. (Eds.). (1997). Harlem Renaissance re-examined: a revised and expanded edition. Troy, NY: The Whitston Publishing Company. [PS 153 N5 H265 1997]

• Lewis, D. L. (Ed.). (1994). The portable Harlem Renaissance reader. New York, NY: Viking, Penguin Group. [PS 153 N5 P67 1994]

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Exhibitions catalogs, music books and videos

Even though most of the information sources in this pathfinder are focused on literature , it is known that the Harlem Renaissance manifested itself in other areas of the arts, painting, sculpture, music, dance. Below there is a sample list of alternative sources that can help in providing a broader view of this movement, included in the list there is a videotape, other valid source of information.

• Anderson, P. A. (2001) Deep river: music and memory in Harlem Renaissance thought. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. [ML 3556 A53 2001]

• Bailey, D. A. (Contributor). (1997). Rhapsodies in black: art of the Harlem Renaissance. London, Gran Britain: Hayward Gallery; Berkeley, CA: The Institute of International Visual Arts. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [N 6538 N5 R56 1997]

• Driskell, D., Lewis, L. D., & Ryan, D. W. (1987). Harlem Renaissance: art of black America.The Studio Museum in Harlem New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. [Oversize books, N 6538 N5 H286 1987]

• Julien, I. (Writer/Director), & Marsh-Edwards, N. (Producer). (1992). Looking for Langston [Motion picture]. New York, NY: Water Bearer Films. [PS 3515 U274 Z675 1992]