The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) is named for the two benefactors whose collections provided the foundation upon which the Center was built. What began in the early years of Howard University as a small collection of antislavery books and pamphlets is now one of the world‘s premiere centers for the study of the global Black experience. Its current collections include nearly 200,000 bound volumes; tens of thousands of journals, periodicals, and newspapers; more than 17,000 feet of manuscript and archival collections; thousands of audio tapes; hundreds of artifacts; and over 100,000 prints, photographs, maps, and other graphic items. For a century, the MSRC's collections have been used by scholars, museums, students, and other researchers from Howard University and throughout the world. Information and archival materials provided by the MSRC are used regularly in exhibitions, video productions, news programming, websites, and a wide range of publications
In 1914, Dr. Jesse E. Moorland, a Black theologian who was an alumnus and trustee of the University, donated his private library, at that time considered one of the most significant collections of Black related materials in existence. Dr. Moorland‘s donation reflected the efforts of African Americans to take a leadership role in the documentation, preservation, and study of their own history and culture. His collection provided the catalyst for the centralization of the University Library‘s other Black-related materials, which became known collectively as the Moorland Foundation. In 1946 Howard University acquired the large personal library of Arthur B. Spingarn, an attorney, social activist, and prominent collector of books and other materials produced by Black people. Although several librarians helped to develop the Moorland Foundation‘s collection during the early years, the appointment in 1930 of Dorothy B. Porter to spearhead the Foundation's research library signaled a new era. In a career that spanned more than forty years, Dr. Porter guided the collection through substantial expansion, including the development of a new classification scheme, authoritative bibliographies, and a wide variety of research tools. In 1973, the collections were reorganized as the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, and Dr. Michael R. Winston was appointed its first director. Under Dr. Winston‘s leadership, separate Library and Manuscript divisions were established within the MSRC, and the Howard University Museum and Howard University Archives were created. While the Library Division was expected to continue to expand the MSRC‘s extensive collections of books, newspapers, journals, and printed materials, the other units were an integral part of the Center‘s new program development. The new programs emphasized the identification, acquisition, preservation, research and exhibition of materials which would transform the existing special collections into a modern archival and manuscript repository and museum facility. From 1986 to 2010, the MSRC was directed by Dr. Thomas C. Battle, under whose leadership the Center hosted thousands of scholars and other visitors from around the world. It also cooperated with many institutions, individuals, and organizations on publications, exhibitions, and video programs; and in November 1983 hosted the landmark conference, "Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: A National Symposium," with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 2011, the MSRC has been led by Dr. Howard Dodson, formerly the Director (now Director Emeritus) for nearly three decades of the world-renowned Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City's Harlem community. A specialist in African American and African Diasporic history as well as an author, curator, cultural activist and innovative administrator, Dodson brings renewed energy and a depth of vision to the University's efforts to restore Moorland-Spingarn to its rightful place as one of the nation's—indeed, the world's—foremost centers of scholarship and research on the global African presence. Under Dodson's leadership, greater emphases has been placed on digital technology, increased public programs, and sponsored research projects, including an active commitment to publishing the products of research conducted at the Center by its staff and other scholars. The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center has made possible new research and enabled scholars to probe more deeply into the complexities of Black history and culture. In linking its past accomplishments to its plans for the future, the Center continues in its unswerving commitment to preserve the legacy of people of African descent for this and future generations.
