The Denver Public Library is planning to build a new facility for its growing African-American collection, currently housed in DPL’s central library. Spokeswoman Anya Breitenbach said that the library has been accumulating materials documenting the lives of African Americans in Colorado and the western United States for years, but that a more serious effort to stockpile items began last fall.
The collection will include materials from elected officials, such as Wellington Webb, Elvin Caldwell, Hiawatha Davis, former lieutenant governor George Brown, and other well-known members of the community, as well as less prominent local citizens. “We focused really hard on getting African-American political people first,” said DPL’s Terry Nelson in the August 16 Denver Post. “But community people are very important also . . . because they have the real nuts and bolts of things.”
The collection will contain photos, books, manuscripts, letters, diaries, maps, charts, financial documents, and audio and video recordings.
Posted August 21, 2000.