University of Pennsylvania Libraries receives archive of writer, historian, and activist James G. Spady
Subject
James G. Spady; Pennsylvania Libraries; Archive
Description
The University of Pennsylvania Libraries is pleased to announce the recent gift of the archive of James G. Spady, a writer, historian, and activist who shed light on understudied aspects of African American history, and whose legacy and intellectual output made him a salient and influential African American figure in his own right. After Spady’s death in 2020 at age 75, his family and a group of Penn alumni whom Spady closely mentored worked to build an archive of his prolific writings, which will now be preserved – and eventually celebrated through exhibitions and events – at Penn.
“My parents and I are thrilled that my uncle’s documents will have a home at the Penn Libraries,” says Jeriba Allen, Spady’s niece who facilitated the gift. “He spent his adult life in Philadelphia and made so many connections at the University of Pennsylvania, so it feels kismet that those same connections helped facilitate this gift that will allow his collection to be there for all to explore.”
Spady fostered a strong connection to Penn and in particular to the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, where he regularly conducted research and worked on his books and articles.
“For the collective who helped make this gift happen, the archive is in itself a kind of monument to Spady in the place that he spent so much time thinking and writing,” says Sean Quimby, Associate University Librarian & Director of the Jay I. Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and Director of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies.
Creator
Source
Publisher
library.upenn.edu
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