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Dorothy Porter Wesley Collection, Circa 1788-2012

 

Summary

Abstract:
The Dorothy Porter Wesley Collection documents the professional and personal life of pioneering librarian, Dorothy Porter Wesley. It contains manuscript materials, artwork, research files, and correspondence dating from 1905 to 2012 as well as Wesley's personal library of more than 2,800 books and pamphlets.
Extent:
67 Hollinger Boxes
2800 Books
Language:
English Portuguese German
Preferred citation:

Dorothy Porter Wesley Collection (AARLCC-2003.6), AARLCC Special Collections, Broward County Library.

Background

Scope and content:

The Dorothy Porter Wesley Collection documents the professional and personal life of librarian and bibliophile, Dorothy Porter Wesley. It contains manuscript materials, artwork, newspaper clippings, research files, photographs, awards and correspondence dating from 1905 to 2012 as well as Wesley's personal library of more than 2,800 books, pamphlets, and audio recordings dating from 1788 to 1995.

Correspondence covers her participation in professional and national organizations such as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, Black Women in Sisterhood for Action, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University. Dorothy Porter Wesley received letters from scholars and professionals such as Thomas Battle, John Blassingame, Louis Harlan, Mary McLeod Bethune, Joseph Reason, and Michael Winston. Family correspondence contains personal letters written to and from Dorothy Porter Wesley's family members including her daughter Constance Porter Uzelac, first husband James A. Porter, second husband Charles Harris Wesley, and brother in-law Robert P. Porter.

Professional papers consist of conference materials, reports, grant proposals, materials from organizations of which Dorothy and Constance were members, curriculum vitas of colleagues, exhibitions, and commencement programs. Dorothy Porter Wesley participated in organizations and institutions such as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), African Studies Association, Amistad Research Center, Howard University, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Frederick Douglass Papers Editorial Board, National Council of Negro Women, Organization of American Historians, Phi Delta Kappa, Radcliffe College, Society of American Archivists, and the W.E.B. Dubois Institute at Harvard University.

Constance Porter Uzelac collected documents from her career at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center branch of Broward County Libraries. She was a member of ASALH. Constance also managed the Dorothy Porter Wesley archives and the James A. Porter art collection. She attended conferences related to her parents' legacy and collection such as the Dorothy Porter Wesley Forum and Lecture Series at Howard University and the James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art at Howard University. Documents related to Charles Harris Wesley include a Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorative service he attended and a book brochure of his monograph "Prince Hall life and legacy".

The collection also includes published and unpublished works by Dorothy Porter Wesley, Constance Porter Uzelac, Charles Harris Wesley, and James A. Porter.

Research files contain articles, notes, and illustrations on subjects collected by Dorothy Porter Wesley and Constance Porter Uzelac during their research. Dorothy Porter Wesley conducted research on African, African American, Caribbean and Afro-Latin cultures to build the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. Her research was also used for her writings.

Printed Materials consist of materials collected by Dorothy Porter Wesley and Constance Porter Uzelac. Dorothy Porter Wesley's saved notes in calendars and datebooks. She collected catalogs, programs, brochures, maps, and magazines covering African and African American people, places and research topics. Newspaper clippings feature articles discussing Dorothy Porter Wesley's career as a librarian, archivist and curator at Howard University. Clippings also feature Constance Porter Uzelac's stewardship of her father's art collection and mother's archival collection.

Biographical / historical:

Dorothy Burnett Porter Wesley (1905-1995) was a librarian, curator and bibliophile born on May 25, 1905 in Warrenton, Virginia. Her parents were physician Hayes Joseph Burnett and tennis player Roberta ("Bertha") Ball Burnett. She was the eldest of four children and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey.

She graduated from Miner Normal School, Washington D.C. in 1925 with the intention of becoming a teacher. Wesley worked as a library assistant in the Miner Normal School library where she worked with librarian Lula V. Allan (1879-1968) who encouraged her to pursue a career in library science. Wesley enrolled in Howard University in 1926 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1928. She then enrolled at Colombia University's School of Library Science where she received a Master's in Library Science in 1931.

In 1929 Dorothy married artist and art history professor James Amos Porter (1905-1970) with whom she had her only daughter, Constance "Coni" Porter Uzelac (1939-2012). James A. Porter graduated with honors from Howard University in 1927 and began teaching art there the next semester. His classic book and standard reference work, Modern Negro Art, proved to be one of the most informative sources to date on the creativity of the Black artists.

In 1930, Dorothy Porter began work as curator of the Moorland Foundation at Howard University, (now known as the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center) and worked to build the library's collections documenting African, African American, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Hispanic history and culture. After becoming the Curator at Howard University in 1930, started thinking about how to catalog books by Black authors and related to Black history and culture. At the time, she recognized that the Dewey Decimal System only had two numbers (for "Slavery" and for "Colonization") under which all works related to Black people or Black authors could be cataloged. In response, during the first few years of her Curatorship, she created a new classification system that reflected the true breadth of the books available on topics related to Black people and by Black authors. She disseminated the classification system to other libraries, and published it in 1939. Porter worked at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center until her retirement in 1973.

James Porter's died in 1970, and in 1979 Dorothy married Charles Harris Wesley (1891-1987), a noted historian, educator, and author. After receiving his master's degree from Yale University in 1913, he taught at Howard University from 1913 until 1942. Between 1920 and 1925, he also earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, the fourth African American to do so. He served as President of Wilberforce University from 1942-1947 and of Central State College, Ohio from 1947 until 1965.

Charles Harris Wesley authored more than 15 books on African-American history over the course of his career. His first book, Negro Labor in the United States, was hailed as one of the most useful works on the role of African-Americans in industry available in the 1920s. Dorothy worked with Charles on a variety of research projects even prior to their marriage, and continued to do so until Charles's death in 1987.

After her retirement from Howard University in 1973, Dorothy Porter Wesley worked as a consultant for a variety of institutions and foundations such as the Radcliffe University's Black Women Oral History Archive. She also continued to write articles and books.

In 1994 President Bill Clinton presented her with the National Endowment for the Humanities' Charles Frankel Award. Dorothy Porter Wesley died in Broward County, Florida in 1995.

The book William Cooper Nell, Nineteenth-Century African American Abolitionist, Historian, Integrationist: Selected Writings 1832-1874 (2002) was the last research project that Charles and Dorothy worked on together, and was posthumously published by Dorothy's daughter, Constance Porter Uzelac. Uzelac worked as a medical librarian. After her mother's death, she became the Executive Director of the Dorothy Porter Wesley Archive and managed James A. Porter's art collection.

In 2000, Constance Uzelac worked with the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, James Findlay, on an exhibition of her mother's collection that was displayed at the Broward County Main Library in February and March of 2001. Samuel F. Morrison, Director of the Broward County Library, was instrumental in bringing the collection to exhibition at the Bienes, and would further encourage the purchase of the materials from Uzelac for the newly-opened AARLCC Special Collections in December 2002. Constance later worked at Broward County Library, cataloging a portion of the Dorothy Porter Wesley Collection at the AARLCC Special Collections. Constance married Milan Uzelac in 1965. They had no children. She died in Broward County in 2012.

Acquisition information:
Broward County Library purchased the materials from Constance Porter Uzelac (daughter of Dorothy Porter Wesley) in December 2002 (Accession AARLCC-2003.6). Milan Uzelac donated accruals to AARLCC Special Collections on June 29, 2012 (Accession AARLCC-2012.12) and on May 12, 2022 (Accession AARLCC-2022.7).
Processing information:

This collection received file level processing. This finding aid may be updated to reflect new descriptions as well as acquisitions to the collection.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into the following series and sub-series:

Series I. Correspondence

Sub-series I. General Correspondence

Sub-series II. Family Correspondence

Series II. Professional Papers

Sub-series I. Dorothy Porter Wesley professional papers

Sub-series II. Constance Porter Uzelac professional papers

Sub-series III. Charles Harris Wesley professional papers

Sub-series IV. Writings by Dorothy Porter Wesley

Sub-series V. Writings by Constance Porter Uzelac

Sub-series VI. Writings by James A. Porter

Sub-series VII. Writings by Constance Porter Uzelac

Sub-series VIII. Writings by Charles Harris Wesley

Series III. Research Files

Sub-series I. Dorothy Porter Wesley general research files

Sub-series II. Dorothy Porter Wesley Brazil research files

Sub-series III. Dorothy Porter Wesley illustrations

Sub-series IV. Constance Porter Uzelac research files

Series IV. Personal Papers

Series V. Photographs

Series VI. Printed Materials

Sub-series I. Calendars and Datebooks

Sub-series II. Catalogs

Sub-series III. General

Sub-series IV. Magazines

Sub-series V. Maps

Sub-series VI. Newspaper Clippings

Sub-series VII. Sheet Music

Series VII. Ephemera and Artwork

Series VIII. Books and Pamphlets

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The Dorothy Porter Wesley Collection is open for research.

Preferred citation:

Dorothy Porter Wesley Collection (AARLCC-2003.6), AARLCC Special Collections, Broward County Library.

Location of this collection:
African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Broward County Library
2650 Sistrunk Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale
FL
33311
USA