The Arts

Perhaps add an opening sentence like: From music and literature to painting and design, African Americans have been expressing their ideas, emotions, and experiences in artistic forms for centuries. The Arts Collection encompasses sheet music, typescripts, correspondence, and young adult fiction books from African American artists. This collection contains items from the Bank of America Black American Music collection, and the Jacqueline Woodson collection. 

 The Bank of America Black American Music Collection contains musical pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries that were created, performed, or published by African Americans in the United States. Including musical talents like Harry Thacker Burleigh, the first prominent African American composer in the United States, and W. C. Handy, who was deemed the “Father of the Blues” for his composition of the first blues song, “Memphis Blues: a Southern Rag,” this collection tells the history of African American music while also reflecting its influence on popular music in the United States.   

 The Arts collection also includes materials from the prestigious children’s and young adult author, Jacqueline Woodson. World-renowned and multi-award-winning, Woodson’s books evince the history and modern life of African Americans in the United States. Her books depict accurate narratives centered around themes of racism, gender, class, equity, and social justice. The Jacqueline Woodson collection includes numerous novels, including several Sunshine State Young Adult Readers Award books, typescripts like her first published children’s novel, Last Summer with Maizon, and other materials related to her professional career as an author. 

The Arts Collections

Bank of America Black American Music collection

868 632 tcollinson

The Bank of America Black American Music Collection consists of approximately 4000 pieces of published sheet music created, performed, or published by African Americans or that portrays African American themes throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States.

Dates: 1818 – late 1980s
Extent: 54 linear feet (35 boxes)

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Isabel Harris collection

407 342 tcollinson

Isabel M. Harris taught music at Booker T. Washington Junior High School, the first African American junior high school in Tampa, Florida. This collection contains materials generated from Harris’ music classes.

Dates: 1951-1965
Extent: 1 box

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Photo Gallery of Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson collection

800 617 tcollinson

The papers in this collection related to Jacqueline Woodson’s professional career and include typescripts, correspondence, and sample dust covers for published works.

Dates: 2001-2003
Extent: 3 boxes

Click here to access the collection’s finding aid »

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Image from the Tokley Papers

James and Joanna Tokley papers

800 555 tcollinson

The papers in this collection document the numerous accomplishments of renowned Tampa poet E. James Tokley and former chief executive officer of the Tampa Urban League Joanna Tokley.

Dates: 1920-2010
Extent: 18 boxes

Click here to access the collection’s finding aid »

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