Dr. Mayme Agnew Clayton was a librarian and collector in Los Angeles who
left behind a collection of remarkable value. Over the course of more than 40 years, she had collected the largest privately held collection of African-American materials,
with over 30,000 rare and out-of-print books, 1,700 films dating back to 1916, as well as more than 75,000 photographs and scores of movie posters, playbills, programs, documents and manuscripts. Her collection, which has been compared to the
Schomburg Collection in the New York City Public Library, was
opened to the public in 2007.
Mayme Clayton started collecting when she was a child in Van Buren, Arkansas. Growing up, she was the daughter of the town's only black merchant, and her parents taught her of black achievements. Her parents told her about pioneering educator
Mary McLeod Bethune, the daughter of former slaves who went on to found schools for blacks and advise several presidents. Dr. Clayton's search for books on Bethune started her on the path of the collector.
Mayme Clayton moved to New York City after studying at the Lincoln University of Missouri. In New York, she was married, and the couple moved to California in 1946 to start their family. In 1954 she became an assistant to the librarian at USC. Two years later, she was hired as a library assistant at UCLA's law library. She was co-owner of a bookstore in the early 1970s, and when the store closed, she was given its complete inventory of books by and about blacks and opened Third World Ethnic Books out of her home. Eventually, Clayton found that she enjoyed collecting books more than selling them.
While running the business, she earned a bachelor's degree in history from UC Berkeley in 1974. She received a master's in library science from Goddard College in Vermont in 1975 and a doctorate in humanities from the now-closed Sierra University in Santa Monica in 1983.
In 1972, Mayme Clayton founded the nonprofit organization
Western States Black Research and Educational Center to promote the preservation of African American history. While she lived,
WSBREC and the collection resided in her home and garage, spaces that had no climate control and were protected by a locked door and the family dog. As her collection grew, so did it's renown, and with it came inquiries from public and private organizations to help secure the treasure-trove of African-American media. Dr. Clayton was hesitant to hand her collection over. "So many have wanted to pitch in. But, you have to be careful about phonies." In the early 2000s, she and her son Avery were actively looking into building a new structure to house the collection and provide access to the public.
Dr. Mayme Clayton lived to October 2006, long enough to see Avery
secure the former courthouse in Culver City, California for $1 a year. She passed a few days after the arrangement was settled, at the age of 83.
Avery carried the efforts forward, and the collection
moved into its new home on February 12, 2007. The Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum was opened to the public in November 2007 (
PDF). Avery Clayton continued his mother's legacy, but
he, too, passed on, on November 26, 2009.
UC Santa Barbara education professor Cynthia Hudley was named as the next director.
The collection is divided into five categories: literary, documents, films, music, photographs and memorabilia. The
literature collection of over 30,000 titles includes the only known signed copy of
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, 1773 by Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), which is considered by leading experts to be the first author of African descent to be published in America. The book was written when it was
illegal to teach blacks to read or write, throughout the Western Hemisphere. The
film archive is the largest Black film archive, with works dating back to 1916, and has been called "unmatchable and invaluable" by film historian
Donald Bogle. This collection is being held by the
UCLA School of Film and Television. In exchange for access to this archive, the university is doing any restoration work needed.
posted by hector horace at 2:47 PM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]