Dorothy B. Porter facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dorothy B. Porter
Dorothy B. Porter, librarian and curator at Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University
Born	Dorothy Burnett (1905-05-25)May 25, 1905 Warrenton, Virginia, US {New Jersey}
Died	December 17, 1995(1995-12-17) (aged 90) Broward County, Florida, US
Other names	Dorothy Louise Porter Wesley
Alma mater	Howard University, 1928; Columbia University, B.S. 1931, M.S. in 1932 in library science
Occupation	Librarian Bibliographer Curator
Employer	Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University
Known for	First African American to graduate from Columbia's library school; built Moorland-Spingarn Research Center into a world-class collection
Spouse(s)	James A. Porter Charles H. Wesley
Children	1

Dorothy Louise Porter Wesley (born May 25, 1905 – died December 17, 1995) was an important librarian, a person who creates lists of books (a bibliographer), and a curator (someone who manages a collection). She is famous for building the Moorland–Spingarn Research Center at Howard University into one of the best collections of materials about Black history and culture in the world.

Dorothy Porter was the first African American to earn a library science degree from Columbia University. She also wrote many lists of books about African-American history. When she noticed that the common library system (the Dewey Decimal System) didn't have enough ways to organize books about Black people, she created her own system. Her system organized books by their type (like fiction or non-fiction) and by the author.

Early Life and Education

Dorothy Louise Burnett was born in 1905 in Warrenton, Virginia. She was the oldest of four children. Her parents, Doctor and Mrs. Hayes J. Burnett, always encouraged their children to get a good education and to help their community.

Dorothy went to Howard University, a college mainly for Black students, and graduated in 1928. While there, she met James Amos Porter, who taught art history at Howard. They got married in 1929. Dorothy continued her studies at Columbia University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1931 and a Master of Science degree in library science in 1932.

Her Amazing Career

In 1930, after she married and became Dorothy Porter, she started working as a librarian at Howard University. For the next 40 years, she worked hard to build what is now the Moorland–Spingarn Research Center. Thanks to her efforts, it became one of the world's best collections of books and materials about Black history and culture.

Dorothy Porter had a small budget, so she often wrote directly to publishers and book dealers. She asked them to donate specific books to the library. She also built a huge network of friends and contacts all over the world, from the United States to Brazil, Mexico, and Europe. Some of her famous friends included Langston Hughes and Alain LeRoy Locke. Because of her wide network, the collection grew to include books and documents in many languages. It also had music, studies on languages, and literature by and about Black people from all over the world.

She also helped bring important scholars, like Edison Carneiro, and leaders, like Kwame Nkrumah, to visit the university. This helped students learn more about their African heritage.

Dorothy Porter created a new way to organize the growing collection of books. Earlier librarians had started to develop a system, and Dorothy built on it. She focused on organizing books by their type and by the author. This was different from the usual Dewey Decimal System, which didn't have enough categories for the unique materials in her collection.

Once, a man named Arthur B. Spingarn wanted to sell his private collection of books to Howard University. The university's money manager thought Dorothy's estimate of the collection's value was too high. He wanted someone else to check it. Dorothy asked the Library of Congress to do it, but they said they didn't know enough about Black literature. They asked Dorothy to write the report, and they signed it. This report was accepted by the university, and her way of valuing the collection became a standard for other collections of Black literature.

Honors and Legacy

Dorothy Porter received many awards for her important work:

• In 1994, she received the Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities. This award honors Americans who share knowledge about the humanities with many people.
• The Conover-Porter Award was created in 1980. It recognizes great work in creating lists of books about Africa. It was named in honor of Dorothy B. Porter and Helen F. Conover, who were both pioneers in this field.
• The Dorothy Porter Wesley Award was started in 2018. This award honors librarians, archivists, and collectors who do outstanding work in preserving information.

Personal Life

In 1929, Dorothy Burnett married James A. Porter, who was an artist and historian. He wrote a famous book called Modern Negro Art. They had one daughter named Constance, who was called "Coni." Constance later worked with her mother and helped create the African American Research Library & Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

James Porter passed away in 1970. Several years later, in 1979, Dorothy married Charles H. Wesley, who was also a historian and educator. He was known for his important studies in Black history. Charles Wesley died in 1987.

Dorothy Porter passed away in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1995, when she was 91 years old.

Selected Publications

Dorothy Porter wrote many lists of books and one collection of writings. Here are a few examples:

• Wesley, Dorothy Porter. Afro-American Writings Published Before 1835. 1932.
• Porter, Dorothy B. "A Library on the Negro". The American Scholar, 1938.
• Wesley, Dorothy Porter, and Arthur Alfonso Schomburg. North American Negro Poets, A Bibliographical Checklist of Their Writings, 1760-1944. 1945.
• Porter, Dorothy B. The Negro in the United States; A Selected Bibliography. 1970.
• Wesley, Dorothy Porter. Early Negro Writing, 1760-1837. 1971. This book collected rare historical documents, including speeches, poems, and essays.