Call Number:

MSS 0256

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

1 linear foot (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0256, Pauline A. Young collection, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1924-1988 (inclusive)

Creator:

Young, Pauline A., 1900-1991

Form:

correspondence and Clippings (information artifacts)

Abstract:

Pauline A. Young was an educator, librarian, and activist primarily based in Wilmington, Delaware. The collection contains correspondence, clippings, photographs, and ephemera. The majority of the material relates to Young's efforts to bring attention to and preserve information about the life and works of her aunt, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, as well as her aunt's first husband, Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Pauline Alice Young was born on August 17, 1900, in West Medford, Massachusetts, to Mary Leila and James Ross Young. She grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, where she attended Howard High School from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Her aunt was the poet, educator, and activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935), who was briefly married to the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).

Young received her bachelor's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1921, where she was also one of the charter members of the Gamma chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She went on to earn a degree in library science at Columbia University in the summer of 1935. She worked on the press staff of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in the early 1920s. From 1924-1955, she worked at Howard High School as a teacher and then as a librarian, also teaching for a time within that period at the University of Southern California. After she retired, she served in the Peace Corps, training librarians and cataloging books in Jamaica from 1962-1964. Young remained active upon her return from the Peace Corps, continuing to substitute teach and lecture, as well as participate in the many organizations with which she was affiliated. She was a lifetime member of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. She was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from childhood, and as an adult served for a time as president of the Delaware State Conference of Branches as well as chair of the state education committee. She was involved in the League of Women Voters and the American Federation of Teachers, and she received numerous awards throughout her lifetime for her work in education and Black history.

Pauline Young grew up in a household that was deeply involved in the civil rights and suffragist movements, which influenced her own activist tendencies. She was extremely interested in African American history, especially that of Delaware, as she felt that this historical perspective had been sorely neglected in local schools. In response to the need for more awareness of African American history, Young contributed to Henry Clay Reed's three-volume

Delaware: A History of the First State (1947), with a piece entitled "The Negro in Delaware: Past and Present." She was an avid collector of African Americana, intending for the items she saved to serve as a springboard for serious research into Black history and culture. Her collections served as the basis of the memorabilia room established at Howard High School after she donated several materials in 1976. Pauline Young died on June 26, 1991.

Campbell, Roy H. "Archives of Achievement." Philadelphia Inquirer, February 27, 1991. Newspapers.com.Canavan, Kathy. "At 90, George Johnson Is Still Ahead of His Time." Evening Journal (Wilmington, DE), April 24, 1979. Newspapers.com."Howard School Affairs." News Journal (Wilmington, DE), September 11, 1935. Newspapers.com.Johnson, Allen, and Dumas Malone, ed. Dictionary of American Biography. vol III. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958.Lyon, Marvin P., Jr. "Blacks at Penn, then and now." In A Pennsylvania Album: Undergraduate Essays on the 250th Anniversary, edited by Richard Slator Dunn and Mark Frazier Lloyd, 43-47. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1990.Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. Ancestry.com."Miss Pauline Young retired in '55, hasn't rested since." Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), February 23, 1963. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.Young, Pauline A. oral history. MSS 0179, Robert H. Richards, Jr., Delaware Oral History collection, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library.Other biographical material derived from the collection.

The Pauline A. Young collection largely contains material either gathered or written by Pauline Young, much of which relates to Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Paul Laurence Dunbar. The collection itself consists of correspondence, periodical clippings and photocopies, photographs, brochures, programs, and ephemera. The collection is divided into four series: I. Correspondence, II. Articles and publications, III. Biography, and IV. Ephemera.

The first series spans the period 1924-1985 and primarily contains Pauline A. Young's correspondence with publishing companies regarding works by Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

The second series spans the period 1925-1988 and contains several complete journals, numerous clippings, and photocopies of articles, brochures, and programs for symposia and performances.

The third series spans the period 1971-1980 and contains biographical works about Alice Dunbar-Nelson, an autobiographical sketch by Pauline A. Young, and material concerning biographical stage performances of the life and work of Paul Laurence Dunbar.

The fourth series spans the period 1935-1983 and contains miscellaneous items pertaining to Pauline A. Young, such as personal notes, photographs, royalty statements, and material from Howard High School. Also included are items pertaining to Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, such as material from the Dunbar School in Washington, D.C., and the Pierians in Wilmington.

Much of the material in the collection pertains to Pauline Young, including a large body of correspondence that she maintained with various publishing companies, particularly with Dodd, Mead & Company. She waged a tireless campaign throughout much of her life to get works of both Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Paul Laurence Dunbar published, and this effort is reflected in these letters. In 1965, Pauline Young was embroiled in a copyright conflict over

The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Little Brown Baby, which had been published by Dodd, Mead & Company. The copyright had expired, and Dodd, Mead & Company was no longer under any obligation to pay royalties to Pauline Young, which they subsequently stopped doing once they realized that the poems were being published elsewhere without permission. A disbelieving Young filed a request at the Library of Congress to search the copyright registry for Dunbar's works, and to get information regarding copyright law. The letters from this period primarily concern this conflict, as well as Young's correspondence with the U.S. Copyright Office. In addition, the correspondence, particularly that of her later years, reflects Young's varied political and social interests, and several letters are from researchers requesting historical information regarding the lives of both her aunt and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Much of the remaining material consists of clippings and photocopies of articles pertaining to Young, Dunbar-Nelson, and Dunbar, as well as institutions with which they had been associated. Several of the articles were written by Pauline Young herself. Articles dealing with issues of African American culture and history comprise a small but significant component of the collection, significant in that an understanding and appreciation of African American culture and history was the life's work of Pauline Young. Of interest are some of the complete publications of African American periodicals which are included in the collection, including

Freedomways, Negro Digest, and The Crisis. In addition, the collection includes a 1935 issue of the Pittsburgh Courier, the most renowned African American newspaper of its time. As African Americans were excluded from working in the white press, newspapers like the Courier were important in training Black journalists, in focusing on affairs of the African American community that were largely ignored in the mainstream papers, and in advocating civil rights. The collection also contains a large number of programs, from symposia on the life and works of Paul Laurence Dunbar to a 1973 graduation ceremony at Howard High School and performances by Joseph Mydell, who portrayed Dunbar on stage in "Lyrics of the Hearthside." The brochures generally concern institutions or events dealing with African American culture and history, such as a catalogue of works from an African American art exhibition, or the Black Press Archives of Howard University. Moreover, Alice Dunbar-Nelson's life is minutely detailed in a biographical narrative, written as a master's thesis in 1977 for Lincoln University by Anita L. McGruder.