Paul Laurence Dunbar Collection
Scope and Content
The Paul Laurence Dunbar Collection documents primarily:
- Dunbar's professional writings, the collection includes
first editions of all his known published works including his music with the
single exception of a musical entitled Uncle Eph's Christmas, produced
in 1900;
- the esteem in which Dunbar was held, especially in the city
of his birth, as evidenced by newspaper clippings and programs describing
ceremonies in which he participated or which were held in his honor, the
designation of his home as the Dunbar House State Memorial and the listing of
the house on the National Register of Historic Places;
- the strong influence provided by his mother, Matilda Dunbar,
described in many newspaper and magazine articles;
- and, finally, Paul Laurence Dunbar's triumph over the adversities
of discrimination, limited financial means and ill health to become a poet of
national and international repute.
