A Brief History of the
Aaron Douglas Collection

Prior to 1920, the work of African American visual artists went relatively unnoticed in the mainstream art world. But, as part of a surge of race pride dubbed the "New Negro Movement" by prominent African American intellectual, Alain Locke, these artists became conspicuous as a group. This was the first race-conscious movement by African Americans in the United States; it emphasized the glories of Black Africa and gave birth to influential organizations and movements.

The story of the Aaron Douglas collection goes back to 1925. At that time, a wealthy philanthropist named William Elmer Harmon, established the Harmon Foundation, which included a division that supported African American art, a special interest of his. Each year the foundation sponsored an annual arts award to an outstanding African American artist. After Harmon's death, Mary Beattie Brady, the foundation's director, continued this support. Under the auspices of the foundation between 1928 and 1934, Brady organized annual exhibitions of African American art in New York. Over the years, the products of the foundation's patronage became known as "The Harmon Collection of Negro Art." After the Harmon Foundation became defunct in 1967, Mary Brady sent a part of the collection to Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, one of several historically black higher education institutions established by the American Missionary Association (AMA), the direct descendent of the Amistad Defense Committee. She placed the collection in the care of Aaron Douglas, head of the University Art Department, a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance and the first African American artist to incorporate African imagery consciously into his works. In 1974, Brady assigned the works (by then known as the Aaron Douglas Collection), to the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries (UCBHM) of the United Church of Christ. (The UCBHM is the contemporary incarnation of the AMA.) After various organizational solutions the UCBHM asked the Amistad Research Center—one of its church-related affiliates— to serve as custodian of the collection to manage exhibitions, loans, and conservation. Amistad agreed. Two years later the Center was named legal owner of the collection.