History

History

The vast collection at the center of the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum is the result of one woman’s passion for preserving the history and cultural legacy of Americans of African descent.

A film with Duke Ellington playing the Devil?  A very rare signed copy of the first book written by a black in the colonies?  Dorothy Dandridge with Martin Luther King, Jr. in a photograph?  Photos from the very center of the Watts Riots?  Dr. Clayton found them and acquired them.

The result of more than four decades of collecting has yielded the largest such collection independently held in the world.  The Mayme A. Clayton collection now includes more than 3.5 million items—ranging from out-of-print books to black films to sheet music to rare photographs from the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The collection—named in honor of Dr. Clayton—is recognized by prominent researchers and leaders of major cultural and research institutions for its size, academic substance, and the range of its holdings.

Thanks to the assistance of Culver City and Los Angeles County, the collection, now part of the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum, resides in Culver City.  It is a home that is safe and spacious enough to permit conservation and cataloguing efforts to continue, along with select exhibitions and private tours.  In the coming years, once renovations are completed, MCLM will be open more frequently for public visits.

But that’s not how the collection endured its first forty years.

The Early History

In the early 1960’s Dr. Mayme A. Clayton began collecting documents, books, photographs, films and memorabilia chronicling the experience of Americans of African descent.  As a research university librarian, Dr. Clayton recognized the importance of preserving the historical record of an important aspect of American history.

Thus began an effort that spanned more than forty years of Dr. Clayton’s life to collect and preserve this historical record as it unfolds and to serve as a cultural and research resource.  [CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT DR. CLAYTON]

In many cases, she found rare books while scouring bins in garage sales or exploring used bookstores.  She was able to acquire the entire film library of a black film studio, Lincoln Moving Pictures Company.  Photo “morgues” from local black newspapers were available at well below their true value.  All these “items” were duly catalogued by Dr. Clayton and became a part of the collection.

When Dr. Clayton started her efforts she housed everything in her study at home or in a garage behind her house.  This was sufficient in the early years as a place to welcome the growing stream of visiting scholars, community leaders, schoolchildren and others who came to see an exceptional part of the American record slowly develop.  From the outset, she was committed to sharing her collection with those who wanted to see and study it.

And come they did.  Word spread about the depth and breadth of the collection and of Dr. Clayton’s remarkable knowledge of the items in the collection and their historical importance.  Visitors came from all over California and elsewhere in the US as well as Asia, Europe and Africa—scholars, researchers, writers, local community leaders and elected officials from every level of government.  Both Dr. Clayton and her collection were recognized as resources critical to the record of the United States and its diverse people, communities and individuals.

Sharing the Collection

Important to Dr. Clayton were the schoolchildren visiting on fieldtrips.  Crammed into that small garage or in her study, they would look with awe at handwritten slave records, the thousands of rare and out-of-print books and rare photographs of major figures of the Civil Rights movement.  Some of the kids recognized family members;  some remembered dramatic events that occurred in the neighborhood and that were captured in the photographs.  Many never forget what they saw.  Today, decades later, those same students contact MCLM and tell the staff of their visit to the “garage.”

As part of that effort to share, early on, Dr. Clayton organized programs to showcase the collection.  For example, in the 1970’s she launched one of the first black film festivals, Black Talkies on Parade.  Since then, MCLM, even when the collection was housed in Dr. Clayton’s garage, has mounted numerous such programs, often with esteemed institutions, including the Huntington Library & Gardens, the Skirball Cultural Center, and Howard University.

Slowly, the public is beginning to recognize the significance of the collection.  For example, artifacts from the collection have been featured twice in the PBS show, The History Detectives.

Culver City:  A New Home

With the collection’s size growing dramatically, storage and conservation became critical issues.  The garage could not house all the items and the conditions were not adequate for proper conservation.  So the search began for a new home.

In 2004, Dr. Clayton’s son, Avery Clayton, became executive director of the predecessor to MCLM and began the arduous effort to find a permanent home where the collection could receive professional attention for conservation.  Mr. Clayton sought—and received—funding from corporate and institutional sponsors, both for the collection and for programming.  Companies such as Southern California Edison provided some of the critical seed money for such efforts.

Early in this century, the then-mayor of Culver City, Mr. Albert Vera, began talking with Mr. Clayton about moving the collection to Culver City.  In 2006 the Culver City Council and MCLM signed a lease for a de-commissioned Los Angeles County Courthouse.  Thanks to the on-going efforts of the leaders of Culver City, including the continued support of Mr. Vera, the current mayor, Mr. Andrew Weissman, and City Council, as well as Los Angeles County leaders, MCLM now proudly resides in that facility.

The Future:  A Place to Know Our Past, Present and Future

By definition, the future is based on the past.  Dr. Clayton passed away in late 2006, shortly after her collection began the move into the facilities provided by Culver City.  But, her sons Avery, Lloyd and Renai, continued to move the collection forward.

As executive director of MCLM, Avery began to make his mother’s vision a reality.  Then, tragedy struck:  In late 2009, Avery died suddenly.

We mourn our losses but we know our future.  Today, in early 2010, the board, staff, volunteers and supporters of MCLM have come together to make sure that the vision is realized.

And that vision is:

• A collection rich and deep and a place for scholarly research;
• Education programs to enrich the lives of the schoolchildren who still come and will come;
• Advanced conservation efforts to maintain the collection for future generations;
• Acquisition and assistance programs to uncover other parts of the American experience as told through and about the African-American experience;  exhibitions and special programs to spread the word;
• A place for our fellow neighbors in Culver City, and elsewhere, to visit the collection;  and
• A passion for the digital possibilities that can help Dr. Clayton’s vision become real.

Which is to say, just what Dr. Clayton and her son, Avery, would have wanted.