Welcome to the website of The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum. MCLM is the largest and most academically substantial independently-held collection of objects, documents and memorabilia on African American history and culture. Please enjoy exploring our website and join us in the effort to save and share a vitally important American treasure.
Our Purpose: MCLM's primary goal is to collect, preserve, exhibit and celebrate the unique history and cultural heritage of Americans of African descent and thereby to help provide a more complete view of American history. As our founder, Mayme A. Clayton, PhD., said “To know where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve been.”
MCLM Collection: The collection, now totaling more than 3,500,000 objects, documents, photographs and the like, is a remarkable cultural treasure that can educate and delight. Mayme A. Clayton, PhD., the organization’s founder, began collecting documents in the early 60’s and continued until her death in 2006. MCLM continues to receive additions to its collection from generous donors. Some highlights:
- Over 30,000 rare and out-of-print books written by or about African Americans
- Over 1,200 signed first-edition books including Martin Luther King, Jr., Alex Haley, Oscar Micheaux, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Ethel Waters, and Dorothy Height
- One of the world’s leading collections of Harlem Renaissance materials
- Over 500 pieces of early African American children’s literature
- Scores of original, hand-written pre-Civil War documents from slavery, including travel passes, plantation inventories, bills of sale and slave sale announcements
- Over 300 pieces of personal correspondence of noted 20th century black leaders, such as Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Josephine Baker, Pearl Bailey, and many others
- Over 10,000 items on the Civil Rights Movement
- Hundreds of pamphlets, brochures, and serial publications ranging from the early Niagara Movement (NAACP) to the Black Panther party
- Tens of thousands of items related to the black church in America; blacks in science, sports, business, education, the military, and the arts; African American fraternities, sororities and charitable organizations; blacks in the early American West
- More than 1,700 black film titles from as early as 1916, making it the largest black film collection pre-1959.
- Over 300 vintage movie posters dating back to 1921 and over 250 vintage lobby cards
- Signed scores by Fats Waller, W.C. Handy, Andy Razaf, Eubie Blake, Duke Ellington, and many other American music notables
- Over 75,000 photographs dating back to the mid-1800s
- Special collections, including the Marcus Garvey papers, Lena Horne’s scrapbook collection, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s scrapbook collection, the photography collection of Tom Bradley
Our History: Our founder, Mayme Agnew Clayton, Ph.D., (1923 - 2006) started to assemble the collection in 1966 to ensure that "children would know that black people have done great things." In 2006, the organization changed its name to The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum in honor of the founder. At that time, Culver City, California entered into an arrangement to provide MCLM with facilities in the heart of that famous city. Recognizing the importance of MCLM and its purpose, major academic, research and cultural institutions and corporations and numerous individuals have joined with MCLM to provide a financial base for the institution and to launch what will become significant programs to enable the public to appreciate the breadth and depth of the collection.
