Encyclopedia of the Harlem Literary Renaissance

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

THENEWYORKPUBLIC LIBRARY). It was there
that librarians ERNESTINEROSE,NELLALARSEN,
and REGINAANDREWSworked to create an em-
powering, intellectually rich environment and
community center. The 135th Street branch ac-
commodated lectures and was home to dramatic
troupes and companies as well.


Bibliography
Dain, Phyllis. The New York Public Library: A History of
Its Founding and Early Years.New York: New York
Public Library, 1972.
Lydenberg, Harry. History of the New York Public Library:
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. New York,
1923.


New York Times, The
One of the most highly respected newspapers in
the world, The New York Timeswas published first
on 18 September 1851. Its founders were Henry
Jarvis Raymond and George Jones. Raymond, a
fervent antislavery advocate, became the director
of the newly organized Associated Press in 1856.
He later served a two-year term as a U.S. Con-
gressman for New York. The newspaper began
publishing Sunday editions in 1861, in response
to readers’ desire for information about the Civil
War. That also was the year in which the newspa-
per began incorporating illustrations in its issues.
During the Harlem Renaissance, the newspa-
per often featured stories of interest to its African-
American readers. It also included reviews of and
advertisements for upcoming theatrical and enter-
tainment productions.


Bibliography
Davis, Elmer. History of the New York Times,1851–1921.
1921; reprint, New York: Greenwood Press, 1969.
Diamond, Edwin. Behind the Times: Inside theNew York
Times. New York: Villard Books, 1994.
Tifft, Susan, and Alex Jones. The Trust: The Private and
Powerful Family Behind theNew York Times. Boston:
Little, Brown, 1999.


New York University
Founded in April 1831 by Albert Gallatin, secre-
tary of the treasury during Thomas Jefferson’s ad-


ministration, New York University was designed to
accommodate all students, not only those of the
upper classes. Its initial enrollment was 158 stu-
dents, and it had 14 faculty members. The univer-
sity has grown significantly since its early days and
now counts some 48,000 students in its 14 schools
and colleges and six Manhattan branches.
Harlem Renaissance figures who studied and
taught at New York University include CLEVE-
LANDALLEN, a music journalist; HUBERTHENRY
HARRISON, editor of the NEGROWORLDwho was
appointed lecturer at the school; and CLEMENT
WOOD, a white Alabama writer who was a poetry
lecturer.

Bibliography
Dim, Joan, and Nancy Cricco. The Miracle on Washington
Square: New York University.Lanham, Md.: Lexing-
ton Books, 2001.
Frusciano, Thomas, and Marilyn Pettit. New York Uni-
versity and the City: An Illustrated History.New
Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
Jones, Theodore. New York University: 1832–1932.New
York: The New York University Press, 1933.

New York World
One of several NEWYORKCITYnewspapers. It was
established in 1860. In 1883 Hungarian immigrant
and American Civil War veteran Joseph Pulitzer
bought the newspaper from Jay Gould for just
under $350,000. At the New York World,Pulitzer
encouraged his reporters to develop human-interest
reports, sensational stories about everyday people,
and to pursue news relating to immigrants. The
paper, which had been floundering before his
takeover, became an extremely popular daily. One
of his most celebrated reporters was Elizabeth Jane
Cochran, the journalist known best as Nellie Bly,
who in 1889 succeeded in traveling around the
globe in fewer than 80 days and sustaining an enor-
mous publicity campaign designed to draw atten-
tion to the newspaper. Bly was an extremely
successful and intrepid investigative reporter whose
exposés of poverty, problematic health care, and
deadly working conditions prompted many vital so-
cial and political reforms.
A fierce competition with rival William Ran-
dolph Hearst and the New York Journalresulted in

388 New York Times, The

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