Lapidus Center

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Our Blog

Black New Yorkers and the Fight for the African Burial Ground from the Colonial Period to the Present

By Christopher D. E. Willoughby In the process of constructing a new federal building in lower Manhattan in 1991, archaeologists…

 
Conferences

DEADLINE EXTENDED – Call for Papers: 2019 Lapidus Center Conference

2019 Lapidus Center Conference Enduring Slavery: Resistance, Public Memory, and Transatlantic Archives The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of…

 
Harriet Tubman Prize

2018 Harriet Tubman Prize Winner

The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery is delighted to announce that Dr. Tamara J. Walker is…

 
Fellowships

Accepting Applications: 2019-2020 Short and Long-Term Fellowships

The Lapidus Center offers two long-term fellowships to assist scholars whose research on transatlantic slavery can benefit from extended access…

 
Harriet Tubman Prize

2018 Harriet Tubman Prize Finalists

2018 Harriet Tubman Prize Finalists The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery is pleased to announce the…

 
News

Accepting Submissions: 2019 Harriet Tubman Book Prize

The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery is pleased to announce the fourth annual Harriet Tubman Prize,…

 
News

New Associate Director and Curator of the Lapidus Center

Michelle Commander joined the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as Associate Director and Curator of the Lapidus Center…

 
News

Dr. Diouf Bids Farewell to the Schomburg Center

After sixteen years at the Schomburg Center and three years as inaugural director of the Lapidus Center, I am retiring.…

 
News

Questlove, Charlie Lewis, and the Last Slave Ship

“The eyes” said the artist Questlove as he stared at the photo of his ancestor Charlie Lewis. “We have the…

 
News

Manisha Sinha Wins the 2017 Frederick Douglass Book Prize

Congratulations to UConn Professor and Lapidus Center Advisor Manisha Sinha, winner of the 2017 Frederick Douglass Book Prize for her…

 
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Our Mission

The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery—funded by a generous $2.5 million gift from Ruth and Sid Lapidus matched by The New York Public Library—is the only facility of its kind based in a public research library.

The initial gift also included 400 rare items of printed material, making the Schomburg Center home to one of the world’s premier collections of slavery material. Sid Lapidus continues to donate items as he acquires them.

The Center's mission is to generate and disseminate scholarly knowledge on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery pertaining to the Atlantic World. The Center supports the work of researchers with long-term and short-term fellowships. Given the centrality of Atlantic slavery to the making of the modern world, the Lapidus fellowships ensure that slavery studies are a cornerstone of the Schomburg Center’s broader research community.

To raise awareness and historical literacy, the Lapidus Center engages the public with a variety of programs, an annual nonfiction prize, exhibitions, conferences, and partnerships with local, national, and international institutions.

Dr. Michelle Commander
Associate Director and Curator

Council of Advisors

Edward E. Baptist, Cornell University

James G. Basker, Barnard College

David W. Blight, Yale University

Christopher L. Brown, Columbia University

Vincent Brown, Harvard University

Laurent M. Dubois, Duke University

David Eltis, Emory University

Eric Foner, Columbia University

Annette Gordon-Reed, Harvard University

Leslie M. Harris, Northwestern University

Linda Heywood, Boston University

Sid Lapidus, Funding Collector

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Harvard University

Manisha Sinha, University of Connecticut

Stephanie Smallwood, University of Washington

Craig S. Wilder, M.I.T.

Sean Wilentz, Princeton

Quick Links

  • Suscribe to the Lapidus Center Newsletter
  • Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
  • The New York Public Library
  • Ruth and Sid Lapidus Gift
  • The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
  • Digital Schomburg Selected Links
  • Digital Schomburg Books
  • Digital Schomburg Images & illustrations

Contact Us

Phone: (212) 491-2263

Email: lapiduscenter@nypl.org

Address: 515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10037

Lapidus Center

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