L. S. Alexander Gumby

Levi Sandy Alexander Gumby
Born	Template:Birth date Maryland, United States
Died	March 16, 1961(1961-03-16) (aged 76)
Occupation(s)	Archivist, historian, bookseller
Known for	The Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana; Harlem Renaissance cultural salon

Levi Sandy Alexander Gumby (February 1, 1885 – March 16, 1961) was a distinguished African-American archivist and historian. Since 1950, Columbia University has preserved his extensive compilation of 300 scrapbooks chronicling African-American history, known as the Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana. During the Harlem Renaissance, Gumby operated a well-known bookstore that also functioned as a cultural salon. His passion for collecting earned him monikers such as "The Count" and "Mr. Scrapbook".

Life

Gumby was born in Maryland to evangelist Levi Thomas Gumby and Louisa Morris. In 1901, he and his sister went to live with their grandparents. Initially pursuing legal studies at Dover State College in Delaware, he soon realized it was not his calling and moved to New York City, where he remained for the rest of his life. In his 1952 piece The Adventures of My Scrapbook, Gumby reflected on New York as a place that granted him unparalleled liberty. Among his scrapbooks, six are autobiographical and bear the title "Gumby's Autobiography."

Upon arriving in New York, Gumby financed his collecting endeavors through various occupations such as working as a banker’s butler, a bellhop, and during World War I, serving as a postal employee. He also established the Southern Utopia Fraternity to assist young men migrating from the Southern States in search of employment and new prospects.

The economic collapse of 1929 forced Gumby to shutter his bookstore; the resulting financial strain and physical toll led to a four-year hospitalization on North Brother Island and Randall's Island in New York City. Later on, employed as a waiter at Columbia University, he forged connections with scholars and students, ultimately donating his collection to the institution. Columbia engaged him for eight months to catalog the materials, and he continued to expand the archive until his death from tuberculosis.

Gumby's Book Studio

During the 1920s, Charles W. Newman, a prosperous stockbroker, provided financial backing that allowed Gumby to relocate his collection to an expansive studio at 2144 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood. This space, known as "Gumby's Bookstore," became a vital center for the Harlem Renaissance, serving simultaneously as a workspace, exhibition venue, and intellectual gathering spot. Gumby’s commanding presence earned him the nickname "The Great God Gumby." He also created the Gumby Book Studio Quarterly, a literary periodical that was published once but never circulated.

Through this studio, Gumby engaged with leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance including Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Alain LeRoy Locke, Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, among others. For many years following their creation, Gumby often remained the sole guardian of significant documents—for instance, correspondence between Grace Greenwood and Frederick Douglass concerning Douglass's speech "Our National Capital."

Following the Wall Street crash of 1929, Newman’s financial downturn resulted in the loss of patronage for Gumby's studio. This compelled Gumby to close his establishment, sell numerous rare volumes, and store his scrapbooks in a friend’s basement.

Openly identifying as gay, Gumby's book studio also served as an essential meeting place for Harlem’s LGBT community. Known as both a "dandy" and "social butterfly", his distinctive fashion—marked by elegant attire, a cane, pale yellow gloves, and a diamond stick-pin—led to comparisons with Beau Brummell.

Collection

At just 16 years old in September 1901, Gumby assembled his inaugural scrapbook, featuring clippings about President McKinley's assassination. By 1910, he had systematically arranged his growing archive and frequently traveled to various archives throughout the United States and Canada, establishing a connection with fellow African-American archivist Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. While employed as a waiter at Columbia University, Gumby enriched his collection with documents related to the institution’s faculty and its president, Nicholas Murray Butler. By 1925, the size of his collection had exceeded the capacity of his home, leading him to rent a full apartment on the second floor. Early in his collecting career, book dealers often undervalued materials labeled "Negro," which facilitated his acquisitions.

His scrapbooks contain signed photographs, letters, and narratives from renowned artists such as Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Ethel Waters. Additionally, the collection includes correspondence and autographs from significant Black historical figures including Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey.

Even during periods of hospitalization, Gumby remained dedicated to collecting, incorporating newspaper articles about his illness and get-well messages from acquaintances. Following his recovery, he resumed expanding and preserving his archives. In 1950, he gifted the entire collection to Columbia University, which subsequently employed him in 1951 to assist with its organization. Gumby continued curating these scrapbooks until his passing in 1961 due to complications from tuberculosis. Presently, the approximately 300 scrapbooks constitute the Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana, housed within Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library located in Butler Library.

During the early 1920s, Gumby showcased his archive along the East Coast and was included in the 1922 edition of Private Book Collectors' Who's Who. He referred to his compilation as "'The Unwritten History,'" emphasizing its focus on African American historical events that were either neglected or misrepresented in mainstream accounts. The scrapbooks encompass newspapers, magazines, autographs, letters, photographs, theater programs, and documents related to slavery; these materials have been transferred onto microfilm for long-term preservation.

See also

• Harlem Renaissance

External links

• The Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana at Columbia University