• Posters & Playbills
  

  Little Richard Poster
• Correspondence
• Quilts
• Baskets
• Personal Effects

Tucked away in the Center's Archives are a variety of items made or used by individuals, families and communities that we have documented.  Hand made quilts by Pecolia Warner, tap shoes used in many a performance by Rufus Thomas, hand written sheet music, and a large Eastman camera used by Rev. L.O. Taylor are only a few of the hundreds of objects in our collection.  Historic posters, personal correspondence, books, post cards, church momentos and flyers reveal events celebrated within communities.

Also featured in the archives are objects and ephemera documenting the careers of prominent Memphians such as Lucie Campbell, the music director of the National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress, who penned such roiling gospel songs as "Touch Me, Lord Jesus," "He Understands; He'll Say 'Well Done,'" "Something Within," and "Jesus Gave Me Water," Rev. William Herbert Brewster, a protege of Campbell's, who composed hymns like "Move on up a Little Higher" (the first million-dollar seller in the gospel genre), "How I Got Over," and "Surely God Is Able."

These objects provide a broad cultural canvas and give us the tools to tell special stories of the men and women who touched them.