The John Henrik Clarke Africana Library, also known as the Africana Library, provides a special collection focusing on the history and culture of people of African ancestry. There are over 22,000 volumes in the collection. The library supports the curriculum of Cornell University’s Africana Studies & Research Center, and the Cornell community at large. University-wide the library serves as a reference and referral point by providing access to African, African American, and African Caribbean resources available either in the Cornell University Library or collections at other institutions.
Faculty of the Africana Studies & Research Center named the library in honor of Dr. John Henrik Clarke during the summer of 1985. As a distinguished historian, Dr. Clarke was instrumental in establishing the Africana Center’s curriculum in the 1970s and taught courses in Black history at Cornell during this time period.
The building in which the Africana Library is housed incorporates African cultural and aesthetic elements inside and out through the creative use of structural textures and colors.
