The Alabama State University Archives Department is located on the second floor of the Levi Watkins Learning Center (LWLC) which is the University’s library. The Archives currently houses over three hundred (300) works of art including framed and unframed two-dimensional pieces, sculptures, textiles, and artifacts representing African American culture and that of the African Diaspora. The art collections are organized into three main categories:
- University Archives Permanent Collection
- Personal Donor Collections
- The National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture (National Center) Permanent Collection
The Archives’ permanent collection includes material documenting ASU’s rich legacy of educating Black artists. For example, the Archives contains several plaster casts and busts created by artist and educator Isaac Scott Hathaway (1872-1967). Hathaway directed ASU’s ceramics instruction from 1947 to 1963. He would later gain renown for being the first African American to design a coin (of Booker T. Washington and later George Washington Carver) for the U.S. Mint.
The Personal Donors category is the Archives’ most rapidly growing art collection. The largest personal collection was donated by Dr. Gwendolyn Cooke. Dr. Cooke is a retired educator and 1965 ASU alumna. Dr. Cooke established the Dr. Gwendolyn Cooke Art Collection through her donation to the Archives of over seventy (70) paintings, works on paper, three-dimensional works, textiles, and artifacts. The first installment of her collection was donated in 2016 and the second half was donated to the Archives in 2022. Included in the Dr. Gwendolyn Cooke Art Collection are works by notable Black artists such as Benny Andrews, Hale Woodruff, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Aaron Douglas, John Biggers, Jacob Lawrence, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.
The mission of the National Center is to reach and teach people around the world about the history and culture of African Americans with a special emphasis on Alabama State University’s role at the heart of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. In addition, the National Center builds its art collection by actively purchasing and soliciting donations of pieces documenting the Civil Rights Movement and Black Alabama. The Archives stores and stewards this art collection as well. The National Center art collection includes over one-hundred two and three-dimensional works of various media, and is particularly strong in folk art created by Black artists from Alabama and the Gulf South, such as Moses “Mose T.” Tolliver.
