Donalson Library collection

The Dorothy P. Donalson Library Collection.highlights the important compilation of African-American and Women’s Studies materials available in the Hyannis Public Library.

The Dorothy P. Donalson Collection of African-American and Women’s Studies was dedicated in September 2003 after a year of careful preparation and collection development. The many friends and family of Dorothy P. Donalson donated the funds for this impressive collection that honors Mrs. Donalson for her 40 years of service to the Barnstable community. Mrs. Donalson’s record of volunteering and giving was acknowledged at the Hyannis Library with the presentation of numerous recommendations and proclamations from public officials, but more significantly with the dedication of these unique cultural, historical, and literary research materials, located in the Reference Department.

Titles in The Dorothy P.Donalson Collection of African-American and Women’s Studies include:

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. by William L.Andrews

Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: an Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. by Donald Bogle

Henry Osawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography. by Marcus C.Bruce,

Cornerstones: An Anthology of African American Literature. edited by Melvin, Donalson

From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, 8th Edition. by John Hope Franklin,

Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African Literary Tradition. edited by Pauline Liggins Hill

Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. edited by Darlene Clark Hine

The New York Public Library African American Desk Reference. Edited by Philip Koslow

Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, Volumes 1-5. edited by Cornel West, Lionel Smith and Jack Salzman

African American Writers. edited by Valerie Smith

The Essential Black Literature Guide. by Roger M Valade III

A complete list of titles in The Dorothy P. Donalson Library Collection is available by visiting or calling the Hyannis Library Reference Department at 508-775-2280 during regular open hours.