Dorothy B. Porter

American librarian (1905–1995)

Dorothy Louise Porter Wesley (May 25, 1905 – December 17, 1995) was a librarian, bibliographer and curator, who built the Moorland Spingarn Research Center at Howard University into a world class research collection. She was the first African American to receive a library science degree from Columbia University.

By her married name of Porter, she was appointed in 1930 as the librarian at Howard University. Over the next 40 years, she was key to building up what is now the Moorland Spingarn Research Center at the university as one of the world's best collection of library materials for Black/Africana history and culture. Because of her limited budget, she appealed directly to publishers and book dealers to donate specific books to the library. She developed a worldwide network of contacts that reached from the US to Brazil, Mexico and Europe. Her friends and contacts included Alain Locke, Rayford Logan, Dorothy Peterson, Langston Hughes, and Amy Spingarn. The collection is international, with books and documents in many languages. It includes music and academic studies on linguistics, as well as literature and scholarship by and about Black people in the United States and elsewhere. When Arthur Spingarn agreed to sell his private collection to Howard University, the university's treasurer required an external appraisal of its value, stating that Porter's estimate would be over the value of the collection. Although Porter requested someone from the Library of Congress to do this, they acknowledged that they lacked expertise in the subject area. They asked her to write the report, which they certified and signed. This report was accepted by the university treasurer. The Conover Porter Award to recognize outstanding achievement in Africana bibliography and reference tools was installed in 1980 by the Africana Librarians Council of the African Studies Association. The award was established in honor of two pioneers in African Studies bibliography, Helen F. Conover, of the Library of Congress, and Dorothy B. Porter. The Dorothy Porter Wesley Award was established in 2018 by the Information Professionals of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) "to honor and document the outstanding work of Information Professionals; Bibliophiles, Librarians, Archivists, Curators and Collectors."

In 1929, Burnett married James A. Porter, an historian and artist. He was the author of Modern Negro Art. They had a daughter together, Constance, known as "Coni". She married Milan Uzelac, and initially worked with her mother. She served as Executive Director of the Dorothy Porter Wesley Library. She later helped create the African American Research Library & Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. James Porter died on February 28, 1970. Several years later, in 1979, Burnett Porter married Charles Wesley, an American historian and educator who pioneered important studies in black history. He died in 1987. Dorothy Porter died in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, aged 90.

Dorothy Porter published numerous bibliographies and one anthology. Wesley, Dorothy Porter. Afro American Writings Published Before 1835: With an Alphabetical List (Tentative) of Imprints Written by American Negroes, 1760–1835. [New York]: Columbia University, 1932. Thesis (M. Sc.) Columbia University, New York, 1932. Porter, Dorothy B. "A Library on the Negro". The American Scholar, Vol. 7, No. 1: pp. 115–117. 1938. Porter, Dorothy B. "A Library on the Negro". The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 10, No. 2: pp. 264–266. April 1941. Forten, James, John T. Hilton, and William Wells Brown. "Early Manuscript Letters Written by Negroes". The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 24, No. 2: pp. 199–210. 1939. Wesley, Dorothy Porter, and Arthur Alfonso Schomburg. North American Negro Poets, A Bibliographical Checklist of Their Writings, 1760 1944. Hattiesburg, Miss: Book farm, 1945. Moorland Foundation, and Dorothy Porter Wesley. A Catalogue of the African Collection in the Moorland Foundation, Howard University Library. Washington: Howard University Press, 1958. Porter, Dorothy B. The Negro in the United States; A Selected Bibliography. Compiled by Dorothy B. Porter. Washington, Library of Congress, 1970. Available at Project Gutenberg, 2011. Wesley, Dorothy Porter. Early Negro Writing, 1760 1837. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971. An anthology rare documents of Negro history, including addresses, narratives, poems, essays and documents from fraternal and mutual aid organizations and educational improvement societies. Porter, Dorothy B. "Bibliography and Research in Afro American Scholarship". Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 2, No. 2: pp. 77–81. 1976. Moorland Spingarn Research Center, and Dorothy Porter Wesley. Recent Notable Books: A Selected Bibliography in Honor of Dorothy Burnett Porter. [Washington]: Howard University, Moorland Spingarn Research Center, 1974. Newman, Richard. Black Access: A Bibliography of Afro American Bibliographies. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Dorothy Porter Wesley Papers. James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Porter Uzelac, Constance. Dorothy Porter Wesley Collection, The African American Research Library and Cultural Center Special Collection, Broward County Library. Dorothy Porter Wesley papers (Series 8 in the James Amos Porter papers), Stuart A. Rose Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University.