The Beinecke Library collections include numerous African American community and business directories from the early decades of the 20th century. Such directories reveal detailed information about African American communities, documenting commerce, religious and civic activity, and social events. Some recent acquisitions are listed below: to locate call numbers and more information about these and other similar materials, search Orbis.

Business directory and other information of interest of outstanding Negroes, Detroit: Civic Brotherhood Association, [1947].

The Circle year book; a classified directory of Negro business establishments in Greater New York, Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, New York, Circle Press, 1924.

Cincinnati’s Colored Citizens; Historical, Sociological and Biographical, Cincinnati, Ohio: Published by the Dabney Publishing Company, 1926.

Directory of Negro Business and Professional Women of Philadelphia and Vicinity, Philadelphia: 1939.

First Colored Directory of Baltimore, MD, Baltimore: Sold at Afro-American Office, 1937.

First Colored Business and Professional Directory of Baltimore, Md., with Washington, D.C. Annex, Robert W. Coleman, Editor, Baltimore, MD: R. W. Coleman, 1943.

National Directory: Negro and Professional Women. Philadelphia: Majestic Press, 1942.

Negro Business Directory of the State of Wisconsin. Milwaukee: Allied Printing, [n.d.].

Negro in Fort Worth, 1954: Business and Professional Directory… Fort Worth: [1954].

Official California Negro Directory and Classified Buyers’ Guide. Los Angeles: New Age Publishing Company, 1942.

Negro Directory, 1941.  Omaha: P.C. Doss & Co.; Rapid Printing Co…, 1941.