The Gloria Naylor Archive facilitates engagement with Gloria Naylor’s life and works by making her collected papers widely accessible—to scholars, educators, students, and fans. The Archive is both a physical space where visitors are invited to consult all of Naylor’s papers in person and also an online resource where visitors can engage select archival materials.
As of summer 2021, online resources include: digital images of archival materials pertaining to The Women of Brewster Place, Linden Hills, and Mama Day; a detailed finding aid; a listing of Naylor’s known published works; a bibliography of scholarly works that draw on Naylor’s collected papers; and short interpretive essays that highlight key documents from the archive.
The Gloria Naylor Archive was founded in 2009 when Gloria Naylor donated her collected papers to Sacred Heart University. In 2018, Sacred Heart University and Lehigh University began a collaboration to make the Archive more accessible. As part of this collaboration, Naylor’s papers were temporarily relocated to Lehigh University, through 2023. At Lehigh, faculty, staff, and graduate researchers have worked on processing and digitizing materials, building a robust network of Naylor scholars, and bringing archival documents to life through the visual and performing arts.
The Gloria Naylor Archive has benefited the generous support of an Accelerator Grant through the Office of the Vice President and Associate Provost for Research at Lehigh University.
Archive Timeline
Summer 2020 | Select materials from Series 2 are digitized.