The Schomburg Collection is a library of special materials devoted to Negro life and history. It is international in scope covering every phase of activity of peoples of African descent. It ranges from early rarities to current materials on happenings from Tennessee to Timbuctoo. The Collection is mainly based on Arthur A. Schomburg's distinguished private library of rarities and treasures which was purchased from him and presented to the New York Public Library by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1926. However, a year earlier the Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints had been established in the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Street Branch of the New York Public Library meet the neighborhood demands for books by and about Negroes.