Joanna Banks Collection of African American Books
In Memoriam: Joanna Banks (March 28, 1943-September 28, 2025)
The Joanna Banks Collection of African American literature includes over 10,000 published works, primarily from the 1960s–2000s, covering a vast range of Black history, literature, and culture. Particular strengths include women's writing, children's literature, cookery, and African American periodicals. Archival materials document the collector's research into Black history and print culture. The Banks Collection was donated to the Penn Libraries in 2018.
Collection Overview
The Joanna Banks Collection may be understood as a collection of collections. In its totality, it represents a broad selection of African American book production, covering many subjects, published primarily from the mid-1960s to the present day. A small group of archival materials, including scrapbooks and photograph albums Banks assembled to document the many literature readings she attended, are also part of the collection.
Books and periodicals
Particular strengths in the Banks Collection include these genres:
- Works by and about Black women (over 3,000 volumes), including fiction, poetry, biographies and autobiographies in genres from history to social science to art.
- Children’s literature (approximately 1,000 volumes), especially picture books highlighting Black children.
- African American cookbooks (over 400 volumes).
- African American periodicals.
Individual titles in the Banks Collection are listed in the library's main catalog:
- Browse the Banks Collection of African American literature in the library catalog, in order by author, A-Z. This collection heading is assigned to all titles in the Banks Collection.
- Browse the Banks Collection of African American Children's Books in the online catalog, by author, A-Z.
- Browse the Banks Collection of African American Cookbooks in the online catalog, by author, A-Z.
- Browse periodicals in the Banks Collection, by title, A-Z.
Archival collection
When confronted with the limited amount of research material on the subjects of interest to her, Joanna Banks began collecting articles from multiple sources and preparing her own documentation and bibliographies. The Joanna Banks collection of African American authors and artists, foodways, and memorabilia includes articles, newspaper clippings, food notes and recipes, and author lists. Also in this collection is Banks's remarkable collection of photographs of Black authors (primarily women authors), taken by her at public events.
About the collector
Banks began her collection in 1965 with the Book-of-the Month Club book The Langston Hughes Reader. Reading Hughes built a desire in Banks to find the work of Black writers, and it was the thrill of making new discoveries in used and new bookstores that fueled her decades-long collecting journey.
In the 1980s, Banks also began documenting African-American literary culture in Washington, D.C., filling albums with her photographs of authors like Alice Walker and James Baldwin at readings, book signings, and conferences.
A major exhibition of materials from the Banks Collection and accompanying symposium, was held in the spring semester of 2020, entitled "Writing Across Genres."
A video interview with Joanna Banks, conducted by Penn Professor of Africana Studies Emerita Barbara Savage, is available for viewing.
Contact
Collection groups
Africana Studies and African American Studies Special Collections
This webpage provides information about collections held in the Kislak Center which help document the experiences and histories of African American, African, and African-descended peoples and which provide source material for global Black studies.
American Studies, History, and Literature: Modern Period
Beginning in 1945 with the acquisition of the Theodore Dreiser Papers, the Penn Libraries has maintained collecting strengths in modern American manuscripts.
Related Sites
Accordion Column of Lists
Holding Location
Collection Subject
- Africana Studies Collection
- Folklore and Folklife Collection
- Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Collection
- Literature in English Collection
Date Range
Format
Genre / Type
Language