A man at his desk and a woman typist next to him on a small typing work station, so to speak. Heavy wooden book cases with glass fronts are visible, as are modern metal filing cabinets, books, and art. A window allows natural light in.

African American men and women seated at classic heavy library reading room tables. A large and heavy glass-front wooden book is visible and full of many books. Also visible are art objects of various kinds. The readers are all respectably dressed, that is, era appropriate, if Hollywood movies of middle class Americans can be trusted. Windows allow light in from the outside.

Top: “The Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature, Books by and about the Negro, Curator: Dr. Lawrence D. Reddick” (ca. 1920–40). Bottom: “135th Street, Schomburg Room, Readers” (1940).

Via NYPL Digital Collections, images 1253134 and 1252992.