Dorothy B. Porter

Dorothy Louise Porter Wesley (May 25, 1905 – December 17, 1995) was an African-American librarian, bibliographer and curator, who built the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University into a world-class research collection.

Early life

Porter was born in Warrenton, Virginia, the first of four children of Dr. and Mrs. Hayes J. Burnett.

Porter received a B.A. from Howard University in 1928. She studied at Columbia University, earning B.S. in 1931 and M.S. in 1932 in library science. She was the first African American to graduate from Columbia's library school.

Honors

Personal life

Porter's first husband was the historian and artist James A. Porter, author of Modern Negro Art. They had a daughter, Constance "Coni" Uzelac (who was married to Milan Uzelac), and served as Executive Director of the Dorothy Porter Wesley Library, and helped create the African American Research Library & Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale .