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14 flagships · 25 briefs · 8 dossiers · 765 entities — record updated October 3, 2026

Hall Branch Library and Vivian Harsh Collection

CTL-E-1292 · Institution · other · 1932–2026

Verified evidence grade of this record

Bronzeville branch of the Chicago Public Library where Vivian G. Harsh — the first African American to run a CPL branch — built a major African American literature/history collection; children's librarian Charlemae Hill-Rollins ran children's programming from 1932 (collection now at Woodson Regional Library).

Notes

Merged into canonical KG 2026-10-03 from LIFE-001; source entity IDs: CTL-DR-LIFE-001:CTL-LIFE-E-028; source research type(s): institution.

Sources

Record CTL-E-1292 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: Verified · CTL research: LIFE-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Hall Branch Library and Vivian Harsh Collection (CTL-E-1292),” October 4, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1292/

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Ida B. Wells — portrait from ‘Women of Distinction’ (1893)
Ida B. Wells — portrait from ‘Women of Distinction’ (1893)Photo: Public Domain (from ‘Women of Distinction,’ 1893), via Wikimedia Commons
Jacking up a car on the repair tracks at an Illinois Central Railroad yard, Chicago, Chicago, 1942
Jacking up a car on the repair tracks at an Illinois Central Railroad yard, Chicago, Chicago, 1942Photo: Jack Delano, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941
Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

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