ABSTRACT
Among the personal and professional correspondence exchanged between artists David C. Driskell (b. 1931) and Sam Middleton (1927–2015), is one letter, dated July 1, 1969, in which Driskell mentions “an archive relating to Black artists” inspired by the renowned RKD, or Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague.
Record all your ideas and trials about art. Your sons will appreciate your exactness at doing this. The world will be richer for your having done this. We do not do enough of this as a people. Our records are scant and scarce. We must write our own history and formalize our own aesthetics. You are doing this—keep it up. I have had to set up here an archive relating to Black artists (that is at Fisk Univ). I realized the importance of doing so when I went to the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in Den Haag. Here one found archive after archive of clippings, letters, etc. on the lives of Dutch artist[s]. I hope to do a similar thing for Black artist[s]—worldwide. 1
