David Galt Greenwald games and puzzles collection

Access and use

Location of collection:
College of William and Mary
Special Collections Research Center
Earl Gregg Swem Library
College of William and Mary
400 Landrum Drive
PO 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (757) 221-3090
Fax: (757) 221-5440
Restrictions:

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Terms of access:

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Use of these materials must be limited to persons using them for research and/or scholarly activites. These materials may not be sold or distributed without knowing their intended use. They are not allowed to fall into the hands of anyone who might use them to support beliefs in the superiority or inferiority of any race, creed, or ethnicity

Preferred citation:

David Galt Greenwald games and puzzles collection, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
8 Boxes Five oversize boxes, one half Hollinger box, and two rectangle artifact boxes
Language:
English Dutch; Flemish German French
Preferred citation:

David Galt Greenwald games and puzzles collection, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

The David Galt Greenwald board games and puzzles collection consists of black Americana board games, puzzles, card games, and ephemera. Series 1 consists of boxed games, puzzles, and toys, largely depicting racist caricatures, including minstrel/blackface imagery, stereotypes, propaganda, and sometimes anti-black violence. Other items in Series 1 depict black empowerment, history, heritage, culture, and collaboration. Series 2 consists of entertainment-related or associated ephemera, including paper board games and puzzles, toys, a stereoview, a watercolor booklet, Court Whist scorecards, promotional material, and pages of a 1883 almanac. The majority, but not all, of these materials likewise feature minstrel/blackface imagery and racist caricatures and stereotypes. These materials offer insight into the cohesive use and promotion of racist imagery, stereotypes, and rhetoric through entertainment media in the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States and Europe. These materials also offer insight into the use of physical entertainment media during the 20th century to educate the public about the Black Power movement, and black community, history, heritage, and empowerment. Additionally, the collection may offer insights into the sale and popularity of black Americana materials between the 19th and early 21st centuries, with at least one board game likely being a 21st century "hoax" using historical anti-black imagery to feign its true age.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard