The collection contains 238 separate press books, campaign books, advertising manuals and supplements, as well as other ephemeral promotional booklets, broadsides or single sheets, and posters designed for the use of theater distributors and dating from the independent Black films of the 1920s through 2000. The collection also includes some souvenir program books sold at theaters. The 195 films represented cover a variety of types of movies, from obscure Black-cast silent films by the Norman Film Manufacturing Company, to films with supporting and starring roles for African-Americans and modern Black-cast films. The collection includes representative coverage of legendary film artists such as Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier and more comprehensive coverage of the 1970s classic era of Blaxploitation films. Press books, which are no longer made, were often extremely elaborate and profusely illustrated, containing articles about the film, the stars and the filmmakers, plus ad mattes for proposed publicity campaigns, detailed plot synopses, cast and crew credits, etc. The ad campaigns provide information about how the actors, directors, and films were promoted.
