The brainchild of Daniel Alexander Payne Murray, Banneker: The Afro-American Astronomer was first conceived after Murray discovered what he found to be a beautifully written letter to Thomas Jefferson by a then unknown writer of color. Aided in his research by Will A. Allen, the pair discovered the man to be one Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician and astronomer.
An extraordinary mind in a time where most people of African descent in the United States were denied the right to a formal education and-having no such access to the opportunity—Banneker was for the most part self-taught. He was the author of several commercially successful almanacs, aided in the survey of Washington D.C., and frequently corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, to plead for the justice and freedom of enslaved Africans within the U.S.
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Height: 203 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
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979-8-88897-014-0 (9798888970140)
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Daniel Alexander Payne Murray (1852-1925) was an author, politician and historian who was one of the first Black men to work for the Library of Congress. Born to formerly enslaved parents, Murray got his start at nine years old working with his brother in the U.S. Senate Restaurant. Catching the attention of Senator Timothy Howe and the Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Murray began working part-time at the Library of Congress in 1871. Within ten years he rose to assistant librarian and over the course of his forty-one year career at the library, Murray began to compile books and pamphlets by Black authors, growing to what is now known as the "Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection." Seen as an authority on African American concern, Daniel Alexander Payne Murray was an important contributor and collector of Black history.
