In September 1901 , aged 16 , Gumby made his first scrapbook with clippings concerning the assassination of President McKinley . Gumby had organized his clippings by 1910 , and took his archival work seriously , visiting similar collections in libraries across the United States and Canada . Gumby also became acquainted with fellow African-American archivist , Arturo Alfonso Schomburg . Working as a waiter at Columbia University Gumby began fraternizing with academia and students , adding clippings to his collection about popular professors and Columbia 's president , Nicholas Murray Butler . In 1925 Gumby 's collection so crowded his 2 ½ rooms that he was forced to lease the entire second-floor unpartitioned apartment of the house in which he lived . Gumby initially found it easy to acquire his collection as " Negro " items were considered of little interest to book dealers
assassination of President McKinley
Assassination of William McKinley
L. S. Alexander Gumby