Person

Robert H. Bonner

Received Certificate of Art, 1896

Robert H. Bonner - Detail from photograph of Robert H. Bonner, Orishatukeh Faduma, Charles H. Boyer, and Henry H. Proctor, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. [Accessed via New York Public Library Digital Collections](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-0160-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99).

Biography

Born in 1870 in New Haven, Connecticut, Robert H. Bonner was the son of Willis and Elizabeth Bonner. His father, a carpenter, was active in Republican politics in New Haven. A brother, Frederick Douglass Bonner, graduated from Yale College in 1901.

Along with fellow Black students Charles H. Boyer, Orishatukeh Faduma, and Henry H. Proctor, Robert H. Bonner was a member of an incarnation of the Colored Yale Quartet as a student.

Bonner was part of a core group of radical Black Bostonites who supported William Monroe Trotter in the founding of the Niagara Movement. Sometime after graduating from Yale, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although some sources identify him as a lawyer, he is listed in the 1918 city directory as a steward of the Union Club of Boston. Bonner died in 1926, survived by his wife Marie and children. He is buried in Grove Street Cemetery.

Full Name

Robert H. Bonner

Family Name

Bonner

Yale Affiliation

Received Certificate of Art, 1896

Birth Date

1870

Birth Place

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Educated At

Yale School of Art

Places Lived

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Beverly, Massachusetts, United States
New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Yale Alumni Relative(s)

Frederick Willis Bonner - Yale College Class of 1929 class book, Yale University LibraryFrederick Willis Bonner

Type

Nephew
Frederick Douglass Bonner - Yale College Class of 1901 class book, Yale University LibraryFrederick Douglass Bonner

Type

Sibling

Death Date

1926

Gender

male

Decade(s) at Yale

1890s
Media
Robert H. Bonner - Detail from photograph of Robert H. Bonner, Orishatukeh Faduma, Charles H. Boyer, and Henry H. Proctor, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. [Accessed via New York Public Library Digital Collections](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-0160-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99).Robert H. Bonner - Detail from photograph of Robert H. Bonner, Orishatukeh Faduma, Charles H. Boyer, and Henry H. Proctor, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. [Accessed via New York Public Library Digital Collections](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-0160-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99).

Linked resources

Filter by property

Relative
Title
Frederick Willis Bonner - Yale College Class of 1929 class book, Yale University LibraryFrederick Willis Bonner
Frederick Douglass Bonner - Yale College Class of 1901 class book, Yale University LibraryFrederick Douglass Bonner