Daniel Alexander Payne Murray (1852-1925) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and died in Washington, D.C. He was one of the first African Americans to work as a librarian at the Library of Congress. He joined the staff of the Library in 1871 and by 1881 had become an assistant librarian, a position he held for 41 years. In 1899 he began to compile a collection of books and pamphlets by African-American authors, and upon his death, bequeathed the collection to the Library of Congress. The collection is known today as the "Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection." Murray was also active in politics, testifying before Congress on Jim Crow laws and was twice a delegate at the Republican National Convention. He also contributed regularly to African-American periodicals and attempted, unsuccessfully, to publish an Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia of the Colored Race.

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