Dorothy Randolph Peterson (June 21, 1897 – November 4, 1978) was an American teacher and actress who played an important role in the Harlem Renaissance through her efforts to promote and preserve the achievements of African-American artists.
She had a younger brother named Sydney Peterson.
Peterson spent much of her childhood in Puerto Rico, due to her father's work as the U.S. Consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela.
There, she engaged in the artistic community by hosting literary salons, as an early patron of Fire!!
[2] Her efforts to preserve African-American art and culture culminated with her founding of the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters at Yale University and the Jerome Bowers Peterson Collection of Photographs of Celebrated Negroes at Wadleigh High School in Harlem.