PORTLAND – The Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine has acquired an ink-splotched registry that offers a unique glimpse into the social lives of blacks in Maine and the United States during the last century.

The ledger’s pages contain more than 3,000 signatures of black Americans who came from across the United States to stay at Rose Cummings’ guesthouse in Old Orchard Beach between 1923 and 1993.

Prominent names include band leader Duke Ellington and Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen.

The ledger was acquired to be part of the African American Collection at the Glickman Family Library at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.