Resources in African American History
Boas, Franz (1858-1942). Professional correspondence, 1862-1942.
ca. 58,500 items (59 linear ft.).
This collection has the potential to be rich for students of
attitudes toward race in the
Davenport, Charles B. (1866-1944). Papers, 1874-1944.
ca.45,000 items (43 linear ft.), and
Cold Spring Harbor Papers, ca.1903-1940.
ca.20,000 items (20 linear ft.).
Davenport was a biologist and Director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Of interest to researchers of Black history and culture will be Davenport's activities in the fields of genetics (especially eugenics), which are documented in his personal and professional correspondence end by his activities on such committees as the Committee on the Study of the American Negro.
David Library of the American Revolution. Slavery Collection, 1773-1888.
ca. 85 items. Photocopy.
This is a miscellaneous collection of documents assembled by Sol Feinstone. There are letters, broadsides, bills of sale, deeds of purchase, wills, etc., relating to various slaves. There are also documents from notable Americans concerning the slave question, e.g. John Brown, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Andrew Jackson.
Table of contents (4 pp.).
Eugenics Record Office. Records, 1670-1964.
ca.330.5 linear feet.
The Eugenics Record Office was founded in 1910 to serve as a
central research institution to coordinate the study of the genetics and
patterns of inheritance in human populations. In 1920, the Office merged with
the Station for Experimental Evolution to become the Department of Genetics
at the Carnegie Institution in
Eugenics was inevitably entangled in many aspects of American social and
political life, and particularly in setting and supporting national policy
with regard to immigration and the treatment of ethnic and racial minorities.
The ERO Records reflect the eugenical fascination
with identifying race-based traits and with locating clear lines of
demarcation between the races in terms of behavior, intelligence, and
physical characteristics. Race is a particularly clear factor in several
files in the Trait Files Series I (documenting the inheritance of purportedly
discrete genetic characteristics) "Jamaica anthropometry" (Box 4),
"Race suicide and childlessness" (Box 7), "Twins, Negro"
(Box 13), "Skin color," "Spotted skin," and
"Mulattoes" (Box 26), "Finger prints - Jamaica
schoolchildren" and "Woolly hair" (Box 27) and several files
under the heading "Race," "Race crossing," and
"Negro" (Box 61, 62, 64). The Fitter Family Studies (Series VI)
displays an equal concern for racial demarcation, and include some
correspondence with the Race Betterment Foundation.
Foulke, William Parker (1816-1865). Papers.
ca.1840-65. ca. 3000 items, photographs.
This collection contains the correspondence and personal papers
of Foulke (a Philadelphia lawyer and
philanthropist), including many copies of letters by him. A man of many
interests, Foulke was concerned with prison reform
and prison architecture, the archaeology of
Haldeman, Samuel Stehman (1812-1880). Papers, 1859-1875.
8 items.
Correspondence with S. J. Sedgwick on personal affairs, scientific topics, publications, and Negroes.
Hare, Robert (1781-1858). Papers, 1764-1859.
ca.1200 items.
One of antebellum
Hare-Willing Family, Papers, ca. 1744-1905.
ca.1300 letters and 53 volumes.
This is a collection of letters, letterbooks, account books, diaries, scrapbooks, etc., concerning the families of Robert Hare and Thomas Willing (1731-1821). The Willing family letters are diverse, concerning family matters, business, society, and comments on the Civil War. The Hare family letters are more extensive and diverse, including much on travel in the U.S, and elsewhere. Of particular interest for this guide are records of the First Colored Wesley Methodist Church of Philadelphia (receipt book, 1820-1848; minute book, 1827-1844).
Harvey, Jacob. Papers, 1808-47.
Film. 3 reels.
This collection contains letters to and from
Leff, Barbara, The Black Coalition of
Typescript (photocopy). 147 pp.
Included in a brief historical sketch of blacks in
Lesley, J. Peter (1819-1903). Papers, 1826-1898.
ca.3,000 items.
J. Peter Lesley, a geologist and his wife, Susan, were also steeped in political reform during the antebellum years. Their antislavery interests are reflected in letters from correspondents such as Lydia Maria Child, James Freeman Clarke, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The collection also includes a letter of Frederick Douglass (September 6, 1856) in which Douglass offers to assist Susan Lesley in locating the son of a "colored" friend of hers.
Lewontin, Richard Charles (1929- ). Papers, ca.1963-1980.
Ca. 2000 items, (4 linear ft.). Photocopy.
This represents a portion of Lewontin's
correspondence files (mainly A-L), and included are copies or papers, all of
which will be added to in the future. The topics discussed in the letters are
numerous, including much on contemporary scientific controversies, race,
Morton, Samuel George (1799-1851). Diary, 1833-ca.1837.
1 vol. (25 pp.).
Morton was a
Parsons, Elsie Clews (1875-1941). Papers, 1880-1980.
17 linear ft.
A protege of Franz Boas' and a
sociologist, anthropologist, and folklorist, Elsie Clews Parsons spent much
of her professional career in the study of the Indians of the
2 vols. (18pp.).
The forms apply to
Price, Richard (1723-1791). Papers, 1767-90.
90 items.
Letters from and to Price on British politics, the American
Revolution, the peace of 1783, the future of the
Rush, Benjamin (1746-1813). Memorandum book; 1805-1813.
1 vol., 89pp.
Notes on land owned and sold and on leases of
Scaliger Family. Papers, fifteenth to nineteenth centuries.
ca.700 items.
Contains documents from the Poizat branch of the family, including lists of slaves in Saint Domingue, baptismal certificates, etc.
Society of Friends,
1 vol., 23pp. Copy.
Includes such items as the church's position on marriage, smoking, Indians, Negroes, backsliding, etc.
Thistlewood Family, Papers, 1748-1792.
Microfilm. 16 reels.
There are diaries, weather records, commonplace books of Thomas
Thistlewood (1721-1786) for the years 1748-1786;
his diaries (37 vols.) cover two years on England (London, Lincolnshire) and
the remaining time in Jamaica (1751-86) where he managed a cattle estate
(Vineyard Pen) and then a sugar plantation(Egypt). This is a rich source for
agricultural life, daily routines, slave life, folklore, natural history,
medical diagnosis and remedies, the intellectual world of an Anglo-Jamaican,
his sex life, and climatic history of the island. There are miscellaneous
volumes, such as a list of Negroes, 1758-66. included
in the collection is the journal of John Thistlewood,
1763-65, describing his voyage to
Table of contents (8pp.).
Vaux, George
Papers, 1738-1985 (ca.650 items (3.5 linear feet).
The George Vaux Papers center on the family and business concerns of the surgeon, George Vaux V (1721-1803), and his lineal descendants, George Vaux VII, and George Vaux VIII (1832-1915). Many of the Vauxes, Quakers, were involved in charitable and reform activities, including anti-slavery, poor relief, and Indian missions. Other, related families represented in the collection are the Warders, Sansoms, Heads, Graffs, Morrises, Cressons, and Mayberrys.
Vaux, Roberts (1786-1836). Address on the impolicy of slavery; 1 January 1824.
37 pp.
Delivered in Philadelphia before an "association formed for the education of men of colour." Vaux shows how slavery adversely affects the interest, happiness, and safety of the owner, slave, society and government.
Willis, William S., Jr. (1921-1983). Papers, 1940s-83.
ca.7000 items (7 linear ft.).
This collection includes correspondence, lecture notes, manuscripts of his writings, working notes, etc., of Dr. Willis'' career as an anthropologist of the Indians of the southeastern United States, as professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University and teacher at Columbia University, and as a historian of anthropology interested in Afro-American history, and particularly racism in anthropology and the career of Franz Boas.