Program in African American History, Library Company of Philadelphia

06/17/2022

Last chance! Join us this Friday for our annual Juneteenth event! We are delighted to be featuring Michelle Browder and her work on the new "Mothers of Gynecology" monument. Register here: https://support.librarycompany.org/juneteenth

06/13/2022

Join us on Friday June 17th for our annual Juneteenth event! We are delighted to be featuring Michelle Browder and her work on the new "Mothers of Gynecology" monument. Register here: https://support.librarycompany.org/juneteenth

06/07/2022

Join us on Friday June 17th for our annual Juneteenth event! We are delighted to be featuring Michelle Browder and her work on the new "Mothers of Gynecology" monument. Register here: https://support.librarycompany.org/juneteenth

05/25/2022

New acquisition alert!

With the generous support from The Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund, the Program in African American History was able to purchase 3 photographs related to Dr. J. H. Mudgett’s Private Hospital and Training School for Nurses.

Dr. John H. Mudgett graduated from Dartmouth Medical School, and was a member of the Temple University Hospital staff and a member of the American Medical Association. He established the Mudgett Hospital & Training School for Nurses which was staffed by African American doctors and nurses.

Depicted below is a class photograph of 14 African American nurses in front of the private hospital. One of the nurses is identified as Helen Watler, a 1919 graduate from Philadelphia.
To view the other two photographs, click the link.

http://ow.ly/m98k50JgLBL

04/22/2022

Check out this clip from the Library Company’s Francis Johnson fellow, Brent White. This fall, White will be showcasing his work at a historically Black church in Philadelphia. Make sure to be on the lookout!

04/04/2022

On March 31, 1870, Thomas Peterson-Mundy was the first African American man to cast his vote under the fifteenth amendment in Perth Amboy, N. J. While the amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870, it wasn’t until March 30, 1870 that it was formally adopted. Nearly 15 years later, Peterson-Mundy received a medal for his courage!

02/28/2022

Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922: From the Library Company of Philadelphia
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This resource is available to on-site readers. To make an appointment, see our website: librarycompany.org
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Encompassing nearly 400 years, the Afro-American Imprints Collection offers over 12,000 searchable books, pamphlets, and broadsides related to the history of Black life in the Americas from 1535-1922. Subjects covered include the discovery and exploitation of Africa by the West; the rise of slavery in the New World along with the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought and racism; descriptions of African American life—slave and free—throughout the Americas; and slavery and race in fiction and drama. Also featured are printed works of African American individuals and organizations.
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02/25/2022

Slavery and Abolition in the US: Select Publications of the 1800s
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Find this resource at deila.dickinson.edu/slaveryandabolition/index.html, or on our website at librarycompany.org/using-the-library/resources.
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Slavery and Abolition in the US: Select Publications of the 1800s is a digital collection of books and pamphlets that demonstrate the varying ideas and beliefs about slavery in the United States as expressed by Americans throughout the nineteenth century. The works in this collection reflect arguments on both sides of the slavery debate and include first person narratives, legal proceedings and decisions, anti-slavery tracts, religious sermons, and early secondary works. The collection includes more than 24,000 individual pages of printed text and corresponding searchable transcriptions.
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5d

02/23/2022

Dr. James Still was a self-taught African American medical doctor and herbalist in New Jersey during the 19th century. The success from his “cough balm” allowed him to begin his own medical practice and make house-calls to his patients.

His advice to African American children struggling to be recognized for their achievements was, "Nature teaches the truest philosophy." He urged them to rise above their condition, become the means of new discovery in science, and to keep God first.

From: Early Recollections and Life of Dr. James Still, 1812-1885. Reprint edition. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press,[1973, c1877]).

02/18/2022

The Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
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Find this resource at rmc.library.cornell.edu/mayantislaverycoll, or on our website at librarycompany.org/using-the-library/resources/.
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Cornell Library’s Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection includes over 10,000 pamphlets and ephemera that document the anti-slavery struggle at local, regional, and national levels. Sermons, position papers, offprints, local Anti-Slavery Society newsletters, speeches, poetry anthologies, freedmen's testimonies, broadsides, and Anti-Slavery Fair keepsakes all document the social and political implications of the abolitionist movement and the fight for equality and human rights.
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02/16/2022

The deadline is approaching! Apply to be a part of the Program in African American History’s Mellon Scholars Program. For more information, check out the link below.

https://librarycompany.org/academic-programs/paah/fellowships/

02/16/2022

Helen A. Cook was a prominent African American activist and leader in the women’s club movement. She was the founder and president of the Colored Women’s League of the District of Columbia. The Colored Women’s League was a national women’s club with a mission of serving the Black community by uplifting Black women and children and fighting for their rights. The Colored Women’s League promoted health and wellness by encouraging education, hosting public lectures, and raising funds.

Image from: Afro-American Almanac 1901, (New York, 1900)

02/15/2022

Join us this Thursday for the first Fireside Chat of 2022! will be presenting his 2021 book "The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America, From the Revolution to the Civil War" 🎊Register here🎊:http://ow.ly/OSlM50Htcl0

02/14/2022

Early Caribbean Digital Archive (ECDA)
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Find this resource at ecda.northeastern.edu, or on our website at librarycompany.org/using-the-library/resources/.
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The Early Caribbean Digital Archive (ECDA) is a publicly available archive platform for accessing, researching, and contributing pre-20th-century Caribbean archival materials. The ECDA currently holds 57 early Caribbean texts, including novels, travel narratives, natural histories, colonial documentation, obeah narratives, and slave narratives.

The ECDA has two primary related, overarching goals: the first is to uncover and make accessible a literary history of the Caribbean written or related by black, enslaved, Creole, indigenous, and/or colonized people. The second is to enable users—both scholars of the Caribbean as well as students—to understand the colonial nature of the archive and to use the digital archive as a site of revision and remix for exploring ways to decolonize the archive.
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02/11/2022

The Colored Conventions Project (CCP)
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Find this resource at omeka.coloredconventions.org, or on our website at librarycompany.org/using-the-library/resources/.
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The CCP is an interdisciplinary research hub that uses digital tools to bring the buried history of nineteenth-century Black organizing to life. The project website features hundreds of primary sources from the conventions movement. Primary sources include minutes, proceedings, newspaper articles, speeches, letters, transcripts, and images. The digital collections are organized by year, type, and region. Many primary sources have been transcribed and are keyword searchable.
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02/10/2022

Harriet Tubman’s Disability and Why it Matters - Ms. Magazine

Check out this article about Harriet Tubman written by Dr. Cooper Owens, Director of the Program in African American History.

https://msmagazine.com/2022/02/10/harriet-tubman-disability-democracy/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare&fbclid=IwAR2oJb3AcbVau69aCGP8h8bo-VfeDFdeOda1hnwVuvOuyEoC2elvls-XeSs

In Harriet Tubman's version of freedom, Black women were liberators and a disabled Black woman sat at the center of democracy.

02/09/2022

During the Civil War, African American aid societies were unable to join Sanitary Commission Fairs organized by the city. Therefore, African American organizations were forced to hold separate fairs.

On December 19th, 1864, the ladies of the Sanitary Committee of St. Thomas Episcopal Church of Philadelphia, PA hosted a fair for sick and wounded soldiers. “Believing it a duty we all owe, to assist in the quelling this unholy rebellion of the slave power, and sustaining the U. S. Government in establishing Universal Freedom!”

St. Thomas' Church Sanitary Committee. Fair, for the sick & wounded soldiers! [Philadelphia, 1864].

02/08/2022

Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora.
This educational resource is a digital archive for hundreds of historical images, paintings, lithographs, and photographs illustrating enslaved Africans and their descendants before c. 1900. The two-part website was created for teachers, researchers, students and the general public. It exists to assist anyone interested in visualizing the experiences of Africans and their descendants who were enslaved and transported to slave societies around the world. Images are culled from primary and secondary sources, contain bibliographic citations, and are searchable by category or keyword.
Find this resource at http://slaveryimages.org, or on our website at https://librarycompany.org/using-the-library/resources/

02/02/2022

This year's theme is Black Health and Wellness. “In order to foster good health and wellness Black people have embarked on self-determination, mutual aid and social support initiatives to build hospitals, medical and nursing schools and community clinics.” Each week this month, we will share an image from our collection that focuses on health and wellness within Black communities.

Lucy E. Hubert is the author of Hints on the Care of Children (Philadelphia, 1898). As a young African American mother and pastor’s wife, she observed the lack of knowledge and guidance most families (including her own) had on the care of small children. She wrote this book with the hopes that her observation and experience would benefit other families in need.

02/01/2022

Celebrate Black History Month at the Library Company! Join us next this Thursday. Register here: http://ow.ly/HBFW50Hy85L

01/28/2022

Celebrate Black History Month at the Library Company! Join us next week. Register here: http://ow.ly/HBFW50Hy85L

01/14/2022

Tonight is the night! We kick of 2022 programming with our Program in African American History. Join us for a book talk with 📣 Register here: http://ow.ly/LzT650HhKMj

01/11/2022

Join us this Friday for a book talk with to kick off our 2022 programming! 📣 Register here: http://ow.ly/LzT650HhKMj

01/06/2022

Join us next Friday for a book talk with to kick off our 2022 programming! 📣 Register here: http://ow.ly/LzT650HhKMj

12/24/2021

On behalf of the Program in African American History and the Library Company, we would like to wish you a joyous Holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

This holiday card is from the Stevens-Codgell-Sanders-Venning Collection. The card is attached to an 1876 scrapbook page with a program from the Amphion Choral Society’s First Public Rehearsal and a Valentine note.

For more information about this collection, check out the finding aid, linked below.

https://lcpimages.org/lcpAT/pdf/LCP%20Stevens-Cogdell%202016-12-16.pdf

11/29/2021

The Library Company of Philadelphia’s Program in African American History, with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is pleased to announce the Mellon Scholars Program of fellowships, internships, and workshop for 2022-2023. Application deadline is March 1, 2022 with a decision to be made by April 15.

Post-Doctoral Fellowship, with a stipend of $50,000. Applicants must hold a Ph.D. by September 1, 2022.

Dissertation Fellowship, with a stipend of $25,000. Applicants must be in the later stages of research or writing.

Short-Term Fellowships include a stipend of $2,500 for one month of research. Open to doctoral candidates, Ph.D. holders, and independent scholars.

The Mellon Scholars Internship Program (June 1 through June 29, 2022) provides potential scholars of early African American history with experience in original archival research, guidance on applying to graduate school and developing research agendas, and exposure to the work of research libraries. Interns will be rising seniors or recent college graduates and receive a $1,500 stipend and additional support for travel and housing.

The Mellon Scholars Summer Workshop (June 13 through June 17, 2022) is a one-week professional development program. Workshop participants will be in their first year of graduate study in an MA program or advance undergraduates. Participants will receive a $500 stipend and additional support for travel and housing.

For more information about the Mellon Scholars Program, contact Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, Program Director, at [email protected].