Collections by Subject: African American History Resources
A Selected List of Holdings in Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries
For more information about how to access materials in this guide, please visit the Maryland room web page or fill out an information request.
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African-American and African Pamphlet Collection, 1905-1979. 651 items.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
The African-American and African Pamphlet Collection consists of 20th century materials on African, African-American, and Caribbean culture and literature. The collection spans the years 1905-1979, although the majority of the pamphlets date from the 1960s and 1970s. The pamphlets are in English, French, and a variety of African languages, such as Swahili, Tsonga, Tswana and Xhosa. Some of the unique publications include a transcript of a 1931 worker's trial by the U. S. Communist Party on a race-related incident, 1970s university studies on integration, and texts of speeches given by American radical leaders and leaders of African countries. The collection is arranged alphabetically by subject.
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Spiro T. Agnew papers, 1953-1977. 477.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Spiro T. Agnew's political career as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and Vice President of the United States spanned the period between 1963 and 1973. His political career coincided with historic developments in civil rights, desegregation, discrimination, and other areas of concern to African-Americans both within Maryland and in the United States. This extensive collection includes correspondence, subject files, speeches, press releases, publications, and other documents relating to African-American issues.
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John H. Alexander papers, 1824-1857. 0.75 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Marylander John H. Alexander (1812-1857) pursued a diverse career as lawyer, civil engineer, geologist, and teacher. Included in the collection is a 17-page essay in which Alexander discusses his views on slavery.
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Alumni Office records, 1927-1960. 5.5 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
The Alumni Office was created in 1947 as an on-campus liaison with the university's Alumni Association-International. Its function is to promote the interests and welfare of the university and to further good relations between the university, Maryland residents, and alumni. The office coordinates fundraising events, sponsors social events, and provides members for a variety of university committees. The office also serves a liaison with a variety of related alumni organizations, including the Black Alumni Association. Materials within this collection include minutes, membership rosters, correspondence, press releases, financial records, and files pertaining to relations with other alumni organizations. Portions of this collection are unprocessed, but preliminary inventories are available.
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Office of Alumni Programs records, 1936-1981. 28.50 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
The Office of Alumni Programs is the umbrella organization responsible for the administration of many alumni activities. Its records consist of correspondence, committee reports, and files containing the biographies of prominent alumni, including many African-Americans. This collection is currently unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) archives, 1807-1986. 118.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Association is an organization for teachers, parents, and other adults interested in promoting good educational practices for children from infancy through adolescence. The association was an early advocate for civil rights, denying a 1949 request from three state groups to establish separate organizations for African-Americans. In 1950, the ACEI adopted a policy of equal access as a condition for accepting invitations from groups wishing to host association events and conventions. Documents in the ACEI archives relating to African-American issues include letters, diaries, notes, speeches, and other materials documenting the operation of the association.
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Authors and Poets Collection, 1880-1989 and undated. 8.75 linear feet and 24 items.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
The Authors and Poets collection is a grouping of correspondence, manuscripts, poetry, lyrics, recordings, and other materials relating to various major literary figures. Three African-Americans, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, and Claude Brown, are represented in this collection. Baldwin's works consist of a recorded reading and a press release dating from 1963 and 1968. Items by or about Baraka include galley proofs, newspaper and magazine articles, broadsides, typed manuscripts, and a show card; several of these items are undated, and the remainder are from the period between 1969 and 1972.
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Georgia Benjamin papers, 1943-1953. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Georgia K. Benjamin was a civic and political activist associated with the League of Women Voters in Maryland. One of her concerns was human rights, and material in the collection covers her work in this area in 1953. Documents in the collection include speeches, pamphlets, and notes.
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Berwyn Heights Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) archives, 1952-1981. 1.75 linear feet and 1 item.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Berwyn Heights Elementary School operated in Prince George's County between 1957 and 1981. The Parent-Teacher Association was concerned with school desegregation issues in the 1970s. The collection includes correspondence, reports, newsletters, minutes, and newspaper clippings.
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Bowie Family papers, 1748-1956. 0.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Bowie family owned several plantations in Prince George's County, Maryland, and the family included several prominent planters, businessmen, politicians, and military officers. In addition to providing useful genealogical materials, the collection includes ledgers detailing plantation management, correspondence concerning the American Civil War, and legal documents describing the family's estate.
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Mary Eliza Bradbury papers, January 8, 1855-November 26, 1855. 1 linear inch.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Mary Eliza Bradbury was a school teacher in Elkton, Cecil County, Maryland. She established and operated her own school, and tutored African-American children on Sundays. The collection consists of correspondence with her future husband in which she discusses her religion, teaching, and day-to-day life in Elkton.
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Daniel Brewster papers, 1950-2007. 81 linear feet and 543 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Daniel B. Brewster served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1950 to 1958, in the U. S. House of Representatives as a Maryland representative from 1958 to 1962, and as a U. S. Senator from Maryland from 1962 to 1968. One of his major concerns as a senator was fighting racial discrimination and he co-sponsored the Omnibus Civil Rights Bill and the Public Accommodations Bill of 1964. He also headed a committee to promote racial harmony in Cambridge, Maryland, in 1963. Brewster's subject and correspondence files contain material related to these issues.
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Bureau of Social Science Research archives, 1950-1986. 78.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Bureau of Social Science Research was a private, non-profit group that conducted social science research in Washington, D.C., between 1956 and 1986. A number of BSSR projects collected demographic and needs data to facilitate the planning of social services for African- American families. Additional research teams investigated a variety of areas related to African-American communities, including income maintenance and rural health care delivery services. Material in the collection regarding these issues includes correspondence, research notes, and reports.
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Harry Clifton Byrd papers, 1895-1970. 29.75 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
Harry Clifton Byrd was president of the University of Maryland from 1935 to 1954. During his tenure as president, Byrd worked toward the establishment of separate campuses and facilities for African-American students. Material relating to the university in this collection consists of correspondence, pamphlets, minutes, reports, financial statements, and statistics.
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Office of the Chancellor records, 1967-1978. 97.00 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
The Office of the Chancellor was created in 1970, following the reorganization of the university system, as the highest- level administrative office on the University of Maryland College Park campus. Processed records of this office span the period from 1967 to 1978, with the bulk of the material dating from 1972 to 1978. Files within this record group include those relating to a wide range of African-American groups that were organized or functioned on the campus during the 1970s. The record group also contains the reports of the Chancellor's Commission on Minority Student Education (1972-1975). Additional files concern the creation of the Afro-American Studies program in 1972 and continuing efforts at desegregation on the campus and in the surrounding community. Processed portions of this collection are open for research; access to the remaining unprocessed material is restricted, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Claude-Gray-Hughes-Tuck-Whittington Family papers, 1793-1938. 13.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
This collection consists of the papers of five prominent, interrelated families associated with Annapolis, Maryland. Attitudes toward African-Americans and slavery are discussed in correspondence, diaries, and other writings included in the papers.
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College Park Campus Senate records, 1971-1993. 23.00 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
The legislative powers of the College Park campus system of governance are vested in the Campus Senate. This body is composed of elected representatives of the administration, faculty, staff, and students. The role of the Senate is to consider any matter of concern to the campus, including educational programs, budget, personnel, campus-community relations, long-range plans, facilities, faculty, staff, and student affairs. Issues of concern to African-Americans that have been addressed by the Senate include the university's Excellence through Diversity efforts, core curriculum programs, and human and community relations. The records of the Senate include agendas, minutes, correspondence, reports, by-laws, and newspaper clippings.
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Leon Washington Condol papers, 1809-1972. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The papers of Leon Washington Condol document his family's history as slaves in Maryland and Virginia and their gradual migration north in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The collection includes family documents, newspaper clippings, photographs, and portraits of family members. The story of Leon Washington Condol's great grandmother, Mary Ann "Auntie" Cord--her life as a slave, her separation from her children, her surprising reunion with her youngest son, and her eventual employment with the family of Mark Twain--was captured by Twain in his sketch, "A True Story. Related Word for Word as I Heard It." A rare, autographed copy of this work, previously included in the Condol Papers, has been transferred to the Rare Books Department. The family portraits are on display in the History Department in Francis Scott Key Hall at the University of Maryland at College Park campus and at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis.
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Cuba Company archives, 1894-1960. 273.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Cuba Company was an American firm which developed railroads and sugar plantations in eastern Cuba following the Spanish- American War. The company and its subsidiaries also held large amounts of undeveloped land and sugar mills, as well as several hotels. The company substantially influenced Cuban society, politics, and economics during its sixty- year history (1899-1959). Documents in the archives include correspondence, company management and financial records, and other files documenting the internal operations of the company. Of particular interest are letters in the correspondence series relating to the Negro protest of 1912 and labor disputes and strikes.
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Leonidas Dodson papers, 1842-1889. 1.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Leonidas Dodson (1822-1889), was a banker, teacher, and prominent citizen of Easton, Maryland. His journals are a rich source of information about local and national events, and about Dodson's church, civic, and work responsibilities. Though not a slaveholder himself, Dodson occasionally hired the slaves of others for household work. He was not an abolitionist, but felt ambivalent about the institution of slavery; he was distressed when he witnessed a family being separated on the auction block, but also confessed to uneasiness about the societal results of the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment. He was also very attached to a local slave named Emily, who died of measles at the age of twelve and was close to some of his children.
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Thomas S. Duckett Family papers, 1854-1943. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Duckett family papers consist of correspondence, financial records, and legal documents that span the years 1854-1943 with the bulk of the material dating between 1854 and 1893. One of the legal documents is a certificate to exempt a slave from the Civil War draft.
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Giles-Johnson Defense Committeearchives, 1962-1971. 8.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Giles-Johnson Defense Committee was established in 1962 to aid three young African-American men who were sentenced to death after being convicted of the rape of a young white girl. This case outraged the community because of the severity of the sentence, the suppression of evidence by the state, and the perception of racially motivated injustice at the trial. The case was appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court and resulted in changes in Maryland law relating to the introduction of newly discovered evidence. Two of the three principals in the case, James and John Giles, were retried and acquitted in 1967. The third defendant, Joseph Johnson, was pardoned by then-governor Spiro T. Agnew in 1968. The collection consists of correspondence, reports, legal documents, newspaper clippings, and other material relating to the case.
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Grimes Family papers, 1821-1902. 3.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Grimes family of Oxon Hill, Prince George's County, Maryland maintained a farm as well as a store and tavern or 'ordinary' throughout the nineteenth century. The Grimes family papers include financial ledgers from the store, daybooks recording work on the farm, weather, and local and family news, legal agreements about land and labor, and correspondence. Though the Grimes family did not own slaves, Thomas Grimes often hired slaves owned by other local families to work on his farm. Correspondence and entries in Grimes' daybooks record this practice.
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Louis R. Harlan papers, 1944-2000. 72.00 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
Louis R. Harlan is a retired University of Maryland professor of history. He is widely known as an author and editor of books and articles on Booker T. Washington, including two biographies and a fourteen-volume documentary series based on Washington's papers. Material in the collection covers a wide range of topics, including African-American history and culture, civil rights, and Booker T. Washington. The collection consists of correspondence, academic files, galley proofs of Harlan's books, and numerous notes and miscellaneous documents. Dr. Harlan's papers are unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Hepburn Family papers, 1739-1813. 18 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The collection consists primarily of legal documents relating to Hepburn family (Prince George's County, Maryland) members' personal and business transactions. Included is a three-party prenuptial agreement between Philip Thomas, John Hepburn, and his soon-to-be wife Mary Chew, regarding the disposition of Mary Chew's property, including 30 named slaves. Also included is a deed of gift for a slave that Samuel Hepburn gave to son John Muir.
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Ann R. Hull papers, 1964-1978. 21.5 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
Ann R. Hull served as State Delegate from the second district of Prince George's County in the Maryland General Assembly from 1966 to 1978 and was Speaker Pro Tem of the House of Delegates during the 1975-1976 session. Delegate Hull was also president of the League of Women Voters of Prince George's County from 1962 to 1965 and was vice president of the state league from 1965 to 1966. During this time, Delegate Hull worked on several issues of concern to the African-American community, including civil rights, education, housing, and public health. Documents in the collection that relate to these issues include correspondence, reports, studies, and minutes.
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Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America (IUMSWA) archives, 1934-1970. 188.75 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America was organized in the 1930s to resist arbitrarily imposed wage reductions and massive unemployment caused by the Great Depression. The subsequent rise of fascism in Europe contributed to the developing strength of the union through an increasing emphasis in the U. S. economy on the production of shipping and war-related materials. Membership reached a peak of over 250,000 during the war years. Materials in the archives discuss the role of African-American and other minority workers in the organization and subsequent expansion of the union. Documents relating to these issues include extensive correspondence files, membership lists, reports, minutes, case files, and a wide range of miscellaneous documents. A substantial addition to the IUMSWA Archives was received in 1991. This material consists of the records of Local 18, a predominantly African-American local from Mobile, Alabama. These records include membership lists, committee reports, and numerous grievance files that relate to discrimination in the shipyards where the union members were employed.
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Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan No. 51, Mt. Rainier, Maryland archives, 1924-1965. 1.50 linear feet and 1 item.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
This collection consists of the records of Klan No. 51, founded in Prince George's County in 1915. The focus of this group was originally anti- Catholicism, but, by the 1960s, this had shifted to resistance to integration and the Civil Rights movement. Documents in the collection consist of minutes, correspondence, Klan publications, and a poster advertising a movie entitled The Burning Cross.
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Aubrey Land papers, 1755-1985. 2.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Aubrey C. Land was a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland's history department. He was a full professor and served as chair of the department from 1958 to 1968. Dr. Land authored several books about the production of agricultural commodities using slave labor in the southern United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His collection consists of documents related to the trade of such commodities through Philadelphia merchants between 1759 and 1881. These materials include bookkeeping records, invoices, promissory notes, correspondence, and other miscellaneous business records in English, French, and German.
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William Preston Lane papers, 1925-1966. 27.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
William Preston Lane, Jr., was a prominent Maryland politician in the period between 1928 and 1961. He served at various times as a member of the Washington County Board of Education, Attorney General for the State of Maryland, and as Governor of Maryland (1946-1950). In 1933, as Attorney General, his anti-lynching campaign won him national recognition. Lane's papers include correspondence, speeches, reports, campaign files, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings.
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League of Women Voters of Maryland archives, 1910-1985. 32.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The League of Women Voters of Maryland was founded in 1921, shortly after the passage of the Twentieth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution granting women the right to vote. The league has been involved in several issues of concern to the African-American community, including civil rights, child labor, the poll tax, and redistricting and reapportionment of legislative districts. Documents relating to these issues in the league's archives include correspondence, reports, newsletters, and other printed materials.
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League of Women Voters of Prince George's County archives, 1921-1997. 41 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The League of Women Voters of Prince George's County was founded in 1922, the year after the state and national leagues. The county league prepares presentations of facts about issues of local concern, which in Prince George's County have included busing, public transportation, and housing. Correspondence, minutes, annual reports, and other materials within the collection document these issues.
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College of Library and Information Services (CLIS) records, 1961-1995. 3.00 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
The College of Library and Information Services' (CLIS) primary mission is the education of library and information science professionals. Its records consist of subject files, drawings, and films related to the administration, facilities, and students of the college. Of particular concern to the African-American community are files relating to CLIS's affirmative action programs.
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Hervey Machen papers, 1937-1968. 41.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Hervey Machen was City Attorney for the towns of Cheverly and Hyattsville, Maryland, between 1947 and 1957, and was the Assistant State's Attorney for Prince George's County between 1947 and 1951. In 1954 he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served until 1964, when he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives. He served there until 1968. During his political career, Machen was concerned with civil and voting rights issues and also worked on poverty and education programs. Documents in the collection covering these activities include correspondence, speeches, publications, reports, and other miscellaneous material from all phases of Machen's career.
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Magon de la Ballus letterbook, 1756-1757. 1.5 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Magon de la Ballus was a descendant of a merchant family prominent in the port of St. Malo, France, in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. During the 1700s, the family became one of the wealthiest in St. Malo, and their ship Balue (or Ballus) was used in the transportation of a wide range of commodities. The papers of Magon de la Ballus consist of a letterbook, written entirely in French, which documents, among other topics, the transportation and trading of slaves in the period between October 1756 and May 1757.
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Theodore R. McKeldin papers, 1880-1980. 91.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Theodore R. McKeldin was a prominent politician who served as a two-term mayor of Baltimore (1943-1947 and 1963-1967) and governor of Maryland (1951-1959). Early in his career, McKeldin established a reputation as an advocate of racial integration and civil rights, an advocacy which continued throughout his public career. Two of his most significant accomplishments in these areas were his appointment of the first African-American to the Baltimore School Board during his first term as mayor, and serving as host for a meeting of the Congress of Racial Equality in Baltimore in 1966. McKeldin's papers include copies of his speeches and public presentations, office files, conference papers, and books, scrapbooks, and other materials that document his career both as governor of Maryland and Baltimore's mayor.
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National Organizers Alliance archives, 1991-2004. 48 linear feet and 2 mapcase drawers.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The National Organizers Alliance (NOA), founded in 1993 by organizers working across the spectrum of progressive social justice movements, has a two-fold purpose. NOA's mission is to advance progressive organizing for social, economic and environmental justice and to sustain, support and nurture the people of all ages who do it. The Archives of the National Organizers Alliance include working papers documenting the activities of the organization, including regional organizing, meeting notes, membership information, video and audio tapes, photographs, and posters. Also documented are recruitment efforts among minority groups, including African Americans and immigrants.
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Overseas Education Fund archives, 1947-1991. 393.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Overseas Education Fund (OEF) of the League of Women Voters is a private, non-profit organization focused on improving the economic status of women in Third World countries, particularly in Africa and South America. The OEF has concentrated on small enterprise development, cooperativism, vocational training, job placement, legal education, and institution building. The OEF Archives consist of correspondence, financial records, reports, memorabilia, and other documents detailing the operation of this organization and its projects. The collection is currently unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Office of the President, University of Maryland records, 1868-1988. 67.5 linear feet (processed); approx. 900 linear feet (unprocessed).
Location: University of Maryland
The Office of the President was created in 1859 following the establishment of the Maryland Agricultural College in 1856. In the early days, the President's Office set admissions policy, created curricula guidelines, hired faculty, administered the budget, and lobbied for funds. The president even occasionally taught classes. After the college was renamed the University of Maryland in 1920, many administrative activities were delegated to a growing number of staff employees. The President's Office now focuses on promoting and executing the mission and long-range goals of the University and on raising funds to meet those goals. The records of two presidents of the university are of particular interest in terms of African-American issues. During the tenure of Harry Clifton Byrd, who served as president from 1935 to 1954, the university became the first southern state university to admit African-American students to graduate and professional schools and later became the first to admit African-American undergraduates. Byrd was succeeded by Wilson Homer Elkins, who served as president between 1954 and 1978. Files created during Elkins' presidency reflect the concerns of the university community with desegregation and other related issues. The records of the President's Office from these two administrations consist of correspondence, committee reports, minutes, other printed materials, and photographs. Access to this record group is restricted; it is unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Sellman Family papers, 1828-1908. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Sellman Family Papers span the years 1828 through 1908 with the bulk of the material dating between 1850 and 1865 and document the lives of a landowning family in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The collection contains family and business correspondence; bills and receipts; guardianship documents; handwriting exercises; and household and farm account books and diaries. Subjects covered include daily life; farm management; the cholera epidemic in Grand Gulf, Mississippi; treatment of slaves; sale of crops in Baltimore; and the education of the Sellman children at home and at St. John's College in Annapolis.
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Lathrop Smith papers, 1930-1972. 8.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Lathrop Smith was a local political activist who served as president of the Montgomery County Farm Bureau in the 1950s. He also served as a member of the Montgomery County Planning Commission and was a member and then president of the county's Board of Education. Although Smith's primary concerns were conservation and environmental issues, he was also involved in the fight against discrimination in Montgomery County, a struggle touched upon in the correspondence, reports, and news articles of which Smith's papers consist.
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Sterling Family papers, 1862-1864. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
This collection consists of correspondence between several members of the Sterling family between 1862 and 1864. Will and Tillie Sterling lived in Annapolis during the Civil War, and Will Sterling served in the First Infantry of the Army of the Potomac. The family's correspondence consists mainly of accounts of day-to-day events, but slaves and slavery are discussed in several letters as are secession and other political issues of the time.
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Stoddert Family papers, 1797-1939. 38 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Stoddert family of Virginia and Maryland traces its history to Richard Parker, the Viriginia judge at the trial of abolitionist John Brown, and General William Smallwood, a Revoluntionary War soldier from Charles County, Maryland. The collection contains family correspondence, legal documents, and genealogies of various families connected to the Stodderts. It also includes material related to West Hatton, the Stoddert family home in Charles County; the trial of abolitionist John Brown; and a 1906 "colored" wedding in Winchester, Virginia.
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William Stone papers, 1762-1876. 0.25 linear feet (75 items).
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
William B. Stone was a prominent nineteenth-century lawyer in Charles County, Maryland; Stone's family was long involved in Maryland and national politics, and Stone himself was considered for a federal judgeship in the mid-nineteenth century. The collection consists of correspondence written to Stone by various friends, colleagues, and clients, including several letters that discuss slavery and individual slaves.
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Division of Student Affairs records, 1947-1970. 12.75 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
This division administered a wide range of student-related functions, including student organizations, housing, dining, and other student services on the university campus during the period from approximately 1933 to 1970. The campus was reorganized in 1970, and at that time the Division became the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. The Division of Student Affairs created a wide range of subject files, many of which are directly associated with African-American issues. In addition to subject files, the records of this office include correspondence, minutes, budgets, and a wide range of miscellaneous files.
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Suburban Maryland Fair Housing, Inc. archives, 1962-1986. 21.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Suburban Maryland Fair Housing is a private, non-profit organization, founded in 1963 and headquartered in Rockville, that seeks to establish fair and affordable housing in Maryland. The group is concerned with a variety of issues, including racial discrimination in housing rentals and sales and the practice of "redlining" housing districts on the basis of racial composition. The archives include materials documenting the history and development of the corporation and its various programs. The collection is unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Warfield Family papers, 1801-1960. 10.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
This collection includes the papers of Edwin A. Warfield (1848-1928), Governor of Maryland, politician, and gentleman farmer, and of his son, Edwin Warfield, Jr. The collection includes correspondence, clippings, financial records, diaries, scrapbooks, maps, pamphlets, memorabilia, and photographs. Included are clippings and photographs relating to the "crime, capture, trial, and execution" of William Lee in 1906. Lee was hanged on Smith Island for allegedly assaulting two white women.
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archives of the Booker T. Washington papers Editorial Project, 1967-1984. 66.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Booker T. Washington Papers documentary editing project originated in 1967 and was the first project of its kind to deal with the problems of editing and publishing the papers of a prominent African-American. This endeavor was headquartered at the University of Maryland and was directed by Dr. Louis Harlan, a prominent professor of southern and African-American history. The project published a fourteen- volume edition of Washington's papers. Its records consist of office and business files, extensive correspondence, galley proofs, indexes, and biographical notes on persons who corresponded with Washington. This collection is unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Weems-Reynolds Family papers, 1713-1940. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Weems family is one of the oldest families in Maryland and has long been associated with Anne Arundel County and Annapolis. The family's papers consist of correspondence and a wide variety of other documents, including wills, legal papers, poetry, and handwritten manuscripts. Slaves and slavery are discussed in the correspondence and legal papers, and a handwritten manuscript details one of the family member's ideas about race and race relations in the antebellum southern United States.
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Ruth S. Wolf papers, 1955-1976. 5.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Ruth S. Wolf was a member of the Prince George's County Board of Education from 1968 to 1973, serving as board president during the 1970-1971 school year. The papers document the activities of the Prince George's County Board of Education and the desegregation of the county public schools. The collection consists of clippings, correspondence, court documents, maps, memoranda, minutes, press releases, publications, reports, statements, statistical information, and working papers.
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Work Projects Administration in Maryland records, 1933-1943. 29.50 linear feet and 50 reels microfilm.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
This collection consists of administrative and project records of the Maryland WPA and several of its predecessor agencies. Among these materials is an extensive run of notes, newspaper clippings, and draft articles and essays used or produced by the Maryland Federal Writers' Project between 1935 and 1939. Among these subject files are ones relating to slavery in Maryland, including information on the Underground Railroad and several slave narratives. Some of the slave narratives are also available at the Library of Congress through the Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 project.
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Albert R. Wynn papers, 1983-2008. 37.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Albert R. Wynn represented Maryland's Fourth Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 2008. During his time in Congress Wynn was active in the Congressional Black Caucus, serving on the group's Political Action Com
University Publications
For more information, visit the University Archives
The university publications collection consists of a wide variety of printed materials produced by and about the various administrative units, academic departments, and student groups on the College Park campus. The listing below includes those publications that are specifically oriented toward the African-American experience on campus or issues of concern to the African-American community. Many other documents in this collection, such as annual reports from various offices, compilations of statistics, and publications like yearbooks, the Outlook, and the Diamondback, all periodically contain material related to African-Americans or African-American issues. The university's many departments and divisions continue to create publications which are added to this collection.
The Archives and Manuscripts Department maintains a card catalog and backlog list for university publications. Particularly useful headings to examine in the card catalog include affirmative action, African-Americans, Afro-Americans, black students, minority students, minority affairs, or negro students. The backlog list should also be examined to identify offices or other units producing relevant materials.
In the listing below, headings under which items may be located are underlined followed by related individual titles within that category.
Afro-American Studies Program. The Afro-American Studies program produces a quarterly publication entitled the AASP Newsletter. The Journal of Southern African Affairs was also published by the department from 1976 to 1979. In addition, fliers and announcements of events sponsored by the program are also held in the collection.
Division of Agricultural and Life Sciences. This grouping includes a 1977 report entitled "Minority Americans in the Agricultural and Life Sciences."
Agricultural Experiment Station. The Agricultural Experiment Station's Bulletin #X4 is entitled "The Economic and Social Status of Rural Negro Families in Maryland" (1948).
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Many of the University's employees are members of this organization. The union produces a newsletter, AFSCME in Action, which contains frequent articles on African- American members and community concerns.
Association of Black Faculty and Staff. This group has produced several position papers and reports concerning African- American issues within the campus community as well as a statement of goals for the organization, dated 1970.
Central Administration. A series of annual reports on minority business activity in the on- and off-campus communities was produced by this office.
Counseling Center. The Counseling Center has produced numerous research reports that deal with African-American issues and concerns both among student groups and off-campus communities. These reports cover a wide variety of topics, including racial profiles of incoming students and different aspects of the racial attitudes of the student community.
Cooperative Extension Service. The Cooperative Extension Service (CES) published a study entitled Bittersweet Perspectives on Maryland's Extension Service (1990). This report summarizes and discusses the role of African-Americans in the Extension Service since its inception in 1914. The CES holdings also include some of the combined annual reports produced by individual county agents identified in the Bittersweet Perspectives study and the 1959 report entitled "Report on Negro County Work Demonstration Programs."
Cultural Study Center. The Cultural Study Center produced numerous publications concerning African-Americans on campus, in academia, and in the world community.
Data Research Center. This office produced a variety of reports on student population demographics, academic qualifications of incoming students, and other statistical compilations including information on African-Americans at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Department of Geography. The Department of Geography published a geographical perspective on the black community in Annapolis ca. 1870-1885 (Occasional Paper #4).
Office of Graduate Minority Affairs. This office produced a black graduate student directory for the 1988-1989 academic year.
Department of History. The Department of History produced "The Report of the Special Committee on Afro-American Studies" in 1969. The department also publishes the journal Maryland Historian, which contains occasional articles on aspects of the African-American community both on- and off-campus.
History of the University of Maryland. Publications produced by a variety of campus groups, organizations, and individuals have been placed under this heading. This grouping contains material related to student demonstrations and unrest on the campus in the late 1960s and early 1970s, much of which is related to African-American concerns of the time. Two published histories of the university have also been placed under this heading. George Callcott's A History of the University of Maryland contains sections on desegregation and related issues at the university. Wilson Elkins' memoirs, Forty Years as a College President, contains discussions of African-American student protests at the university in the 1960s and 1970s.
Office of Human Relations. This office is responsible for the overall planning and supervision of affirmative action programs for the university and has produced numerous reports detailing both the structure and the implementation of these programs. In addition, this office has published selected reports on desegregation and integration, discrimination, and other topics of concern to the African- American student community.
Office of Institutional Research. This office produced a variety of reports on student population demographics, academic qualifications of incoming students, and other statistical compilations including information on African- Americans at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Office of Institutional Studies. This office succeeded the Office of Institutional Research discussed above. It produces compilations of statistical data on the racial composition of the College Park campus community and other related topics.
Center for Minorities in Science and Engineering. The collection contains two publications from this unit, a report on a science enrichment program for local junior high schools and a brochure about the center for prospective minority science and engineering students.
Office of Minority Student Affairs. A report titled "A Proposal to the University of Maryland Administration for the Funding of the Nyumburu Community Cultural Center" was published by this office in 1972. The collection also holds a program for the 1986 Minority Focus Day produced by this office.
Office of Minority Student Education. This office was the successor to the Office of Minority Student Affairs. The office produced numerous reports, newsletters, programs, and other publications by and about minority students at the University of Maryland.
Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Education. The proceedings of two annual conferences sponsored by this office are held in the collection. These reports are titled Retention 2000: Leadership and Empowerment Strategies for Ethnic Minorities in Higher Education, published in 1992, and Retention 2000: Strategies That Empower: Collaborate, Educate, and Excel, published in 1993.
Nyumburu Cultural Center. A single brochure produced by the center listing student groups and activities oriented toward African-Americans is held in the collection.
Office of the President (UMCP). The President's Office has periodically produced reports on minority recruitment and retention, and has compiled statistics regarding minority graduation. The President's Office policy and procedures manual contains official university policies regarding a range of issues of concern to the African-American community on campus. In addition, the office has produced two reports that deal specifically with issues of concern to African-American students, faculty, and staff at the university. The first of these, produced in 1989, is entitled Access Is Not Enough: A Report to the President Concerning Opportunities for Blacks at the University of Maryland at College Park. The second report, produced in 1993, is entitled Decision and Report of the University of Maryland at College Park Regarding the Benjamin Banneker Scholarship Program.
Board of Regents. The Board periodically produces reports on student population demographics and other statistics that contain information regarding African-American students. A 1968 Regents' report by Wilson H. Elkins is also present in the collection; this report is entitled "Statement in Response to Questions Raised by Students and Faculty Members Pertaining to Opportunities for Negroes at the University of Maryland."
Office of Student Affairs. The publications from this office include material from an institutional racism workshop conducted by the office in 1971.
Office of Student Aid. In 1975, the Office of Student Aid produced a series of reports on the NAACP hearings concerning the problems of higher education in Maryland.
Office of Student Financial Aid. The Black Coalition of the University of Maryland Campuses produced a position paper and recommendations for this office on creating a model minority financial aid and grant program for the state of Maryland.
Student Organizations. A variety of African-American-oriented student organizations have produced reports or other publications that are part of this collection. These groups include the Black Graduating Seniors Committee, Black Student Union, Black Women's Council, Mary McLeod Bethune Society, Maryland Gospel Choir, and National Black Feminist Organization.
Student Publications. The collection holds a number of student publications by or about African-Americans. These publications include: Black Explosion, Eclipse, NIA: A Mini-Anthology of Black Writing at the University of Maryland, and Ebony Spotlight.
Task Forces and Committees. The Chancellor's office and other organizations on campus have sponsored task forces that have produced reports grouped under this heading. Subjects of task force reports include: academic achievement of student athletes; desegregation planning; ethnic and minority issues; excellence through diversity programs; minority student education; violence and extremism; and black student demonstrations.
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has produced two newsletters, the Minority Perspective and the Minority Presence, for new students at the university.
The Office of Undergraduate Studies. In February 2010, the Office of Undergraduate Studies and the Office of the Provost published Meeting the Challenge of Diversity 1968-1976: The Intensive Educational Development Program and Change at the University of Maryland. In detailing the history of the IED program, the report, available here, documents the university's transformation from "an intentionally white school" to a "modern university that is known for its gifted and multicultural study body."
Maryland Manuscripts
For more information, visit Historical Manuscripts
The Maryland Manuscripts grouping consists of a diverse array of materials, including letters, diaries, printed ephemera, and legal records, many of which relate to the history of African-Americans in Maryland and the United States during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. A major category within the collection consists of slavery-related documents. This material includes correspondence, bounties for military service of slaves, slave deeds, legal and financial records, broadsides, petitions for freedom, manumissions, travel permits, inventories, and reports.
The Maryland Manuscripts Collection includes several items of special interest pertaining to African-Americans:
MDMS 4077 Charles Benedict Calvert Slave Account Book--This book includes a list of the names, ages, values, and sale price for over 330 slaves residing at several of Calvert's farms in Maryland during the mid-nineteenth century.
MDMS 4256 Abigail Fisher Album of Memory--This album contains poems, words of advice, and signatures of people with whom Abigail Fisher came into contact during the period 1825 to 1847. One of these individuals was Frederick Douglass, who wrote a short poem and signed Fisher's book.
MDMS 4707 Cedar Haven Documents--The Cedar Haven Documents consist of a promotional scrapbook, section plans, and a flyer for a proposed waterfront development designed as a vacation community for African-Americans. This material, dating roughly between 1926 and 1931, also includes photographs of Mordecai Johnson, first African-American president of Howard University, and George William Cook, dean of Howard University's School of Commerce and Finance.
MDMS 5213 John Jacob Omenhausser Sketchbook--This sketchbook is comprised of sixty-two water color paintings depicting daily life in the Civil War prison camp at Point Lookout in St. Mary's County, Maryland. The sketches include images of African-American prisoners and soldiers.
MDMS 5389 Ignatious Davis Broadside--This broadside, dated 1793, contains a description of an escaped slave named Arch, and offers a ten dollar reward for his return. Arch's appearance, clothing, and mannerisms are described in some detail.
Authors and Poets
For more information, visit Literary Manuscripts
The Authors and Poets collection is a grouping of correspondence, manuscripts, poetry, lyrics, recordings, and other materials relating to various major literary figures. Three African-Americans, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, are represented in this collection. Baldwin's works consist of a recorded reading and a press release dating from 1963 and 1968. Items by or about Baraka include galley proofs, newspaper and magazine articles, broadsides, typed manuscripts, and a show card; several of these items are undated, and the remainder are from the period between 1969 and 1972. A single, undated, musical score on which Paul Lawrence Dunbar collected with Leoni Franco is included in the collection.
Photographs
The holdings of the Archives and Manuscript Department include numerous images of African-Americans both on and off the University of Maryland at College Park campus. In particular, images from the Leon Washington Condol collection depict various family members including "Auntie" Cord, a cook in the household of Mark Twain. Works Progress Administration photographs included in the collection record African-Americans at work in the first half of the twentieth century. In addition, collections from the Office of Sports Information contain images of African-American student athletes.