Research Links

Over to the right side of the screen, you will see a new feature, this list:

Douglass and Women Research Resources
(these are not linked -- you have to go over to the side bar for the link!)

• "A Partnership in the Abolition Movement," University of Rochester Library Bulletin
• Amy Kirby Papers, Clements Library, University of Michigan
• Anti-Slavery Literature Project
• Black Abolitionist Archive
• Boston Public Library Antislavery Collection
• Dccumenting the American South
• Epitaph, Friends of Mount Hope (cemetery) Newsletter
• Frederick Douglass National Historic Site (Cedar Hill), Anacostia, D.C.
• Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Virtual Museum Exhibit
• Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress, American Memory
• Frederick Douglass Project, University of Rochester
• Frederick Douglass, Maryland State Archives
• Garrison Family Papers, Sophia Smith Collection
• Howard Coles Collection, Rochester Museum and Science Center
• Lynn (Mass.) Museum and Historical Society
• Porter Family Papers, University of Rochester
• Post Family Papers, University of Rochester
• Rochester History (journal) Index
• Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society Papers, Clements Library, University of Michigan
• Samuel J. May Antislavery Collection
• Women's Rights National Historic Park, Seneca Falls
• WorldCat (global library catalog)

The list links to various websites relating to Frederick Douglass and Women that you might find interesting for yourself or, if you are a teacher, your students. Some are finding aids for archival collections, which describe the collection and sometimes tell you specific items that are in the collection. Others take you to websites for museums and historic sites connected to Douglass. Some will take you to actual sources, both journal articles and scanned images of historic documents.

Many people are interested in the last because seeing the document, the thing written in the person's hand, is the real thrill of history research. If you want to see documents written by and to Douglass, take a look at Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress, American Memory; Frederick Douglass Project, University of Rochester; and Boston Public Library Antislavery Collection. These are the ones that I use the most online. The Library of Congress site contains the bulk of Douglass's papers, preserved by his second wife, Helen [Pitts] Douglass at Cedar Hill. The project at the University of Rochester has images of letters and some transcriptions of the correspondence to and from Frederick Douglass that are contained in the Post and Porter Family Papers. The Boston Public Library collection has, as of now, the Weston Sisters Papers and good chunks of the William Lloyd Garrison Papers, as well as some Samuel May Papers. Their site is very sophisticated, being more recent and plugged into archive.org. Not only can you see scanned images, but they have included summaries of the letters (to varying degrees of quality) and the letters are indexed for key words.

In fact, if you want a night of history nerd fun, go to the BPL collection and read letters to or from Richard D. Webb, John B. Estlin, and Maria Weston Chapman. They were the living embodiment of Alice Roosevelt Longworth's (often misattributed to the equally scathing Dorothy Parker) recommendation, "if you don't have anything nice to say, come sit next to me."

The National Parks Service at Cedar Hill also has some terrific images of Douglass, his family, the objects in the house, historic images of the house, and a virtual tour of the house.

I will gradually add to the list; but, if you know of any other online resources, feel free to add them in the comments section!