Found 172 collections.

African-American abolitionist, orator, author, diplomat and public official, born in slavery circa 1817. Ten autograph letters signed by Frederick Douglass; typescript of "John Brown," an address delivered at Harpers Ferry and edited in Douglass's own hand; one pamphlet of an Anti-Fugitive Slave Law Meeting at which Douglass presided in 1851; obituaries of Douglass; miscellaneous printed matter; photocopies and research materials relating to Douglass. Substantive letters include an April 24 [1869?] A.L.S. to Downing [George Thomas?] on the appointment of Ebenezer Bassett as United States resident minister to Haiti, a post for which Douglass had been considered and which he would accept in 1889; and an 1894 letter to Rev. R.A. Armstrong written on behalf of Ida B. Wells, then traveling in Europe to speak against racial discrimination and lynchings of African-Americans in southern states. less

A collection of bills of sale, deeds, passes, certificates of registry, manumission papers, wills, and speeches. Also, letters relating to slavery-related court cases, including the Amistad slave ship revolt. Also includes letters by prominent abolitionists William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, and William Lloyd Garrison with their views and comments on the abolition movement. less

The Schomburg Menu Collection consists of 84 menus and related ephemera such as banquet and private dinner menus, wine lists, floor plans, invitations and photo covers, dated from 1893 through ca. 2000. Included in the collection are menus from Harlem and New York restaurants, such as Sylvia's restaurant and Home Sweet Harlem Café, and nightclubs such as, Club Baby Grand, The Cotton Club, Savoy Ballroom and Smalls Paradise. There are also items from the African Pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair, Ethiopian Airlines, Fort Huachaca, home of the Buffalo Soldiers, Motown Café, Royal Air Maroc, and the foreign minister's residence in Liberia. less

The Miscellaneous Afro-Latin American collection consists of a mix of official, private, and family papers from colonial Spanish American territories: Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The documents are all from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, except for a chronology of the history of blacks in Uruguay from 1680-1990. less

The John W. Cooper Collection documents Cooper's long career as a ventriloquist. Included are letters received from ventriloquists, magicians and other entertainers discussing their experiences, and from various organizations where Cooper performed, arranging for gigs and thanking him for his performances, including for the USO Camp shows during World War II (1906-1966). Letters from William S. Berger, president of the Vent Haven Museum in Kentucky, discuss the museum; and there is correspondence with entertainment organizations to which he belonged. There are also a few scripts of dialogue for Cooper and his figure, Sam, and writings by Cooper regarding teaching the art of ventriloquism to students. Promotional literature and programs for Cooper's performances as well as other ventriloquists and performers are in the collection. Scrapbooks about his career include programs, letters, promotional material, and news clippings (1897-1947). less

The collection consists of individual items and small groups of Haitian documents mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. It includes miscellaneous correspondence of Etienne Polvérel and Félicité Sonthonax, members of the Civil Commission sent by the French government to the Windward Islands "to restore order and tranquillity" in 1793, and of various Haitian heads of state, among them Nissage Saget (1874), Lysius Félicité Salomon (1883) and Tirésias Simon Sam (1897). Also included are a 1778 inventory listing the names, age, trades and physical condition of 149 slaves on the Beaugé Plantation in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue; a 1785 manumission certificate for Jeanne Aline, a sixteen year-old slave girl; miscellaneous French colonial administration documents ranging from 1791 to 1803; two letters from Henri Christophe to Tobias Lear, U.S. Consul to Saint-Domingue in 1802, and to Corneille Brelle, a French priest appointed Grand Almoner and Archbishop of Haiti in 1811; 1830s Masonic certificates from the Grande Loge d'Haiti; and a group of six autograph letters with attachments from the Haitian surrealist poet Clément Magloire-Saint-Aude (1968-1970). Diplomatic correspondence includes 35 letters from the Haitian Legation in Paris to the Haitian Ministry of Foreign Relations, 1911-1914, relating to the purchase of 10,000 guns and 500,000 rounds of ammunition in France, and to a 36-hour British ultimatum to the Haitian government. Also a group of letters from the Haitian Legation in Ciudad Trujillo (Santo Domingo) that give a sense of the general situation between the two countries prior to the October 1937 massacre of 10,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic. less

Virginia Girvin was an actor, print ad-model, real estate agent, and community activist. As an actor, Girvin worked in multiple mediums such as stage, film, and radio. Her roles were mainly as a domestic, nurse, chorus member, or crowd member. A lifetime member of the Negro Actors Guild, the high point of Girvin's involvement with the organization was in 1970 when she served as its Vice President. Between acting roles and after she could no longer secure that type of work, Girvin was employed as a secretary and a real estate agent. She worked with Donbar Enterprises-Sundale, a real estate development corporation based in Westbury, Long Island, that developed a number of integrated communities throughout the Northeast in the 1960s. The Virginia Girvin papers are comprised of biographical information, drafts of her memoirs, letters primarily acknowledging her volunteer efforts, and one letter from Orson Welles offering his advice on her acting career. There are also playbills (1930s-1950s) from productions in which Girvin appeared; Negro Actors Guild yearbooks and souvenir journals; reviews; book jackets and magazine articles, including Native Son by Richard Wright; romance magazines, for which she modeled (1942-1953); and a file on Donbar Enterprises (1961). less

Born a slave, William Alexander Yancey was a teacher and a Presbyterian minister and missionary. After the Civil War, he moved to Virginia and purchased some land. In 1872, he converted to the Presbyterian faith. A year later, Yancey graduated from Hampton Normal School in Virginia. He taught from 1873 to 1890, and was also a school principal. Yancey later became a Sabbath school missionary through the Presbyterian Church and was ordained a minister. The William Alexander Yancey papers consist of material related to his career as a teacher, Presbyterian missionary, and minister, such as essays, sermons, correspondence, a program, and certificate. Many essays are autobiographical and include discussions of his years as a slave and his education. Other topics are religious or relate to such topics as "The School System of West Virginia", "The Old South and the Negro", and "The New South and the Negro". There is also one 1955 letter between two of his children. less

The Mamie Casey letters consist primarily of letters written by William Dye Smith to his cousin, Mamie Casey, during the period he served in the army. The letters principally discuss his romantic relationship with Casey. As there are no letters from Casey to Smith, it is not clear what her feelings were, although in Smith's letters he sometimes chided her for not writing more often, and being rather cold in her responses. Also, in the letters he indicates that he is married and, by 1914, had four children. At various times his family joined him in the Philippines. Smith's discussions of military life are very limited; however, there is a hand-drawn map of a section of the Philippines where the Battle of Castillejos took place. There is very little information about Casey in the collection. less

The George Westerman papers document the numerous and diverse interests of this journalist, sociologist, diplomat, and activist, who was deeply immersed in issues relating to practically every issue on the isthmus of Panama. The collection consists primarily of personal papers; news articles and administrative files pertaining to Westerman's journalism career; his published and unpublished writings; speeches; conference papers; and material relating to his career as an impresario. less