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Brown University Library Collections

Race and Ethnicity Collections

Adams (George James)
George James Adams (1812-1888) had a long career as a textile manufacturer and agent in Rhode Island. He was the treasurer of the Greenwich Print Works (1856-1882); a business associate at the Arkwright Cotton Mills (Fiskeville, R.I., circa 1836); an employee at Adams Print Works (Fiskeville, R.I.), Kent Print Works (East Greenwich, R.I.), Orion Cotton Mills (Providence, R.I., circa 1860s-1870s), Bristol Print Works (R.I.), and Clyde Bleaching and Print Works; a part owner of the Rhode Island Bleach and Dye Works, Adams and Butterworth (Providence, R.I., 1862-1882); and the chief agent at Narragansett Print Works (East Greenwich, R.I., 1848-1854). The collection includes family letters and business correspondence (mostly letters to Adams), invoices and receipts, inventories, payroll and supply lists, deeds and contracts, and photographs. A large number of letters are from Thomas P. Richmond, a banker of Bristol, Rhode Island, probably affiliated with the Bank of Bristol. They communicate Richmond’s strong abolitionist feelings and include descriptions of slave uprisings such as the insurrection on the ship La Amistad in 1839, meetings of abolitionist societies, etc. Also discussed are Richmond’s other interests, including phrenology, electricity, epidemiology, mesmerism, animal magnetism, and ships. Another large part of the collection comes from Adams’ time as chief agent at the Narragansett Print Works. This material includes correspondence with textile dealers and related business agents, mostly from Rhode Island, Hartford, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Invoices, receipts, as well as accounts for advertising, raw materials, and shipping, are also included. The collection also contains documents related to other businesses, mostly in textiles, run by Adams throughout Rhode Island. The remainder of the collection relates to the extended Adams family, including George Harvey Adams, Mary Hodges Adams, Sarah Martindale Adams, George William Brown, and others. This material includes correspondence as well as legal documents, bills and receipts, inventories of estates, financial documents, correspondence, and photographs. ...more information
Africana Studies / Rites and Reason Theatre
The dates for the Africana Studies / Rites and Reason Theatre collection ranges from 1970 to 2006. This collection consists of nine series which focus on the growth and development of not only the Department of Africana Studies, but on the growth of the Rites and Reason Theatre. ...more information
Alcoff (Linda Martin)
The Linda Martin Alcoff papers primarily contain copies of Alcoff's published articles and books, syllabi from feminist philosophy courses, and versions of her Curriculum Vitae. ...more information
Barlow (Tani E.)
This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Tani E. Barlow, the George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Director of the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University. The collection documents Barlow's personal life and academic career and research interests of feminism, postcoloniality, and women's history in Asia, specifically in China. ...more information
Brown-Tougaloo Exchange
The Brown-Tougaloo Exchange records contain correspondence, reports, financial data, grant proposals, teaching materials, tape recordings and press clippings produced by or about Tougaloo College and its exchange program with Brown University. The collection also includes financial and documentary material about the U.S. Higher Education Act of 1965, especially its Title III, Institutional Aid. ...more information
Canfield (Eli Hawley)
This collection consists of over 1100 sermons, letters, and other personal manuscripts of the Rev. Eli Hawley Canfield. The letters are mainly to his son, James Hulme Canfield, the educator, and are largely personal in nature, but the papers also include 500 of his sermons which amply illustrate many of the religious and social beliefs and issues of the forty year period following 1845. As would be expected, the sermons are essentially religious in nature, but although Canfield exhibited a stronger interest in the spiritual aspects of life than the political and moral, he does comment frequently upon life. His comments upon the Civil War, the administration of Andrew Johnson and his various Sermons to the children are of particular interest. ...more information
Carroll (Michael R.)
The collection consists of documents relating to Michael Carroll's pension for Civil War military service, letters written to him about slavery and the impact of emancipation by Victor Chambers, and the book "Born at the Battlefield of Gettysburg" written by Carroll's great-grandaughter, Harriet Rinaldi. ...more information
Chace (Elizabeth Buffum)
This collection includes correspondence, Elizabeth Buffum Chace’s commonplace book and diary, family albums, scrapbooks, photographs, an album of familial hair locks, needlework (cross stitch samplers), newspaper clippings, and other material relating to the Buffums, the Chaces, the Cheneys, and the Tolmans. The papers also contain letters in response to Chace’s book "Anti-Slavery Reminiscences." Elizabeth Buffum Chace was an activist for prison reform, the rights of orphans, peace, and temperance. ...more information
Cohen (Robert F., Jr.)
The Robert F. Cohen, Jr. papers relate to his activist work as a student at Brown from 1964-1968, and as a community organizer in Providence and other Rhode Island communities, and New York City around welfare rights, housing discrimination and education between 1968-1972. The collection contains original materials created in the context of this work, including press releases, research notes, minutes of meetings, leaflets, and other organizing materials, as well as news clippings covering the actual events. There is also an extensive collection of publications from progressive organizations. ...more information
Cuban Slavery Documents
This set of documents relate to the institution of slavery, the slave trade, and the use of indentured servants in Cuba during the 19th century. Cuba participated heavily in the slave trade to obtain cheap labor for the sugar plantations beginning in the 16th century. Cuba stopped officially participating in the slave trade in 1867 but the institution of slavery was not abolished on the island until 1886. The demand for cheap labor never abated of course, and plantation owners sought other ways of obtaining workers. They followed the lead of the British and the French by switching to importing contract laborers (indentured servants), called colonos. Free people, either voluntarily or through coercion, signed a work contract that stipulated the term of service and the pay they would receive. In theory, the colonos could leave the employ of their owners at the end of the term of service, but in practice the conditions for the colonos were not much different than those endured by the slave population. The majority of the colonos came from China (Chinese Coolies) but they also imported people from the Canary Islands, Mexico, and Africa. This collection contains official letters, death certificates, birth certificates, legal cases, work contracts, an autopsy report, and inventories relating to the institution of slavery, slaves, and indentured servants in Cuba. Many of the documents refer to the Chinese people brought to Cuba as indentured servants or contract laborers. ...more information
Dexter (Robert C. and Elisabeth A.)
Records and personal papers of sociologist and Unitarian minister Robert Cloutman Dexter (Class of 1912) and his wife, the noted historian Elisabeth Anthony Dexter. An important focus within the collection is the significant role played by the Dexters -- co-founders of the Unitarian Service Committee with Rev. Waitstill and Martha Sharp in 1937 -- in working to expedite the release of war refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe between 1938 and 1944. The collection also includes personal writings by the Dexters, as well as much information on the history of the Anthony family. ...more information
Dickson (James C.)
These papers document the career of James C. Dickson (Class of 1968) as an activist and organizer for disabled individuals, primarily with the VOTE! 2000 Campaign, an effort to increase the number of voters with disabilities. Includes materials Dickson used in his efforts to increase the voting rights of disabled persons and their access to polling places. The materials contain information on poll accessibility, black voters, gay and lesbian voters, voting statistics, the motor voter law, election reforms, methods of voting, and the registration of potential voters when they apply for food stamps, Medicaid or a driver's license. Also consists of material documenting other organizing efforts involving the rights of children, especially children with disabilities, and the medical care of the elderly and people with disabilities. ...more information
Douglass (Frederick)
The Martha Waldo Greene and Frederick Sherman Collection of Frederick Douglass papers contains a total of 26 items by and relating to Frederick Douglass (1818-1895): 19 letters and documents, 5 photographs, and 2 published books. Items span from 1845-1936, with the bulk of materials ranging from 1877-1893. Most letters are of a personal nature to friends or acquaintances; some address business, speaking engagements or publishing. Collection contains a letter from author, lawyer and African American freedom activist James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938). Other significant materials include a mortgage discharge document listing the names of Douglass and Sherman, correspondence about the Holley Graded School in Lottsburg, Virginia, established in 1868 to educate freed African Americans, and a photograph of the San Domingo Commission. ...more information
duCille (Ann)
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Ann duCille, Professor of English, Emerita at Wesleyan University and Inaugural Distinguished Professor in Residence for the Black Feminist Theory Project at the Pembroke Center, Brown University. DuCille is a scholar of African-American literature, cultural studies, and Black feminist theory. Materials include family photographs, personal and professional correspondence, draft writings, research materials, and annotated books. Materials date from 1945 to 2020, but the bulk of the materials date from 1965 to 2020. ...more information
Fales family letters
The Fales family letters number thirty six, most of them sent by Stephen (who often signed himself "Esteban") Smith Fales from his Cuban plantation to his sister Lydia (Fales) French in Bristol, Rhode Island. Although the earliest letter dates from 1806, most of the letters were written between 1813 and 1834 from various locations in Cuba. ...more information
Federici (Silvia)
This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Silvia Federici, Italian-American scholar and activist; co-founder of the International Feminist Collective; and organizer with the International Wages for Housework campaign. Federici served as Professor Emerita of Social Sciences at Hofstra University where her research focused around questions of colonialism, capital punishment, immigration and emigration, globalization and global market inequality, food politics, elder care and capitalism, and academic freedom in Africa. The collection documents Federici's academic career, personal life, and feminist activism, and dates from 1922-2019 (bulk 1970-2019). ...more information
Fisher (Rudolph)
Rudolph Fisher (Class of 1919) was a Providence native, a medical doctor specializing in radiology and a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. His papers primarily contain various drafts and published copies of twenty-six of his short stories and novels, as well as book reviews and essays. The collection also contains correspondence, publicity materials, personal papers, family papers and newsclippings. Materials cover Fisher's life from 1919 to his death in 1934, as well as the work on behalf of Fisher done by his sister, Pearl, until 1983. ...more information
Grewal (Inderpal)
This collection consists of the professional papers of Inderpal Grewal, professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and professor of Ethnicity, Race and Migration at Yale University. Her research spans topics including transnational and postcolonial feminist theory; feminism and human rights; nongovernmental organizations and theories of civil society and citizenship; law and subjectivity; travel and mobility and South Asian cultural studies. Materials include correspondence, syllabi and course readings, conference materials and notes, and writings by Grewal. This collection dates from 1987 to 2019. ...more information
Hall-Hoag

Contains documents representing a broad spectrum of militant political, social and religious dissent in the United States, from the post-World War II period to the present. The Collection currently exceeding 168,000 items emanating from over 5,000 organizations, constitutes the country's largest research collection of right and left wing U.S. extremist groups, from 1950 to 1999.

The collection began when Gordon Hall, a young veteran of the Pacific Theatre during the war, first encountered the printed propaganda issued by domestic hate-your-neighbor organizations/groups in the late 1940's. He supported his investigations and research of these organizations by giving public lectures about them. Materials from all corners of the country were collected, enabling him to document statements made in lectures as well as in a growing number of expository articles written for newspapers and magazines.

Grace Hoag, an alumna of Smith College, began collaboration with Hall during the 1960's, assisting the research and investigation and expanding the collection beyond its initial emphasis.

Includes publications of Anti-Abortion organizations; Anti-Integrationist organizations; Anti-Semitic and Racist political parties; Christian Identity organizations; Communist organizations; Communist political parties; Communist publishers; Congressional investigating committees; Cults and Alternative religions; Extreme Left-Wing publishers; Ku Klux Klan organizations; LaRouche organizations; Marxist-Leninist organizations; Militant Anti-Communist organizations; Militant Populist organizations; Neo-Nazi organizations; Pacifist organizations; Pro-choice abortion organizations; Racial and Ethnic Consciousness organizations; Right-Wing Christian religious organizations; Right-Wing publishers; Socialist organizations; and Women's movement left and right organizations

Please Note: The Library has temporarily suspended digitization requests for materials from the Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, Parts I and II, 1926-2000.The Library is in the process of digitizing large portions of the collection over the next 3 years (2022-2025). In order to complete this significant digitization project the Library must close large portions of the collection for periods of time.

Hall-Hoag materials that are not actively being digitized are available for in-person research. Please complete the Ask Us form if you are interested in looking at particular organizations or need information about scheduling a reading room visit.
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Hamilton (Henry D.)
These papers date from 1836-1968 with the bulk between 1837-1942. Henry D. Hamilton was a lawyer and politician who also served as the Adjutant General of New York and Rhode Island. His papers include, but are not limited to, correspondence, business papers, subject files, diaries, certificates, photographs, scrapbooks, and artifacts. Most of the material dated before 1894 belonged to Henry Hamilton's father, B.B. Hamilton, a Baptist minister. The collection also includes genealogical information about the Hamilton family, writings and correspondence by Henry's elder brother John B. Hamilton, a medical doctor, and material related to the military careers of B.B. Hamilton, Henry D. Hamilton and Henry's son Warren Hamilton. This collection is useful for the study of the participation of Illinois in the U.S. Civil War, Baptist ministers, the Antislavery movement in Illinois, and the work of lawyers and politicians during the 19th and 20th centuries. ...more information
Hedges (Elaine)
Elaine Ryan Hedges (1927-1997) was a pioneer in the field of Women's Studies, and founder of the Women's Studies curriculum at Towson State University. A noted expert on women in literature, in the mid-1970s she turned her focus to women's domestic arts as a medium of intellectual expression. Comprising books (many with detailed annotations), papers, manuscripts, graphic images and correspondence, the collection documents her avid attention to the intimate details of women's lives.

The critical focus of the collection was Hedges' long term research interest in women's quilts and quilt-making. The book collection represents a scholar's working library on this topic. Though it covers quilting world-wide, material on American quilts represents the bulk of the collection. It includes a range of historical surveys, state by state overviews, pattern books, exhibition catalogs and documentation on ethnic and political themes in quilting, particularly by African Americans and Native Americans.
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Korff (Baruch)
Personal papers of Providence rabbi and Jewish communal activist who became known as "Nixon's Rabbi" for his defense of the President during the Watergate affair. The collection includes materials pertaining to Korff's efforts on behalf of European Jewry during World War II, through the creation of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, as well as his post-war advocacy for the State of Israel. ...more information
Krongelb (Malana)
The Malana Krongelb zine collection consists of administrative files and zines that focus on social justice and marginalized identities, dating from 1974 to 2018. Areas of strength include zines by and about people of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer peoples, disabled people, interpersonal violence, sex and relationships, sex work, the prison industrial complex, self-care, feminism, and punk. ...more information
McLoughlin (William Gerald)
Professor William Gerald McLoughlin taught history at Brown University from 1954-1992 and was an active and vocal participant professionally and personally in all of the issues and events during those years: freedom of speech, civil rights, racial equality, gender equality (Louis Lamphere sex discrimination case), nuclear energy, improving the Providence education system, the Vietnam War, divestment from South Africa, and US intervention in Nicaragua during the 1980s. His papers are particularly useful for studying the changes in America and their effect s at Brown University during his tenure. His major areas of scholarship were religion in America (particularly Baptists and Evangelicals), the Cherokee Indian Nation, antislavery movement, African Americans, and Rhode Island history. This collection contains research notes and subject files for his many research topics, drafts for some of his published books, correspondence with colleagues and friends, minutes for meetings of the various committees at Brown and in the community on which he served, and newspaper clippings for topics of importance to him. ...more information
Needmor Fund
The Needmor Fund is a family foundation established in Toledo, Ohio in 1956 by Duane and Virginia Stranahan with income from the Champion Spark Plug business. It focuses on funding community organizing efforts to create a more equitable and just society. The records document the activities of the Needmor Fund from the the 1970's to the early 21st century and include correspondence, grant applications, pamphlets, seminar brochures, notes from site visits, speeches, and publications. Within the Needmor Fund Collection, the Kathy Partridge papers include material related to gay and lesbian issues. ...more information
Nicholson (Nellie B.)
This collection contains a scrapbook compiled by Nellie B. Nicholson, Brown University class of 1911. Nicholson is believed to be the fifth Black woman graduate from Pembroke College, the women's college in Brown University, and was a leading advocate for Black women's right to vote. She was an educator in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, for over 40 years. The scrapbook includes 172 photographs of friends and family members, Pembroke College campus buildings and women's athletics, house mates at 45 East Transit Street in Providence, and post-graduation travels and work. Many of these include handwritten captions. The scrapbook also includes programs for various events primarily at Brown, ribbons from events, and dried flowers and stems. Materials in this scrapbook date from 1906 to 1917, but the bulk of the items date from 1910 - 1911. ...more information
Oliver St. Clair Franklin African American Book

Oliver St. Clair Franklin gathered this collection of books written by authors of African heritage. Many of the volumes are also signed by the authors. The collection contains a total of 903 titles dating from 1786 to 2019 with the bulk published in the mid 20th century.

Franklin described his reason for creating this collection this way: �Collecting African-American literature was my personal way of building resilience and resistance�a symbol of my quest for humanness."

Oliver St. Clair Franklin, the son of a Methodist minister, grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Lincoln University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), during the Civil Rights movement and earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1966. Following a professor's advice, he continued his education abroad at Balliol College at the University of Oxford in England, where he was awarded a bachelor's of philosophy in economics in 1970.

Returning to Baltimore, he began his career working in the governor�s office. Later, after moving to Philadelphia, he was hired by the president of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), Martin Meyerson, initially working in community affairs and subsequently as an assistant to the president. During his time at Penn, Franklin demonstrated his commitment to African American culture by creating the first Philadelphia Black Film Festival in 1972. His focus on arts and administration continued when, in 1984, he was appointed deputy city representative for arts and culture by Philadelphia's first Black mayor, W. Wilson Goode Sr., a position Franklin held for five years.

Franklin then transitioned into the financial sector, where he steadily advanced, becoming a senior vice president for Fidelity Investments in 1993. His path also took an entrepreneurial turn, as he was inspired by a 1993 meeting with Nelson Mandela to create his own firm called Reinvest in South Africa. Following this, he headed International House Philadelphia and served as vice chairman for a financial services digital design firm. He now works as a senior adviser to companies and banks in the U.S. and U.K. On the international stage, Franklin was appointed as the third Honorary British Consul for Greater Philadelphia in 1998. He considers his proudest achievements in this role to be taking Philadelphia high school students to Britain and successfully bringing the Duke of Edinburgh�s International Award program for youth to Philadelophia.
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Pearson (Hugh)
Hugh Pearson (1957-2005) was an author and political commentator interested in racism in America and the history of African Americans. He wrote numerous newspaper articles and 3 books: The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America (1994); Under the Knife: How a Wealthy Negro Surgeon Wielded Power in the Jim Crow South (2000); and When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (2002). His papers contain personal and professional correspondence, copies of his published articles, research files, notebooks, photographs, audiovisual materials, and manuscripts for his books. ...more information
Portuguese Africa

This collection is comprised of Portuguese language manuscript materials documenting the settlement and colonization of Angola (1690-1790 and 1828-1941), and includes correspondence between the Bank of Lisbon and the Azores from 1930-1931 and documents from the Cape Verde Islands in the first half of the 19th century. Topics covered by the materials in the collection include governance and administration, population, public education, finances, history, agriculture, navigation and commerce, military affairs and related topics. ...more information
Prophet (Nancy Elizabeth)

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890-1960) was an American sculptress and, in 1918, the first woman of color to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Her work became well-known throughout Europe and the United States. Born in Warwick, Rhode Island to a Narragansett Indian father and an African American mother, she experienced and struggled against racial discrimination typical of the times in which she lived. She studied and worked in Paris from 1922-1934. She taught at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia from 1934-1944. This collection contains the diary she kept during her life in Paris. In it she describes the hardships of poverty, her eagerness to work on her sculptures, the generosity of those who assisted her, and the sculptures she created. ...more information
Providence Black Repertory Company
The Providence Black Repertory Company (Black Rep) was a 501c3 non profit arts organization based in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. It offered programming inspired by the cultural traditions of the African Diaspora in Theater, Education, and Public Programs. It operated from 1996 until 2009. ...more information
Redding (J. Saunders)
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Saunders Redding graduated from Brown in 1928. After two years of teaching he returned to Brown to earn an A.M. in 1932. A writer and specialist in African-American Literature, Redding spent the majority of his teaching career at the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, where he was Professor of English from 1943 to 1966. He subsequently taught at taught Duke, George Washington and Cornell Universities. In 1949, he returned to Brown for a brief stint as a visiting Professor, thus becoming the first African American to teach at an Ivy League school. He later served as Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Research and Publications from 1966 to 1969.

The Redding papers cover his long career as a writer, academic and administrator, and document his involvement with numerous African American organizations and causes. ...more information
Reynolds Family Correspondence
Collection consists almost entirely of personal letters written by Alfred C., Charles E., and James W. Reynolds to sisters and parents detailing Civil War experiences in the 128th Regiment, New York Volunteers and the 11th Light Artillery Regiment, New York. Of particular interest are accounts of the capture of Fort Morgan (1864, Aug.-Sept.), reflections on the Copperheads, Afro-American troops, General Lee, and slavery. ...more information
Robinson (Blondie)
A collection of 77 vintage photographs, primarily from the early 20th century, the bulk of which is dated between the years 1915 and 1925, formerly owned by Blondie Robinson, an accomplished African-American vaudeville performer of that era. The heart of this collection is comprised of photographs directly associated with Robinson himself that represent a visual composite of his professional life on stage, both as a solo performer and in collaboration with others. It offers substantive documentation about Robinson's repertoire of stage acts and his versatility as a vaudevillian -- the various characters he portrayed on stage, including blackface caricatures, his comedic sensibility, the sheer physicality of his performances, and the various costumes and props that he used. This collection also contains a significant number of photographs of other vaudeville performers, primarily but not exclusively African American, all of whom were professional associates of Robinson. Also of note in this collection are a few informal photographs of Robinson, alone and with others, some of whom are presumed to be members of Robinson's family and may even include images of his wife and daughter. Last but not least, this collection also includes useful pieces of textual information found on some of the photographs in the form of signatures, inscriptions, photographers marks, and annotations. ...more information
Sargent (Frances Herriott)
This collection of about 285 items traces the evolution and production of the play "Porgy" and its operatic expression, "Porgy and Bess". The collection is composed of the professional and personal papers of the assistant stage manager, Frances Herriott (later Frances Herriott Sargent), and provides insight into the major elements of production as well as the personal relationships of cast members and stage professionals. ...more information
Sharpe (Christina)
This collection consists of the papers of Christina Sharpe, Professor of English at York University and notable Black feminist theorist. The collection documents Sharpe's professional life and research in racism, slavery, and feminism, consisting of correspondence, conference material, draft writings, writings by other authors, subject files, and print material, dating from 1989 to the present. ...more information
Stoltz, Merton P. files as provost of Brown University
Merton Philip Stoltz (1913-1989) held many positions during his tenure at Brown University: Professor of Economics, associate dean of the Graduate School, dean of the University, provost, and acting president. The materials in this collection primarily relate to his work as provost. It include office files, correspondence, and committee files dated from 1959 to 1978. It includes materials from various campus offices, speeches, projects, and committees regarding the comprehensive involvement of a Provost at the University. It includes significant materials related to the student exchange program and relationship between Tougaloo College, an historically black college in Tougaloo, Mississippi, and Brown University. ...more information
Sunbury Press
From 1974 to 1988, Sunbury Press published women poets, blue-collar poets and minority poets. Founded and run by Virginia Scott, the press was based in Bronx, New York. This collection contains the camera-ready copy of several manuscripts, NEA grant materials, business records, legal files, and circulation and promotion materials. ...more information
Swearer, Howard Robert
Consists of subject files dating from 1976 to 1990, most of which were created while Howard Robert Swearer was President of Brown University. Subjects documented in the collection include alumni and alumnae; athletics; admissions; the Bio-Med program; the Corporation; commencements; physical planning; faculty; libraries; students; the cooperative program between Brown University and Tougaloo College; and gifts to the University. Civil rights and minority affairs on the Brown University campus, including issues about status of women; Afro-American studies; Asian-American students; Hispanic American students; the American Civil Liberties Union; sexual harassment; and discrimination are documented. Student topics documented include the university radio station, WBRU; issues pertaining to Iranian students (ca.1978-1980); campus organizations; and protests about Central Intelligence Agency recruiting on campus. There are files on Richard Salomon, Thomas J. Watson, and Baruch Korff. ...more information
Thayer (Eli)
This collection of correspondence, essays, articles, and newspaper clippings has as its chief focal point the Kansas conflict in the 1850's. The New England Emigrant Aid Company and similar organizations undertook to send settlers to Kansas from the North East to counteract the influence of the South in determining the free vs. slave status of Kansas on its becoming a state. The influx of immigrants to Kansas profoundly affected the indigenous populations living there. The materials provide insight into how the settlers did not give any thought to those populations. The Kansas theme runs throughout the collection in contemporary materials as well as in reminiscences and historical narratives written some thirty to fifty years subsequently. Other places important to the collection are West Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York. ...more information
Watson (John Brown)
John Brown Watson (Class of 1904) was among the earliest African American alumni of Brown University and had a distinguished career in the historically Black colleges of the South. After a teaching stint at Morehouse College, Watson moved into a career as an administrator. He became founding President of Leland College in Baker, Louisiana, in 1923, and later ascended to the presidency of Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal School, later known as Arkansas A&M University (now: University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff).

The Watson papers cover, among other topics, African American education; the role of the African American woman as Christian homemaker and as community leader in education; land reform (creation of farms and rental of property to poor African Americans); African American business; African American leadership of the early 20th century; and African American missions in Africa.
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Young (John)
These papers contain personal correspondence, business papers, writings by John Young and his daughter Harriet, maps and hand drawn diagrams of the Blackfeet Agency and it surroundings in Montana Territory. The personal correspondence from 1876 to 1884 provides firsthand accounts of life on the reservation during a crucial time in the tribe's history. ...more information

Image Source: Blue beard; or The fatal effects of curiosity and disobedience... , Philadelphia: Wm. Charles, 1815, Dorr Collection V.79, John Hay Library.

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