Researching the African-American Experience in Washington, D.C.
Library collections at The George Washington University hold over 2 million volumes and contain extensive collections of primary manuscripts and documents for teaching and research. The University's nearly 18,000 students and over 4,000 faculty members come from all corners of the world and from next door. The main campus of the University is situated in the heart of the nation's capital, a metropolitan area that sustains the second largest concentration of research and development activity in the United States.
The Gelman Library attracts students, scholars and faculty from the more than twenty Washington, DC, metropolitan area colleges and universities, researchers from media organizations, private firms, congressional lobby groups, local businesses, and government agencies, and national and international visiting scholars.
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Slave Market of America 1836 Northerners and foreign visitors to the Capital were horrified and embarrassed to find a large slave market very close to the Capitol building where the nation's lawmakers sat in session. The American Anti-Slavery Society issued this poster to show the inconguity of selling slaves in the Nation's Capital with the principles decreed in the Declaration of Independence. The poster was part of the Society's campaign to have Congress abolish slavery in Washington, D.C. |
The Slavery Code of the District of Columbia |
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Frederick Douglass Letter Frederick Douglass, born a slave, became an American diplomat and renowned author and journalist. In this letter he writes editor B. F. Underwood of the Boston Index requesting a critique of a new and expanded edition of his 1881 autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. |
Baker Handbook of Negro-Owned Businesses This handbook contains listings for business, non-profit groups, and churches. Layouts included are Howard University, the 12th Street YMCA, Phi Beta Sigma, the African American, Miner Teacher's College, the NAACP, and the Institute on Race Relations. |
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March on Washington This compact disc celebrates the 25th anniversary of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, through music sung at the March on Washington in 1963. |
Manuscripts and artifacts shown are available for use in the Special Collections Research Center.
