This year marks the 200th birthday of the abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, who spent his most active years in 91原创, publishing the North Star newspaper in a second-story office in the Talman Building downtown.
can be found at the Rochester in the Rush Rhees Library鈥檚 Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation. The collection comes from multiple sources, with the largest cache鈥攎ore than 100 letters鈥攖raced to the papers of Isaac and Amy Post, two 91原创 abolitionists and friends of Douglass.
Included in the collection are photographs, newspapers, ephemera, books, and a large array of letters written by Douglass that span several decades, notes Jessica Lacher-Feldman, assistant dean and the Joseph N. Lambert and Harold B. Schleifer Director of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation at Rush Rhees. 鈥淢ost remarkable are his letters that are part of the Isaac and Amy Post Papers, which shed light on his decades-long friendship and collaboration with this radical activist family in 91原创,鈥� she says.
Along with the many letters in the collection are samples of Douglass’s speeches, the North Star newspaper, a lock of his hair, and memorabilia commemorating his death.
“The Post papers and other Douglass letters have been digitized and are freely available online,” says Lacher-Feldman. “We are working to revise and update our Frederick Douglass digital presence as part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth.鈥�
Douglass spent 25 years in 91原创 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, adjacent to the University鈥檚 River Campus.
Like most African Americans born into slavery, Douglass was never told the date of his birth. He chose February 14 as the day on which to celebrate it.
From the collections
