Research Guides: Special Collections: African American Studies Research Guide: Historical Sources

Historical Sources in Manuscripts and Archives

General Historical
Social and Political

This list is a representative selection of types of historical source material to support African American studies. Items are listed in collection number order and links lead to fuller collection descriptions. To search for additional collections, please visit the Finding Aids for Archival Collections website.

MSS 0093 Item 0109, David Fox Nelson scrapbooks
The collection consists of five scrapbooks assembled between 1869 and 1890 by David Fox Nelson, an African American man who escaped from slavery in North Carolina as a child and eventually arrived in New York, where he worked for the post office for several decades.
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The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings covering a wide range of topics, especially subjects of particular significance to African Americans in the Reconstruction era. One scrapbook contains correspondence from Nelson's acquaintances of high political or social standing. Another scrapbook was assembled by Nelson for his future wife, Cassie E. Day.
MSS 0097, Item 0053 James M. Morton diary
The journal of Massachusetts resident James Madison Morton contains accounts of two trips to South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama taken in 1859 and 1861. It also contains brief notes and memoranda dated from 1859-1870. In his diary Morton mentions the sale of enslaved people, others leaving for military service, the capture of Fort Sumter, and his travels in the South.
MSS 0098 F0017, Bill of sale for Caleb Cox
Legal document stating that enslaved person, Caleb Cox, has been sold by Mary and William Herdman, administrators of the estate of John Herdman, to John Thompson of New Castle, Delaware, 1832.
MSS 0098 F0095, William R. Jones papers
Three Civil War-era documents, 1858-1863, from the personal papers of Maryland resident William R. Jones. A handwritten will provided for the emancipation of his enslaved property, stating that those individuals are to seek relocation to Liberia. This small collection also includes a letter from Captain Daniel Woodall, Delaware First Regiment, to Mrs. Jones, describing troop movement and battle conditions from Norfolk, Virginia, to the Battle of Antietam. A second letter from Jones to his wife recounted his wartime experience as a farmer and merchant, and described reactions of Baltimore citizens to the Civil War.
MSS 0099 F0853, Arnold Josiah Ford, Shine on, eternal light : hymn
Composed for Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, circa 1925-1930, this hymn was written by Arnold Josiah Ford, one of the first Black rabbis in the United States and an early leader of black Judaism in America.
MSS 0130, Lewis family papers
This collection comprises the personal and business papers of the Lewis family of Newark, Delaware, 1696-1915 (bulk dates 1791-1894). Members of the family were farmers and large landholders who maintained business relations with many prominent citizens of early Newark, such as George Platt, Samuel Donnell, James T. Maxwell, and Eri Haines. The collection sheds light on domestic and business issues, as well as trends in education, politics, and land dealings. Of particular note are papers of Albert Gallatin Lewis (1798-1883) concerning land purchases in and around Newark. Among maps in the collection are some of the earliest known maps of Newark. Other maps reflect the expansion of Lewis family land holdings in White Clay Creek Hundred, Pencader Hundred, and Little Creek Hundred. Documents relating to the treatment of African Americans as property are found among the Albert G. Lewis papers.
MSS 0171, Peter Strickland papers
Peter Strickland (1837-1922, of Connecticut) was a shipmaster, merchant, and U.S. consul in the French colony of Senegal. The 13 volumes of diaries and letter books in this collection, 1857 to 1912, vary in content but largely document his life as a merchant, both on the sea as well as in Senegal. Issues of two French colonial weekly newspapers contextualize events of the French colony during Strickland’s time in Senegal. The collection documents West African trading by Europeans and Americans.
MSS 0218, Edward A. Fulton collection
This collection contains the Civil War letters, 1860-1863, of Edward R. Fulton to his mother, Mary Fulton, of Wilmington, Delaware. A few later letters are included in the collection. Fulton served in the First Delaware Calvary Regiment and the 72d Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Fulton wrote about battles near Harper's Ferry and Winchester, six months of recovery in a military hospital, and made several observations about enslaved people abandoned by enslavers upon arrival of Union troops.
MSS 0240, Samuel Meredith papers
Prominent Philadelphia merchant and public servant Samuel Meredith (1741-1817) was appointmed by George Washington as the first Treasurer of the United States in 1789. The bulk of the Samuel Meredith papers consists of financial records: bills, receipts, and cancelled checks for purchases of the Meredith family (primarily Samuel and his eldest son, Thomas Meredith) in the late-eighteenth century. These items are particularly rich in accounts for textiles and clothing. In domestic accounts, there are several references to services such as clothing repair performed on behalf of his "Negro servants."
MSS 0402, Waples family papers
The Waples family of Milton, Delaware, was related to another prominent southern Delaware family, the Careys. Successful business entrepreneurs and landowners, these families were central to the economic development of Broadkill Hundred, Sussex County. The Waples family papers contain correspondence, wills, deeds and surveys, financial and legal documents, speeches, manumissions, a broadside, a newspaper clipping, an announcement, and invitations. The bulk of the collection, 1851-1864, focuses on Gideon B. Waples (circa 1832-1864), beginning with the pre-Civil War period when he was a student at Delaware College. Slavery-related documents in this collection include bills of sale, manumissions, and an anti-abolition broadside.
MSS 0521, Abraham Lincoln collection
The Abraham Lincoln collection comprises a variety of Lincolniana - including Civil War era newspapers, art work, sheet music, and realia - collected and assembled by the Lincoln Club of Delaware.
MSS 0684, II.A.2, Shipley–Bringhurst–Hargraves family papers: Solomon Bayley correspondence
Solomon Bayley (circa 1771-1839), formerly enslaved, wrote his 1825 autobiography A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley, Formerly a Slave in the State of Delaware, North America. Bayley's letters to Joseph and Deborah Bringhurst reflected his time as a freedman living in Liberia with his wife, probably in partnership with the American Colonization Society, a Quaker-founded society focused on repatriation in Africa.
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Joesph and Deborah (Ferris) Bringhurst were prominent Quakers in Wilmington, whose descendants were owners of Rockwood, a Victorian Rural Gothic Revival mansion and estate that was built in north Wilmington, Delaware, between 1851 and 1854.

MSS 0104, Desegregation of Delaware collection
This collection was compiled by Abigail Covelli in the 1970s when Delaware was in the process of establishing a desegregation plan for its public school system. The collection contains information dating from 1960-1982 on desegregation in Delaware as well as in other states, with a focus on New Castle County and Wilmington city schools. Included are desegregation proposals, demographic information, advisory literature, workshop information, and studies and reports on the progress and results of desegregation.
MSS 0254, American propaganda collection
This collection contains various publications, 1924 - 1961, which advocate extremist political opinions. The bulk of these are American publications (some British), date from the 1950s, and express anti-integration, anti-Semitic, and anti-Communist sentiments.The publications feature opinions from religious and civic organizations, individual citizens, and members of Congress.
MSS 0336, Margaret Rose Henry speeches
The Honorable Margaret Rose Henry was elected in 1994 as the Delaware State Senator for the 2nd Senatorial District (Wilmington East). The Margaret Rose Henry speeches comprise eighteen short political addresses delivered between 1994 and 1995 by the Delaware Senator to various constituent groups, primarily in Wilmington.
MSS 0342, Papers of Dr. Allston Morris related to Southbridge Medical Advisory Council and Activities Center
This collection from physician Allston Morris (died 1996) documents the creation and early existence of the Southbridge Medical Activities Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Southbridge is an historic, African-American working class neighborhood in the city, which experienced rioting and occupation by the National Guard after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. Morris's papers begin with "A Proposal for the Delivery of Health Service in South Wilmington, 1968" and continue through a program celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Southbridge Center in 1980. With its volunteer doctors and pharmacists, Southbridge Medical Activities Center was the first privately-funded community health center in Delaware.
MSS 0471, Chris Oakley collection of alternative press
Chris Oakley was a longtime resident of Newark, Delaware, a community organizer and a strong advocate for media democracy. Active in the Delaware alternative press after 1968, Ms. Oakley supported many causes related to racial, gender, environmental, and global justice. This collection, dating from 1968-1992, consists of newspapers, community newsletters, magazines and ephemera, mostly from Delaware but including some international publications. The collection also includes an original charcoal portrait of Delaware activist Pauline Young (1900-1991) used as an illustration in a newspaper.
MSS 0472, Sir Joseph Gold political and miscellaneous ephemera collection
British attorney and authority on international monetary law Sir Joseph Gold (1912-2000) was the compiler of this political and misellaneous ephemera collection. American and international newsletters, pamphlets, posters, and miscellaney from the 1960s-1990s reflect a range of issues, from Black power, socialism, civil and human rights, the Vietnam War, international political movements, and peace. The collection includes non-political miscellaney from Gold's personal life, as well.
MSS 0570, William H. Williams papers
Delaware historian William H. Williams (1936-2007) served as professor and leader for the University of Delaware Parallel Program in Georgetown, Delaware, and was highly involved in Delaware public life. This collection comprises personal and academic files, and four series related to Williams's major research and publications: enivronmental history of Delaware; slavery, civil rights, and race relations in Delaware; Methodism in Delaware; and the Delmarva poultry industry.
MSS 0629, Littleton and Jane Mitchell papers
These papers document the lives and careers of the Delaware-based civil rights activist and educator Littleton P. Mitchell (1918-2004) and his wife Jane E. Mitchell (1921-2004). The collection contains material relating to his education, activities as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, his three decades-long leadership of the Delaware NAACP, his career as a teacher and counselor at Governor Bacon Health Center in Delaware City, and his involvement in a number of organizations. The collection also highlights the career of Jane Mitchell, one of Delaware's first African-American nurses and former director of nursing at the Delaware State Hospital. There are also photographs, slides, and other media documenting their family life as well as their participation in local and national events.As a whole, the papers explore the professional, personal, and family relationships of an African-American family in the 20th century.