Researchers can find a variety of primary and secondary sources documenting African American experiences through 1900.
Finding Primary Sources
The General Catalog uses local (i.e., just used at AAS) genre/form terms to make findable hundreds of works produced by people of African descent who engaged in book trade related activities before 1900. Researchers can use the following terms:
- Works by Black authors
- Works by Black people in the printing and publishing trades
- Works by Black illustrators
- Works by Black photographers
- Works by Black composers
- Works by Black newspaper editors
- Works by Black periodical editors
Note:
When these genre terms are used in the catalog record, the last name of the referenced person is included after the genre term, for example "Works by Black authors--Douglass" specifies Frederick Douglass as the author.
Newspapers and periodicals published by or specifically for African Americans through approximately 1900 can be found using the genre terms:
Library of Congress subject headings used by AAS include:
- African Americans
- African Americans--Education
- African Americans-Pictorial Works
- Enslaved persons--United States
If you don't find what you are looking for please email our staff at reference [at] mwa.org (reference[at]mwa[dot]org).
Digital Collections and Projects
This book is included in the digital collection Black Self-Publishing.
The following AAS digital collections are freely available from anywhere.
- Brown Family Collections
- Photographs of Tuskegee Institute
- Black Self-Publishing
- Just Teach One: Early African American Print Taught by Literature
The following project websites are freely available from anywhere.
- Black Bibliography Project (BBP)
- Colored Conventions Project (CCP)
- Freedom on the Move (FOTM)
- Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery
- Taught by Literature
- Digital Library of the Caribbean (DLoC)
- Early Caribbean Digital Archive (ECDA)
The following digital collections are available to researchers who are present at AAS and signed on to AAS networks. Publishers provide separate tools for searching their collections. Some feature materials not held at AAS.
- Black Authors, 1556-1922 (Readex)
- Black Life in America (Readex)
- Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922 (Readex)
- African American Newspapers, Series 1 (Readex)
- African American Newspapers, Series 2 (Readex)
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive (Gale)
- American Slavery Collection (Readex)
- Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 (Readex)
- Caribbean History and Culture, 1535-1920 (Readex)
Fellowship Opportunity
The Brown Family Collection Fellowship, supported by funds provided by the late Hall J. Peterson and Kate B. Peterson, is intended for researchers whose projects would benefit from working with the Brown Family Collections as well as many other AAS collections related to African Americans and Indigenous Peoples.