Bowdoin's 1619 Project Event Series: Archives

Resources from Special Collections and Archives at Bowdoin College Library

The George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives houses rare books, manuscripts, and the College Archives.

Explore the Africana Studies Resource guide that highlights various areas of the collections including Slavery & Antislavery, Civil War, Reconstruction, Civil Rights, and Bowdoin history.

Specific manuscript collections of interest include:

• Charles Vaughan Family Papers: The collection documents the relationships of the Vaughan family and its businesses, especially its Jamaica plantation and England and West Indies trade, and business ventures in Boston, Massachusetts, and Hallowell, Maine. Learn more about the Vaughan family through the Legacies of British Slaveholders Project at the University College London.
• Oliver Otis Howard Papers: Howard (Bowdoin Class of 1850) served as a Civil War general, director of the Freedmans’ Bureau, and founder of Howard University. The papers include correspondence, articles, addresses, lectures, publications, diaries, clippings, indexes, photographs, and other material from Howard’s personal and unofficial professional records.
• Stowe Collection: This collection includes material relating to Harriet Beecher Stowe, such as includes correspondence; holograph notes; editorials; transcripts of selected letters; playbills; sheet music; trade cards; ephemera; inscribed album, images, and newsclippings, with a particular strength on the impact of Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Areas of interest in Bowdoin College History and Archives include:

• The connection between James Bowdoin II and James Bowdoin III and slavery as outlined in Gordon E. Krenshaw’s James Bowdoin: The Patriot and Man of the Enlightenment (Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College, 1976); Frank E. Manuel’s James Bowdoin and the Patriot Philosophers (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2004); and Jared Ross Hardesty’s “Disappearing from Abolitionism's Heartland: The Legacy of Slavery and Emancipation in Boston” (International Review of Social History 65, April 2020: p. 145).
• Primary sources documenting the history of 19^th and 20^th-century College minstrelsy performances (contact Special Collections and Archives for bibliography).
• The history of Africana Studies, Black Student Union, and the Russwurm African American Center:
  • Tension/Tenacity: Africana Studies at 50 exhibit and research guide
  • Af/Am/50 Oral History Project

Upcoming SC&A Events:

Beyond the Reading Room: Archives in the World

This virtual lecture series features artists, scholars, and Bowdoin alumni who rely on archival research for their work. Each speaker has a connection to Bowdoin Library's George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, either having consulted our collections or having their own work represented therein. Join us to learn more about the role of archives in scholarship and creative practices.

• October 16, 2020, 10:00-11:00 AM: Book Artist Maureen Cummins

Maureen Cummins has cranked presses from California to the Eastern Arctic and has produced over forty limited edition artist's books, many based on historical research. She has created projects based on slave narratives, the Salem witch trials, the gendered history of lobotomies, and interviews with Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

• October 22, 2020, 12:30-1:30 PM: Sociologist Pamela Zabala ’17

Learning from the Past?: An Archival Exploration of Bowdoin’s Racial History

In this presentation, Pamela Zabala highlights the role of archival research in her 2017 honors project on incidents of racial bias at Bowdoin. She will discuss how access to archival materials allowed her to contextualize the incidents at the center of her project within the broader historical context of race and racism at Bowdoin. She will also discuss some of her current graduate research on race and discuss the pros and cons of using archives in sociological research.

A Recognition –  SC&A, like all archives and special collections libraries, is the creation of human beings who have collected, organized, and described things in ways that reflect personal, cultural, societal, and institutional biases. Although we strive to preserve and present collections in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections, we acknowledge that our systems are neither neutral nor perfect. We encourage you to let us know if you encounter materials, descriptive language, or practices that are offensive or harmful, particularly those for which inadequate context or warning is offered. We are committed to modifying and updating our descriptive practices to use respectful and inclusive terminology and appreciate your help in this work. We look forward to supporting you in your research and learning together.

For more information and to access collections, please contact Special Collections and Archives.