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Category: Junior Fellows Program

Black and white head and shoulders photo of William H. Crogman in middle age. He is wearing a suit and tie and glasses. He is balding with white hair and mustache.

William Crogman’s Daring “Race Textbook” of 1898

Posted by: Neely Tucker

At the end of the 19th century, educator William Henry Crogman had a revolutionary idea: a textbook on African American history, achievements and survival for Black students both in and outside of the classroom. His "Progress of a Race," a textbook that told the history of African Americans as overcoming violence and bigotry, was not the first of its kind but probably the most influential. It caught on quickly, was heavily circulated and sold door-to-door through subscription for decades. The Library preserves several editions of this book, including the 1898 first edition.

Color photo shows Hannah Whitaker turned slightly to her left, smiling, at the forefront of a flower garden.

Q & A: Hannah Whitaker, Preserving Live Music from Long Ago

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Hannah Whitaker, interning this summer as a junior fellow in the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, discusses her work in helping preserve live recordings from early in the 20th century, including performances by stars such as Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

An engraved portrait of Hannah Carson. She is seated, hands in lap around a small framed portrait (perhaps of her late husband or father). She is weaing a dark dress, buttoned to the collar, with her hair wrapped in a white scarf.

Hannah Carson: “Like a Fire in All My Bones”

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Nestled in the archives of the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection is a short, 1864 account of the remarkable life of Hannah Carson. “Glorying in Tribulation: A Brief Memoir of Hannah Carson, For Thirteen Years Deprived of the Use of All Her Limbs,” is testament to how a severely disabled Black woman became an inspiration to the Christian community, both white and black, in Philadelphia before and during the Civil War.

Head and shoulders portrait of Ida B. Wells, based on a photograph. She's facing right, hair swept up in a bun, a stern expression on her face

Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Maps of American Racism

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Ida B. Wells was 30 years old in 1892, living in Memphis and working as a newspaper editor, when a mob lynched one of her friends. Distraught, the pioneering journalist set out to document the stories of lynching victims and disprove a commonly asserted justification — that the murders were a response to rape. Wells’ …