Research Guides: Slavery & Freedom: Images & Material Culture

Guide Author

Leah Richardson

she/her/hers

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Contact:

Special Collections Research Center
Gelman Library, Suite 704

202-994-3263

Subjects: American Studies, Gender Studies, Primary Source Collections, Women's Studies

Images and Material Culture Links

Slavery Images
The images in Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery.

See also the Area Resources & Local History page for more relevant links.

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Searchable database of more than 750,000 images applicable to different times, cultures, and disciplines. Combination of images, data, and texts provides comprehensive art-related teaching, learning, and researching capabilities. NOTE: Mobile version requires creating a login by registering on ARTstor using a regular workstation first.
old link: http://library.artstor.org

“Let Your Motto Be Resistance”: Images from The National Portrait Gallery (in DC)
Images of African Americans in Slavery and Freedom
Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco)
Museum of the Americas (in DC)
National Museum of African Art (in DC)
African American Civil War Memorial and Museum (in DC)
National Museum of African American History & Culture
Mount Zion Cemetery (DC)
"The Mount Zion Cemetery is a physical reminder of African American life and the evolving free black culture in the District of Columbia from the earliest days of the city to the present."

Newspaper & Magazine Archives

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 (Readex)
Provides access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. The collection features papers from more than 35 states and was in part created from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the U.S.
American Periodicals Series (1741-1940)
Page-images from more than 1,100 historic American magazines, journals, and newspapers illuminating the development of American culture, politics, and society across 150 years. Articles can be searched by author, source, or words in the complete text.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century (Accessible Archives)
This database provides full-text access to articles from a number of historic African American newspapers, beginning in 1827 with Freedom's Journal. The collection contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and offers first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day.
Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988)
The Baltimore Afro-American (Historical), a prominent, historic African American newspaper, offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.
19th Century U.S. Newspapers
Provides access to approximately 1.7 million pages of primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life among other subjects.

African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
This collection features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
National Anti-Slavery Standard This link opens in a new window
This publication was the official weekly newspaper of the American Anti-Slavery Society, an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. The newspaper contained essays, debates, speeches, events, reports and anything else deemed newsworthy in relation to the question of slavery in the United States and other parts of the world. Covers years 1840-1870.
Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search all historical newspapers from ProQuest: The Atlanta Constitution (1869-1875; 1881-1984), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Baltimore Sun (1837-1991), Chicago Defender (1909-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1998), Korea Times (1950-2016), Los Angeles Times (1881-1999), The New York Times (1857-2019), The New York Tribune / Herald Tribune (1841-1962), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2003), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-1950; 1955-1966), The Wall Street Journal (1889-2012), and The Washington Post (1877-2007).