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“Justice to Our Colour Demands It”: Absalom Jones and Richard Allen’s Narrative of African Americans in Philadelphia’s 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic

Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People, During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia, in the Year 1793; and a Refutation of Some Censures, Thrown Upon Them in Some Late Publications (Philadelphia: Printed for the Authors, by William W. Woodward, 1794)

Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University, Rare Books RC211.P5 J71

https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/contagion/catalog/36-990023281920203941... Read more about “Justice to Our Colour Demands It”: Absalom Jones and Richard Allen’s Narrative of African Americans in Philadelphia’s 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic

Dumbarton Oaks Gardens as Archives

A color, hand-drawn map of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden.
Ernest Clegg, Map of the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens, 1935. Dumbarton Oaks House Collection, HC.P.1935.01.(I). Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. This painting of the garden both documented the design and defined the garden as a work of art. The original is exhibited above the fireplace mantel in the Music Room, a favorite room of the Blisses.

In summer of 1921, the landscape architect Beatrix Farrand met with the art collector and patron Mildred Bliss to discuss designing the landscape for the Blisses’ new residence, which they named Dumbarton Oaks, a stone’s throw from the nation’s capital. By June of 1922, Farrand offered Bliss a rich description of their joint vision for the garden.[1] Bliss replied with a note: “Your letter and its enclosures have made us purr with contentment.”[2] While walking and talking their way across the land, the two women discovered a shared aesthetic that would be realized over the next two decades as they constructed the new gardens and landscape.... Read more about Dumbarton Oaks Gardens as Archives

Introducing the Plant Humanities Lab

Gouache painting of a purple and yellow orchid, labeled "Paphinia Grandis."
Caroline Maschek (1857–1938), Paphinia grandis, Columbien, Rchb. Fil., 1885, 24 x 31.5 cm, gouache on tinted Bristol paper, dated “Janner 885.” Photo credit: Joseph Mills.

Humans rely on plants for our most fundamental individual and social needs: from food, medicine, and construction, to aesthetic pleasure and the solace brought by our encounters with them in the natural world. Although we think of plants as rooted in place, their global travels over the millennia offer fascinating pathways into the past and illuminate some of the most burning issues of today, including legacies of colonial violence and displacement.... Read more about Introducing the Plant Humanities Lab

Washington Writing in the Archival Space of Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s The Linwoods (1835)

 

I find myself in the situation nearly of a new beginner; for, although I have not houses to build (except one, which I must erect for the accommodation and security of my military, civil, and private papers, which are voluminous and may be interesting), yet I have scarcely any thing else about me, that does not require considerable repairs.... Read more about Washington Writing in the Archival Space of Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s The Linwoods (1835)

Why George Washington’s Library Is Not at Harvard

A black-and-white early photograph of Gore Hall, a large Gothic structure with four corner turrets, with trees in the foreground.
Joseph P. Cooke, IV, "Gore Hall, Harvard Yard," 1844. Demolished in 1913, Gore Hall was on the site of the present-day Widener Library (Harvard Fine Arts Library, Digital Images and Slides Collection 1980.10382, http://id.lib.harvard.edu/images/olvwork245299/catalog).

Introduction

In 1991, at the opening of an exhibition to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Houghton Library, Roger Stoddard related “How Harvard Didn’t Get Its Rare Books and Manuscripts”—why Harvard has no library of medieval manuscripts... Read more about Why George Washington’s Library Is Not at Harvard

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