Case 1: The Myth of Openness
1. In the U.S. Circuit Court, N. District of Illinois, The Union Mutual Life Insurance Co. vs. The University of Chicago. p. 172. Old University of Chicago Records.
This document records the testimony of University of Chicago President Galusha Anderson in the 1884 foreclosure proceedings against the old University.
2. Photograph of Galusha Anderson, [n.d.]. Archival Photographic Files.
Anderson was born in 1832 and trained at Rochester Theological Seminary. He served as pastor of Second Baptist Church in St. Louis from 1858-1866 and of Second Baptist in
Chicago from 1876 to 1878 when he became fifth president of the University of Chicago. He left the old University when it closed in 1886 but in 1892 returned to the new University as professor in the Divinity School, from which he retired in 1904. He died in 1918.
3. Galusha Anderson. The Story of a Border City during the Civil War. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1908. Rare Book Collection, Gift of Danielle Allen.
In retirement, Anderson wrote this memoir of his time as pastor of Second Baptist in St. Louis during the Civil War. He had worked aggressively to keep Missouri in the Union and devoted considerable energy to the establishment of “negro schools” throughout the city.
4. Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, South Carolina. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1872. Vol. 3. General Collections.
The Old University of Chicago was struggling to find its feet in the same years that the country was struggling with the consequences of the Civil War.
5. Photograph of the Old University of Chicago, [n.d]. Archival Photographic Files.
The Old University of Chicago located on the west side of Cottage Grove Avenue north of 35th Street.
6. Photograph of the razing of the Old University of Chicago, 1890. Archival Photographic Files.
The buildings of the Old University of Chicago were demolished in 1890 after the school had closed. A stone from Douglas Hall can be found today in the wall of the archway between Wieboldt and Classics on the new campus.
Case 2: The Truth of the Difficult Course toward Integration
1. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, photograph, April,1861. Archival Photographic Files.
Senator Douglas, who served as a Trustee of the Old University of Chicago, had no interest in racial integration, and his Baptist collaborators had conflicting opinions on the question.
2. Stephen A. Douglas, handwritten notes for a speech on slavery and states’ rights, [n.d]. Stephen A. Douglas Addenda.
3. Excerpt from “The Douglas Donation from Another Point of View.” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 7, 1857. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
These two articles give some sense of the controversy surrounding Senator Stephen A. Douglas and, by association, the University of Chicago.
4. Addresses and Appeals in Behalf of the University of Chicago Library and the Baptist Theological Seminary, during the Anniversaries at Chicago, in May, 1867. Chicago: Church and Goodman, 1867. General Collections.
In 1867 the University of Chicago celebrated its tenth anniversary in conjunction with the annual Baptist convention held that year in Chicago. The speakers at the Baptist convention included an African American, but this inspired at least one speaker at the University celebrations to argue for supporting educational institutions lest “this long down-trodden race . . . pass us by in the race.”
5. Perry J. Stackhouse. Chicago and the Baptists, a Century of Progress. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1933. Rare Book Collection, Gift of Danielle Allen.
6. Reproduction of “Chicago University and Dr. Howard.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 15, 1857. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
7. Photograph of Baptist Convention at the old University of Chicago, 1867. Archival Photographic Files.
Case 3: The Old University of Chicago: Toward Integration
1. Reproduction of Stephen Augustus Hurlbut (1815-1882). “The Children of the Republic.” Chicago Tribune, April 24, 1867. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
This Chicago Tribune article reports on a speech given by General Hurlbut in the chapel at the Old University of Chicago; he addressed the topic of the education of former slaves.
2. Major-General Stephen Augustus Hurlbut, Treasury Department, to the General, June 2, 1864. Lincoln Collection. Lincoln Miscellaneous Manuscripts.
This letter, held in the Library’s Lincoln collection, indicates the level of Hurlbut’s political involvement.
3. “On Negro Schools.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, September 1874. General Collections.
An example of the public conversation surrounding issues of race and education during the period of Reconstruction.
4. Excerpt from “Ethical culture active 50 years.” New York Times, May 9, 1926. New York Times Archive.
5. Typewritten account of sermon given by Horace J. Bridges for Chicago Ethical Society with program, January 7, 1940. Ernest Watson Burgess Papers.
6. “The Golden City.” http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7683/hymn.htm
This song was written by Felix Adler (1851-1933), the founder of ethical humanism. Named by him the “Ethical Culture Hymn,” it can also be found in the Unitarian Universalist Association hymnal.
7. Lecture to the St. Louis Ethical Society by University of Chicago Professor Frederick Starr, scrapbook clippings [ca. 1901]. Frederick Starr Papers.
Starr’s lecture on the culture of Native Americans caught his audience’s attention particularly for its description of women in the role of household head.
8. “Photograph of Stephen A. Hurlbut, ca. 1875.” http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Stephen_A._Hurlbut_-_Brady-Handy.jpg
Case 4: The Old University of Chicago: Idiosyncratic Advocacy and Matters of Policy
1. Reproduction of “Chicago Law Institute.” Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1868. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
The dean of the Chicago law school advertises places for the fall’s class.
2. Excerpt from “Law Graduates a Woman and a Negro.” Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1870. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
The University had, according to the report of the Chicago Tribune, debated whether Mrs. Kepley could properly be awarded a “Bachelor’s of Law” degree but decided that, since she was married, it made no sense to award her a degree of “Maid of Law.” She received the Bachelor’s degree.
4. Old University of Chicago, Faculty Minute Book, 1872-1886, minutes from September 13, 1872. Old University of Chicago Records.
At the bottom of the left hand page, we find the minutes recording the faculty’s decision to recommend the admission of women “to take either the regular classical or the regular scientific course in the university in the university.” Two of the three young women whose cases prompted this important policy decision were daughters of faculty members.
3. Frances Elizabeth Willard (1839-1898) and Mary Ashton Rice Livermore (1820-1905). A Woman of the Century …Leading American Women. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893. General Collections.
5. Ada Harriet Kepley. A farm philosopher, a love story. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2008. Facsimile of the 1912 ed. Rare Book Collection, Gift of Danielle Allen.
In her memoir Mrs. Kepley reflects on her law school experience. Eventually she became a Unitarian minister, a religion with close ties to ethical humanism.
6. Old University of Chicago, group photograph of students. Archival Photographic Files.
7. Old University of Chicago, group photograph of faculty. Archival Photographic Files.
Case 5: Founding a new University and affirming prior commitments
1. Photo of John D. Rockefeller, founding donor to the University of Chicago, [n.d.]. Archival Photographic Files.
2. Photo of William Rainey Harper, [ca. 1900]. Archival Photographic Files.
3. Excerpt from “New role of wealth, Rockefeller’s part in making Chicago a Mecca of culture.” Chicago Daily, July 30, 1894. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
4. Alumni Directory of the University of Chicago, 1861-1906. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906. Archival Reference Collection.
This alumni directory, including alumni from both old and new Universities of Chicago, is the best remaining indication of the continuity between old and new as experienced by contemporaries. We are left to speculate that the association of the Old University of Chicago with Stephen Douglas may explain the later suppression of the connection between the two Universities of Chicago.
5. Excerpt from “In Caps and Gowns University Professors Hold their First Convocation.” Chicago Daily, January 3, 1893. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
This article, reporting on first convocation of the new University of Chicago, makes note of a student Cora B. Jackson, “a negro girl,” who has won a scholarship for excellence in the December examination. This is the first record of an African American student at the new University of Chicago. She graduated in 1896.
6. 73rd Annual Report of the Board of School Commissioners to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for the Fiscal Year ending December 31, 1901. Baltimore: John D. Lucas Printing Co., 1902. Google Book Search.
Cora B. Jackson is shown here as a faculty member in English at the “Colored High and Training School”.
7. Charities Publication Committee. The Negro in the Cities of the North. New York: Charity Organization Society, 1905. General Collections.
After her graduation from the University of Chicago, Cora B. Jackson taught at this Baltimore “Colored High and Training School.”
8. Photograph of University of Chicago, Convocation, July 2, 1894. Archival Photographic Files.
Case 6: Who were the first African Americans at the University of Chicago? An Old Question
1. reply reproduced L.J. Miller and Henry P. Chandler to David A. Robertson Secretary to William Rainey Harper with reply, February 12, 1906 and February 15, 1906. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
A researcher at Oberlin seeks information about African Americans at the University of Chicago and is told “One of the fundamental principles of the University of Chicago is democracy and therefore our courses have been open to negroes on the same terms as members of the white race from the beginning.”
2. Café Printing Co. “Trinity Mission and Culture Center.” Two page pamphlet by Pastor R. R. Wright, Jr. advocating centralization of the African-American community around the Church. ca. 1904. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
This program comes from the church of alumnus Richard Wright Jr. (1901) and the related newspaper clipping indicates his public prominence in Chicago.
3. “See negro’s boon in his education,” n.d. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
4/5. F. Foster Hardy to William Rainey Harper, regarding alleged religious persecution of Jewish students at the University, and Harper distinguishing “social” from “religious” matters in response, November 28, 1902 and November 29, 1902. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
6. Rexford Raymond to William Rainey Harper, regarding African-American admission, June 7, 1901 and June 11, 1901. William Rainey Harper Papers.
7. Robert Lee Vann to Secretary to the President David A. Robertson with reply, August 4, 1907 and August 7, 1907. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
Mr. Vann ultimately chose to go to the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a law degree. He founded the Pittsburgh Courier and was Republican Party publicity director for the campaigns of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.
8. Cap and Gown. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1902. General Collections.
The earliest yearbook record of an African American presence at the University of Chicago.
9. Charles Henry Turner. The Homing of Ants. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1907. General Collections.
The first dissertation by an African American awarded a PhD degree at the University of Chicago.
Case 7: The Social Question- Round 1
1. Albion Small to Harry Pratt Judson, July 26, 1907. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
Dean Small’s letter, with the accompanying “Exhibit A” containing the relevant newspaper clipping, explains the harm done by newspaper articles about African American graduate student Cecelia Johnson, who was accused of having tried to pass as white to enter a sorority
2. “Exhibit A” containing newspaper clipping “Color Line Rends U. of C. Sorority,” July 22, 1907. Chicago Tribune Newspaper article about Cecilia Johnson. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
3. Photograph of the Women’s Quad, 1901. Archival Photographic Files.
4. Cecelia Woolley to Harry Pratt Judson, regarding the forced relocation of Georgiana Simpson off-campus, with reply, August 16, 1907 and August 29, 1907. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
5. Sophonisba Breckenridge, notes regarding Georgiana Simpson and the housing of African-American students, [ca. 1919]. Sophonisba Breckenridge Papers.
Miss Breckrenridge would become an outspoken advocate for racial integration; her views would eventually, in the 1920s, prompt the formation of a University committee to give direct consideration to the topic of “housing Negroes.”
6. Albion Small to Cecilia Johnson, July 24, 1907. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
President Judson was not generally sympathetic to the cause of racial integration; however, he took lengthy vacations in Canada each summer, appointing an acting president for the interim. An active Progressive, Dean Small took advantage of his interim presidency to offer from the president’s office the strongest condemnation of racial intolerance that can be found in these early years.
7. Cap and Gown. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1907. General Collections.
The women in this sorority had been members of a club that included Miss Cecilia Johnson. The controversy around Johnson’s racial status appears to have emerged when these women converted their club into a chapter of a national sorority.
Case 8: Future Intellectuals: Monroe Nathan Work
1. preface of Booker T. Washington. The story of the Negro, the rise of the race from slavery. New York: Association Press, 1909. Vol. 1-2. General Collections.
Booker T. Washington acknowledges the importance of Work’s research in the preface to his own book, The Story of the Negro. Interestingly, we can see that Chicago’s present 4th Ward Alderman, Toni Preckwinkle, herself read this book when she was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago in the 1970s.
2. Photograph of Monroe Nathan Work in “Social Progress.” Opportunity, a Journal of Negro Life. Vol. 3, no. 25, 1925. General Collections.
3. Negro Year Book, and Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro, 1912. Tuskegee: Negro Year Book Publishing Co., 1912. General Collections.
Work’s major publication, the annual Negro Year Book, cataloged a remarkable array of demographic details about early 20th century African American life. Importantly, these texts also catalogued lynching statistics and, in so doing, finally helped focus the attention of American citizens on this problem.
4. Negro Year Book, an Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro. Tuskegee: Negro Year Book Publishing Co., 1913. 5th Anniversary ed. General Collections.
5. Tuskegee Messenger. Vol. 8, no.1-2, 1932. General Collections.
Work’s Year Book was translated into a wide range of languages including, Esperanto, the universal language that embodied the progressive goal of unifying humanity.
Case 9: Future Intellectuals: Carter Woodson
1. Carter G. Woodson to Julius Rosenwald, regarding the quarterly statement of the Journal of Negro History and the financial aid necessary to maintain the publication, January 17, 1918. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
2. Secretary of Julius Rosenwald to Carter G. Woodson, regarding a donation toward the publishing of The Journal of Negro History, January 22, 1918. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
3. Carter G. Woodson to William C. Graves, with an enclosed document entitled “A Tentative Plan for the Establishment of the Rosenwald Foundation for the Study of the Negro,” November 14, 1917. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
This set of letters between Carter G. Woodson and William Graves, secretary to the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, provide a good window into Woodson’s role as an institution builder. He was constantly fundraising and seeking support for his fledgling institutions. Rosenwald was an important backer of the University of Chicago, of Tuskegee Institute, and of African American causes generally.
4. Carter Godwin Woodson “The German Policy of France in the War of the Austrian Succession.” MA thesis, University of Chicago, 1908. General Collections.
5. Journal of Negro History, Carter G. Woodson, editor. Vol. 1, 1916. William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana.
Along with journals like Opportunity, founded by University of Chicago alumnus Charles Johnson, and Crisis, founded by W.E.B. DuBois, this journal helped establish the scholarly basis of African American studies.
6. Negro History Bulletin. Vol.1, no. 1, 1938. General Collections.
Woodson was interested not only in scholarly pursuit of research into African American history and literature but also in popularizing the fruits of that research. He founded this journal to educate a general public about African American history.
7. Excerpt from Carter G. Woodson. “Is the Educated Negro a Liability?” Chicago Defender, May 21, 1932. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
8. Photograph of Carter Woodson in “Survey of the Month,” Opportunity, a Journal of Negro Life. Vol. 4, no. 43, 1926. General Collections.
Case 10: Future Intellectuals: Ernest Everett Just
1. Photographs of biologists G.M. Gray, J. R. Schramm, and E. E. Just, [n.d.]. Warder Clyde Allee Papers.
These pictures appear to have been taken at the Wood’s Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.
2. E. E. Just to Frank Lillie, regarding Just’s current field of study, December 15, 1920. Frank R. Lillie Papers.
3. E.E. Just to Julius Rosenwald explaining the trials faced in realizing his goal of doing scientific work, August 27, 1920. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
4. Photograph of Ernest Just with microscope in Negro History Bulletin. Vol. 2, no. 8, 1939. General Collections.
5. Ernest Everett Just. Studies of fertilization in Platynereis Megalops. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1915. General Collections, Gift of the Author.
6. Ernest Everett Just. Basic methods for experiments on eggs of marine animals. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., 1939. General Collections.
Case 11: Future Intellectuals: Georgiana Simpson
1. Georgiana Rose Simpson. “The Phonology of Merigarto….” MA thesis, University of Chicago, 1920. General Collections.
2. Georgiana Rose Simpson. “Herder’s Conception of ‘Das Volk.’” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1921. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.
Her dissertation supervisor Martin Schütze cited Simpson in his own 1921 article on Herder, writing that the question of the role in Herder’s aesthetics of ideas about “essential collective personality” and the “function of collective personality” had already been “fully discussed by Dr. Georgiana Simpson, one of my students.”
3. Photograph of Georgiana Simpson, 1921. Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University Archives.
4. The Chicago Commission on Race Relations. The Negro in Chicago: The Chicago Commission on Race Relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922.Rare Book Collection, Gift of Danielle Allen.
5. Reproduction from The Chicago Commission on Race Relations. The Negro in Chicago: The Chicago Commission on Race Relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922. Rare Book Collection, Gift of Danielle Allen.
Case 12: The Social Question- Round 2
1. Commission on the Church and Social Service, article, January 20, 1923. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
This article provides an overview of the events at Harvard in 1923 that occasioned national discussion of social integration.
2. Margaret Burton to Ernest D. Burton. March 13, 1923. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
3. B. S. Hurlbut to Ernest D. Burton, April 2, 1923. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
President Burton had sought advice from his friend, Mr. Hurlbut, a faculty member at Harvard, about policy developments there.
4. Wallace Heckman to Ernest D. Burton, April 5, 1923. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
In this interesting letter Wallace Heckman, the University Counsel, reports on efforts to understand the legal basis for supporting or resisting social integration. He describes a survey of Lincoln’s writings as leading to cautiousness about social integration.
5. Ernest D. Burton to Sophonisba Breckenridge, May 8, 1924. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
Here President Burton acknowledges Miss Breckenridge’s leading role in forcing the question of social integration, a role she had adopted first in 1907 when the question of Miss Georgiana Simpson’s residence in Green Hall had arisen.
6. Typewritten document proposing members for a committee charged with making recommendations on “the problem of housing negro students,” May 10, 1924. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
7. Cap and Gown. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1928. Archival Reference Collection.
This yearbook photo of Samuella G. Caver should be contrasted with that of Monroe Nathan Work in Future Intellectuals: Carter G. Woodson section. Miss Carver participated in many extra-curricular activities, which earlier African Americans studying at the University of Chicago did not do.
Case 13: Future Intellectuals: Albert and Katherine Dunham
1. Photograph of Katherine Dunham with child, 1936. Archival Photographic Files
2. Katherine M. Dunham. “Java”, student paper for Anthropology 356, [ca. 1935-1936]. Robert Redfield Papers.
Dunham submitted this paper for an advanced anthropology course with Prof. Redfield.
3. Katherine Dunham. “L’Ag’ya of Martinique, Two Bodies Rock, Leap, Fall and Whirl into Feigned Attacks while the Drum Beats out the Commands.” Esquire Magazine. Vol. 12, 1939. Regenstein Library, Microforms Collection.
During her time as a student in Chicago, Dunham explored her interests by writing pseudonymously for publications like Esquire.
4. John Pratt. "The Art of Hawaii and New Zealand: A Contrast and Comparison", [ca. 1935-1936]. Robert Redfield Papers.
Dunham and Pratt would break social taboos and laws in several states to marry across race lines in 1939. They were married until Pratt’s death in 1986. An artist, Pratt also became Dunham’s set designer.
5. Katherine Dunham. Kasamance, with illustrations by Bennie Arrington after original drawings by John Pratt. New York: Third Press, 1974. General Collections.
6. Katherine Dunham. Dances of Haiti / photographs by Patricia Cummings. Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies, 1983. General Collections.
This book contains the fruits of Dunham’s research trip to Haiti in the mid 1930s as a Julius Rosenwald Fellow.
Case 14: Future Intellectuals: Benjamin E. Mays
1. Photograph of Benjamin Elijah Mays, [n.d.].Johnson Publishing Co.
2. Benjamin Elijah Mays. Born to Rebel, an Autobiography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971. General Collections.
This autobiography is a signed copy and was given by the author to the University of Chicago Library.
3. Benjamin Elijah Mays. “The development of the idea of God in contemporary Negro literature.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1935. General Collections, Gift of the Author.
4. John Gunther, handwritten notes of interview with Benjamin Elijah Mays, [ca.1950]. John Gunther Papers.
In this interview with journalist John Gunther, Mays presciently and grimly expresses concern that social conditions in American cities may eventually result in riots.
5. Jerald Brauer to Benjamin Elijah Mays, thanking Mays for a donation to the University of Chicago Divinity School, November 19, 1969. Jerald Brauer Papers.
6. Excerpt from Benjamin Elijah Mays,Eulogy written for Dr. Martin Luther King’s funeral, 1968.
7. Selection from“Julius Rosenwald and the Negro” from The Crisis with photographs of YMCA buildings, 1922. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
Mays was a political activist even during his student days. While this photograph of African American YMCA buildings dates to 1922, it provides some sense of the importance of the context for Mays’ engagement with that institution.
Case 15: Future Intellectuals: Lorenzo Dow Turner
1. Photograph of Lorenzo Dow Turner. Roosevelt University Library Archives, Portrait Collection.
2. Lorenzo Dow Turner. Anti-slavery Sentiment in the U.S. Prior to 1865. PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1929. General Collections, Gift of the Author.
Items 2-4 allow us to see the range of Turner’s interests, from historical to literary questions.
3/4. Lorenzo Dow Turner. “Words for a Vast Music,” edited manuscript with notes in margins and author’s proofs on pink paper, 1955. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse Records.
The publication of Melvin Tolson’s poem, “Libretto for the Republic of Liberia,” was an important literary event, and Turner responded with a review in a major literary organ of the period.
5. Mitford M. Matthews, memo to University of Chicago Press staff, about the manuscript of Lorenzo Dow Turner’s Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect, October 31, 1946. University of Chicago Press Records.
6. Mitford M. Matthews, memo to R.D. Hemens, about Turner’s Gullah project, August 26, 1946. University of Chicago Press Records.
7. Rollin D. Hemens, memo to University of Chicago Press staff member William Terry Couch about the manuscript of Lorenzo Dow Turner’s Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect, August 19, 1946. University of Chicago Press Records.
This set of three memos shows an interesting progression in how the press editors describe Turner. In the first memo he is “a Negro Ph.D. from Chicago.” In the second memo he is described in the first paragraph as having taken “his degree here in English many years ago” and only in the second paragraph as “being himself colored.” Finally, in the third memo he is simply “a Ph.D. in English from the U. of C.” and there is no mention of Turner’s own race. In other words, over the course of the Press’s consideration of Turner’s scholarly work, Turner evolves from being a “Negro Ph.D.” to being instead, a Ph.D. who has produced “a scholarly and prolonged investigation” into the Gullah dialect.
8. Lorenzo Dow Turner. Africanisms in the Gullah dialect. Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 1949. General Collections, Gift of the Press.
Case 16: Mentors & Models
1. R. Johnson, Irving Miller, F.D. Hooker, W. R. Bedford to President W.R. Harper, requesting the University flag be lowered to half-mast upon the death of Frederick Douglass, February 26, 1895. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
2. Photograph of Frederick Douglas. memory.loc.gov/master/pnp/cwpbh/05000/05089u.tif
3. Frank Wood, Printer. “W.E. Burghardt DuBois.” Cover and interior of two publicity brochures for DuBois, [ca. 1911]. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
4. W.E.B. DuBois to the University’s Assistant Recorder, regarding DuBois’ inquiry about African-American graduates at Chicago with reply, May 15 and May 21, 1917. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
5. Reproduction of “Booker T. Washington before Big Audience,” The Daily Maroon. December 6, 1910. Archival Serials Collection.
6. Booker T. Washington to W.R. Harper, requesting financial aid for students at Tuskegee, November 8, 1897. University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations.
7. Booker T. Washington, photograph from Rosenwald/Tuskegee scrapbook. Julius Rosenwald Papers
Case 17: Patrons
1. Photograph of Warden Clyde Allee with his Ecology class, 1923. Archival Photographic Files.
2. Photo of Frank Lillie, 1925. Archival Photographic Files.
3. Frank Lillie to C. E. McClurg, a letter to Julius Rosenwald requesting aid to support the career of E.E. Just, December 8, 1919. Frank R. Lillie Papers.
4. Photograph of Robert E. Park, [ca. 1944]. Archival Photographic Files.
5. Willam C. Graves to Julius Rosenwald, requesting financial aid on behalf of The Journal of Negro History, January 26, 1918. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
6. Photograph of Julius Rosenwald, December 2, 1924. Archival Photographic Files.
7. E. E. Just to Julius Rosenwald, expressing gratitude and eagerness to research in Italy, December 12, 1928. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
8. Photograph of John Matthews Manly,1939. Archival Photographic Files.
9. Lorenzo D. Turner to John Matthews Manly, regarding Turner’s research projects, November 14, 1930. University of Chicago Department of English Language and Literature Records.
Case 18: Strategies for Coping with the Social Issue
1. Carter Woodson, transcripts, 1902-1908. University of Chicago, Office of the Registrar, Examiners' and Instructors' Reports.
The earliest African American students to attend the University of Chicago typically found enrollment at the U. of C. financially and socially challenging. One common strategy for meeting these challenges was to work during the academic year and to pursue studies primarily in the summer with perhaps one or two final years in full residence. These three transcripts indicate patterns of absence that reflect choices both to work and, in Woodson’s case, to experiment with other cultural and social contexts, for instance, through work in the Philippines.
2. Ernest Everett Just, transcripts, 1911-1916. University of Chicago, Office of the Registrar, Examiners' and Instructors' Reports.
3. Georgiana Rose Simpson, transcripts, 1906-1921. University of Chicago, Office of the Registrar, Examiners' and Instructors' Reports.
4. 57th St. Art Colony, black and white contact sheet, ten pictures, [n.d.]. Hyde Park Historical Society Collection.
This art colony provided an environment for students at the University of Chicago, including African American students, to interact in a broader social milieu accepting of diversity.
5. Renaissance Society, announcement of Sebree and Pratt exhibition, May 18, 1936 through June 10, 1936. Courtesy of The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago records, 1917-1981, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Charles Sebree was an important African American painter who moved in the same artistic circles as Dunham, Pratt, Marian Minus and others. The Renaissance Society, founded in 1915 by Eva Schütze, wife of German professor Martin Schütze, to showcase contemporary art, is said to have purchased a Sebree drawing entitled “Seated Boy” in the 1920s.
6. Margaret Walker. “For My People,” typewritten manuscript of poem, [ca. 1942]. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse Records.
The African American poet Margaret Walker studied at Northwestern University but participated in the artistic circles of Chicago’s Southside in which University students like the Dunhams, Pratt, and Marian Minus also participated.
7. Marian Minus. “Cultural Contacts in Malaysia as Seen through Mythology,” student paper, 1936. Robert Redfield Papers.
African American undergraduate, Marian Minus, became a fiction writer and during her student days was close to novelist Richard Wright.
8. Kaiso, Writings by and about Katherine Dunham, edited by VéVé A. Clark & Sara E. Johnson. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. General Collections.
9. Photo of George Cleveland Hall Branch, Chicago Public Library, photograph, n.d. Chicago Public Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature.
Librarian Vivian Harsh (MLS 1931) who oversaw the George Cleveland Hall Branch of the Chicago Public Library encouraged African American artists to gather and collaborate in this space. Similarly, Albert Dunham started a theater group that performed in the Harper Theater. And in 1940 Eleanor Roosevelt would cut the ribbon on the Southside Community Art Center, which soon became the center of African American artistic production in Chicago.
Case 19: Networks
1. Carter Woodson to William C. Graves, requesting financial support for the Journal of Negro History, December 27, 1917. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
Here Woodson reports on what an important organ the Journal of Negro History has become and describes the professional networks that have developed around the journal.
2. Roger Arliner Young to Frank R. Lillie, regarding her pursuit for a Ph.D. at the University, February 20, 1929. Frank R. Lillie Papers.
Roger Arliner Young was a student of Ernest Just’s at Howard and he encouraged her to attend the University of Chicago, making introductions for her to scholars like Frank Lillie. Psychological difficulties ultimately kept Miss Young from finishing her degree at the University of Chicago, but she finally earned a Ph.D. from Penn in 1940.
3. Photograph of Roger Arliner Young, 1927. Marine Biological Laboratory Archives
4. W.E.B. DuBois to Allison Davis, regarding a conference for African-American scholars with reply, March 31, 1944 and April 10, 1944. Allison Davis Papers.
This letter describes a conference aimed specifically at bringing together African American doctorate holders in the social sciences. DuBois actively fostered networks among African American scholars.
5. Opportunity. Vol. 1, no. 2, 1923. General Collections.
Here we see alumni Charles Johnson (1917) and Monroe N. Work (1902, 1903) appearing in the same issue of Johnson’s journal, Opportunity.
6. Alumni Directory, the University of Chicago, 1913. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1913. Archival Reference Collection.
Monroe N. Work (1902, 1903) and Dudley Woodward (1906) both taught at Tuskegee.
Case 20: Courses of Study: a credit to the race or a race man? - Science
1. Roger Arliner Young, Ph.D. exam questions and handwritten, January 10, 1930. Frank R. Lillie Papers.
2. E.E. Just to William C. Graves, May 13, 1922. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
In this letter, Just describes his efforts to determine whether to focus on teaching or research and how best “to use his energy for the greatest good.” As he begins to move away from teaching, he writes: “I do not want either you or Mr. Rosenwald to think that I am trying to run away from my duty and responsibilities in the uplift of my people.”
3. Reproduction of “The Negro in the Beginning of Science.” Negro History Bulletin. Vol. 2, no. 8, 1939. General Collections.
4. Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941). The Biology of the Cell Surface. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., 1939. General Collections.
5. E.E. Just to Julius Rosenwald, September 27, 1924. Julius Rosenwald Papers.
Here Just describes a recent honor as “the unique compliment that comes to an American Negro—the first of its kind I believe.”
Case 21: Course of Study: a credit to the race or a race man? – Sociology
1. St. Clair Drake and Horace Roscoe Cayton. Black metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City / with an introduction by Richard Wright. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1945. Archival Monograph Collection.
2. Reproductions of Opportunity, a journal of Negro life. Vol. 4, no. 38, 1926. General Collections.
3. Horace Cayton, eulogy of Robert Park, July 30, 1944. Robert Ezra Park Collection.
4. Everett C. Hughes, typewritten copy of review of “E. Franklin Frazier on Race Relations,” published in the American Sociological Review, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Jun., 1970), accompanied by student notes on Frazier as a teacher, 1966. Robert Ezra Park Collection.
5. Allison Davis, final version of Ph.D. thesis proposal, “The Operation of Color Caste in the Plantation Economic System of a Black County in Mississippi,” [ca. 1940]. Allison Davis Papers.
Case 22: Course of Study: a credit to the race or a race man? – History
1. Reproduction of Carter Godwin Woodson. “Future task of race history is outlined.” The Chicago Defender. September 7, 1935. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
2. Reproduction of Negro History Bulletin. Vol. 3, no. 5, 1940. General Collections.
Woodson’s ambition was not merely to provide the infrastructure for the scholarly study of African American culture but also to popularize such knowledge. He founded the Negro History Bulletin to make study of such themes a part of the education of the general public.
3. Annual Report of the Director of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, July 1, 1922 to June 30, 1923. Washington, D.C.: The Association, 1923. General Collections.
4. Lorenzo Dow Turner. Anti-slavery Sentiment in American Literature Prior to 1865. Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1929. General Collections.
Thanks to the leadership of pioneering intellectuals like Carter Woodson and Georgiana Simpson and institutions they built, like the ASNLH Press, later students were able to write dissertations on themes in African American culture. In 1935 Benjamin E. Mays wrote “The Idea of God in Contemporary Negro Literature,” and Lorenzo Dow Turner’s1926 on anti-slavery sentiment in American language prior to 1865 was quickly published by the ASNLH Press.
5. Otelia Cromwell, Lorenzo Dow Turner, and Eva Beatrice Dykes. Readings from Negro Authors for Schools and Colleges. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1931. General Collections, Napier Wilt Bequest.
6. Thomas Prosper Gragnon-Lacoste (b. 1820) and Georgiana Rose Simpson. Toussaint Louverture (surnommé le premier des noirs.) Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, 1924. Chicago Public Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature.
Case 23: Final Thoughts
1. Photograph of Martin Schütze, [n.d.]. Martin Schütze Papers.
2. Photograph of Spencer Cornelius Dickerson, [ca. 1901]. Rush University Medical Center Archives.
3. Photograph of Harry Pace, [n.d.]. Atlanta University Photographs. Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center.
4. Photograph of Geraldine Mardis Lane, [n.d.]. Chicago Public Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature.
In 1939 Miss Geraldine Lane was nominated for most beautiful co-ed. When she appeared to be running in the lead in the balloting, she was asked to withdraw from the competition on account of her race. She did so but the related controversy made national news.
5. Photograph of Charles S. Johnson, [n.d.]. Fisk University Franklin Library’s Special Collections.
6. Photograph of E. Franklin Frazier, [n.d.]. Fisk University Franklin Library’s Special Collections.
7. Photograph of Euphemia L. Haynes, 1943. The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives.
8. Photograph of Regina Anderson, [ca. 1940]. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor; Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
9. Photograph of Albert Dunham, 1926. Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale.