Inspiring Future Generations of Reformers: Using Mary Church Terrell's Archives for Teaching and Research

In June 2015, the Oberlin College Archives acquired the collection of papers of Mary Church Terrell, a civil rights activist and suffragist and a graduate of Oberlin College Class in 1884. As the head archivist at Oberlin College, I drove to Maryland to meet the family and pick up the collection, which includes diaries and letters as well as duplicate manuscripts of speeches, galley proofs of her book, and more. We are currently in the midst of arranging and describing the collection to make it accessible for teaching and research by scholars and students. We will create good quality digital images for online access and will arrange to display some of the documents on campus. I will also discuss other collections at the Oberlin College Archives that relate to Terrell’s efforts to fight racial injustice and further the cause for women’s rights and that reveal connections between popular culture and the politics of reform movements.

The Terrell Papers will be prominently featured at an Oberlin College symposium honoring the political activism and achievements of Mary Church Terrell (February 2016). We invited a variety of scholars to speak, including historians Alison Parker and her colleague Stephen Middleton, who facilitated the gift. The family members who made the gift will attend a ceremony honoring Mary Church Terrell with a plaque that will be installed in the Africana Studies Department on the Oberlin College campus. The symposium emphasizes the importance of primary source materials in teaching, research, and scholarship on black women’s history.