Project Background
Houghton Library, Harvard University’s largest rare books and manuscripts repository, is home to hundreds of thousands of materials relating to history across the world. Houghton’s collections related to Black history range from the 18th century through today, but have historically been difficult to discover amongst all the other material. This collection brings together a curated collection of materials ranging from the Early Republic through Reconstruction.

In the summer of 2020, under the leadership of Digital Collections Program Manager Dorothy Berry, Houghton Library put a year-long pause on its digitization projects to focus on curating a digital collection of materials relating to African American history and culture. Houghton’s collections span from the earliest written materials on papyrus to cutting edge 21st century book arts, and while our digitization has run the gamut, we have not historically centered Black history. This project is a first foray into actively sharing our rich collections related to Black experiences from the 18th through early 20th century.

License
These datasets are shared under the: Open Data Commons – Public Domain Dedication & License

Data Access
We recommend using the Dataverse API to access the datasets and files in this collection rather than accessing it via the user interface. See the SAEF: Detailed Content Inventory for detailed inventories and persistent identifiers for the datasets and files in the collection.

Data Reuse
We recommend you review the dataset documentation and best practices for using this data collection: SAEF: Detailed Content Inventory

Researchers who reuse and create new data based on this collection are encouraged to deposit their content in the Harvard Dataverse.