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Mary Church Terrell: A Resource Guide

Digital Resources

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of primary source materials related to Mary Church Terrell, including photographs, documents, and webcasts. Provided below is a link to the home page for each relevant digital collection along with selected highlights.

Mary Church Terrell Collection

The papers of Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) consist of approximately 13,000 documents, comprising 25,323 images, all of which were digitized from 34 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1851 to 1962, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1886-1954, the collection contains diaries, correspondence, printed matter, clippings, and speeches and writings, primarily focusing on Terrell's career as an advocate of women's rights and equal treatment of African Americans. 

A selection of highlights from this collection includes:

Additional Digital Collections

African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection

The collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review of African-American history and culture, spanning almost one hundred years from the early nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, with the bulk of the material published between 1875 and 1900. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummell, and Emanuel Love.

Selected highlight from this collection:

Civil Rights Oral Histories

On May 12, 2009, the U. S. Congress authorized a national initiative by passing The Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-19). The law directs the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights movement to obtain justice, freedom and equality for African Americans and to record new interviews with people who participated in the struggle, over a five year period beginning in 2010.

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey

These collections are among the largest and most heavily used in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. The collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and landscape design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types, engineering technologies, and landscapes.

Selected highlight from this collection:

National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection

This collection comprises nearly 800 books and pamphlets documenting the suffrage campaign that were collected between 1890 and 1938 by members of NAWSA and donated to the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress on November 1, 1938.

Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929

This collection assembles a wide array of Library of Congress source materials from the 1920s that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition. 

Selected highlight from this collection:

Related Digital Resources

Global Gateway: Collaborative Digital Libraries

Global Gateway is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the world. The site offers more than 80 thousand digital items.

Selected highlight from this collection:

Library of Congress Blog

Selected blog posts include compelling stories and fascinating facts written by Library of Congress curators and librarians.

Manuscript Division Finding Aids Online

Online Exhibitions

Prints and Photographs Division Collections

Related Research Guides

Resources for Teachers

The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching. Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations.

Lesson Plans

Themed Resources

Special Presentation (Monthly Portal)

The monthly portals highlights the Library's own collections and events, they also represent a collaboration with other federal cultural heritage institutions to feature relevant materials from their institutions. Partners in the past have included the National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Today in History

Today in History is a Library of Congress presentation of historic events illuminated by items from the Library’s Digital Collections. Each essay offers search tips and links selected to encourage users to dive more deeply into the Library’s growing digital collections.