Wilbur Henry Siebert collection relating to the Underground Railroad and freedom seekers
Overview
45 scrapbooks of letters, manuscripts, clippings, maps, student papers, and other materials, arranged geographically, regarding the Underground Railroad for formerly enslaved people and abolitionism. Collection was assembled by Harvard graduate and Ohio State University history professor Wilbur Henry Siebert.
Dates
- Creation: 1891-1898
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
10 linear feet (11 boxes)45 scrapbooks consisting primarily of the following: newspaper clippings about formerly enslaved people and men prominent in the abolition movement; articles and extracts from periodicals and books which mention the "Underground Railroad;" and correspondence with those who still remembered the "Railroad" and its operations.
Each scrapbook volume includes a typescript table of contents in front of the volume and a bookplate giving the offical title of the collection as the: "Collection of Wilbur Henry Siebert Relating to the Underground Railroad and Fugitive Slaves." The bookplate includes an image of an engraving of Charles T. Webber's 1893 painting, The Underground Railroad. The collection once at Houghton Library was retitled in 2023 to be the Wilbur Henry Siebert collection relating to the Underground Railroad and freedom seekers in order to reflect contemporary preferred terms. Lower level components continue to reflect Siebert's original titling.
Materials include manuscript and typescript letters to Siebert, autograph manuscript and typescript notes by Siebert, manuscript maps, printed pamphlets and maps (some annotated), clippings, statistics, typescript and manuscript transcripts of materials on the UR from many sources, student papers written for Siebert's history courses taught at Ohio State University, a few photographs, and related materials.
Biographical / Historical
Wilbur Henry Siebert (1866-1961) was born in Columbus, Ohio. He received a B.A. from Ohio State University (OSU) in 1888. In 1889 and 1890 respectively, he received another A.B. and then an A.M. from Harvard University. He then traveled to Germany to study history and philosophy at the universities of Freiburg (Baden) and Berlin. Upon returning to Ohio in 1891, he began teaching history and political science at OSU. By 1893, he was awarded an assistant professorship in history and was already collecting material on the Underground Railroad with his students. He used a seven-question circular to generate information, conducted interviews, and kept extensive research notes on the subject. In 1895 he took a sabbatical and returned to Harvard to study the anti-slavery movement. In 1898 his first book was published, The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom.
Arrangement
Arranged by geographic location. Each state volume is arranged alphabetically by county.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Gift of Professor Wilbur Henry Siebert (A.B. Harvard College 1889), Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; received: 1939 June 14. Recataloged from US 5278.36.25*.
Separated Materials
The Ohio Historical Society owns The Wilbur H. Siebert Collection which is a "sister" collection of Underground Railroad materials which is very similar, but not identical to, these scrapbooks at Houghton. The UR materials at OHS are available for research and purchase on microfilm collection MIC 192; Ohio Historical Society.
The Ohio Historical Society's website (at www.ohiohistory.org) explains the origin of the materials assembled in these scrapbooks, as it describes the "sister scrapbooks" that are in their possession: "Siebert is best known for his work on the Underground Railroad. He began teaching history at OSU in 1891. Finding that students in his American history classes 'were inclined to be restless and inattentive, [he] decided to arouse their interest over a mysterious and romantic subject that was rich in adventure.' With his students, Siebert pursued this research topic for the rest of his career and into retirement. At age 80 Siebert took an office at the Ohio State Museum, where he wrote his final book, The Mysteries of Ohio's Underground Railroads (1951).
Research material at the Ohio Historical Society on the Underground Railroad includes the responses generated by Siebert's seven-question survey and copies and notes from a wide variety of sources: books, diaries, letters, photographs, newspaper articles, biographies and memoirs, state, county, and local histories, annual reports, trial records, U.S. and Canadian census reports, legislation, and Congressional speeches. Siebert also traveled Underground Railroad routes, interviewing agents and former freedom seekers. He organized his research by state and county, eventually binding his notes in volumes according to the location of the Underground Railroad station or activity."
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Processing Information
This finding aid was revised in 2023 to address outdated and harmful descriptive language. During that revision, description was changed in the title of the collection as well as collection descriptive notes, changing the term "fugitive slave" to freedom seeker. This term was not changed in some lower level archival description as it is included in titles by the creator. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Houghton Library. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
- Title
- Siebert, Wilbur Henry, 1866-1961, collector. Wilbur Henry Siebert collection relating to the Underground Railroad and freedom seekers, circa 1891-1898: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01912
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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