Institute for American Thought

Frederick Douglass Papers

Website: Frederick Douglass Papers

The Douglass Papers, one of the flagship documentary editing projects in progress devoted to an African American, began 36 years ago at Yale University, the result of consultations among the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History,  and the late John W. Blassingame, Professor of History at Yale.  Now located at the Institute for American Thought at Indiana University School of Liberal Arts,  the edition continues to fulfill its founder’s vision: to publish well-annotated scholarly editions of Douglass’s works, illuminating the historical context of this most prolific and influential human rights activist of the nineteenth century.  The heart of the project is the print publication of Douglass’s writings, but present editors, under the leadership of project director John R. McKivigan,  have also begun to explore electronic publication of retrospective volumes and unpublished material in order to broaden access to the project’s resources.

As Douglass has said, "The thought of today and the work of today, are alike linked, and interlinked with the thought and work of the past."  It is the work of the Douglass Papers to provide and preserve such links to the work and thought of nineteenth-century America as present and future generations consider the great questions of their times.

Frederick Douglass Papers
Phone: 317-274-5834
Fax: 317-278-7800