History of the Collection
Founded in 1833, Oberlin's early supporters, students, and settlers actively pursued the Christian ideals of figures like Charles Grandison Finney and William Lloyd Garrison. Oberlin College was the first co-educational institution in the United States, as well as the most influential of the early institutions that admitted African-Americans, and the town was an important stop on the Underground Railroad. Oberlin College has, and continues to embrace many social and political causes, and the foremost among these during the early years of the college was the crusade to end slavery in the United States.
During the years 1838-1840, travelers from Oberlin to England made financial appeals to British anti-slavery sentiment and also collected books for the school's fledgling library. Their trip was marvelously successful, and among the 2,000 or so volumes they brought back with them were several British books arguing against slavery. These volumes represent the earliest acquired portion of our Anti-slavery Collection.
When Oberlin's first library, Spear Library, was set to open in 1885, librarian Rev. Henry Matson - recognizing the role which Oberlin had played in the abolitionist struggle - made an appeal to local residents for anti-slavery literature. He wrote in the local paper:
"It is proposed to make in the college library an anti-slavery collection, complete as possible, for the future historian, in which shall be gathered every book, every pamphlet, every report, every tract, every newspaper, and every private letter on the subject. For such a collection nothing is unimportant. Scattered here and there these documents are all but worthless, but gathered in one collection they would be priceless." (Oberlin Weekly News, Feb. 29, 1884)
Among the contributions made at this time, most notably by the heirs of William Goodell, was the original draft of the Anti-Slavery Declaration of 1833 in the handwriting of William Lloyd Garrison and objects related to slavery and the Civil War.