The University of Rochester Frederick Douglass Project has completed the latest phase of making historical documents and supporting materials related to the life of abolitionist Frederick Douglass available on the Internet, and Warner School students were part of the team.

On the Web site of the Douglass Project, which is housed in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Rochester, there are photographs of Douglass, images and transcriptions of almost 100 letters by him, and other documents. The Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies at the University co-sponsors
the project.

A $58,000 grant from Xerox covered the last two years of work, which included the development of school lesson plans by Warner students Veronica Armour, Linda Caprio, Sumara Coury, and
Alexandrina Long.

These online lesson plans utilize documents held in the Douglass collection. The curriculum designed by the graduate students is compatible with New York State and national standards for fourth-through 12th-graders.

During the last 13 months, the project’s Web site has received more than 118,000 hits with visitors estimated at more than 11,000. Return visitors average 364 a month.

“We’re very pleased that this grant allowed us to place a very large portion of our Douglass materials online, and that it enabled us to collaborate with other local institutions,” said Melissa Mead, manager of the project and digital and visual resources librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections.

The University of Rochester Frederick Douglass Project can be found online at www.lib.rochester.edu/rbk/douglass.