Frederick Douglass

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?" Frederick Douglass delivered his rousing oration on July 5th at Rochester's Corinthian Hall. An original printing of the speech has been digitized by Rare Books and Special Collections and can be read online.

One of the earliest images of the 19th-century abolitionist is on loan at the River Campus Libraries through February. While here, the 1848 portrait will feature in a larger exhibition about the University's work on researching and preserving daguerreotypes.

The bust of abolitionist and leader Frederick Douglass sits in its new home on the stairway landing in the Great Hall of Rush Rhees Library. The statue is one of the oldest on campus, having been dedicated and placed in Sibley Hall on the University's original Prince Street campus in 1879.