River Campus Libraries

A new digital project and exhibitions on and off campus mark the bicentennial year of one of the founders of social and cultural anthropology.

On December 3, 1847, the first issue of the North Star newspaper was published in the city of Rochester. One hundred and seventy one years later, the city again celebrated abolitionist, activist, author, and orator Frederick Douglass in an evening of words and song at Rochester’s Hochstein Hall. The Prophet of Freedom event include a performance by Eastman School of Music student Jonathan Rhodes '20 of a song written for Douglass in 1847 that had not been performed in 100 years.

Julia Maddox, director of the new Barbara J. Burger iZone at Rush Rhees Library, talks about what stops many would-be innovators, and how the iZone's intentional design fosters creative thinking and actions.

A 1929 Japanese silent film inspired by a classic O. Henry short story was long thought lost until Rochester researchers collaborated to bring it back to the big screen.

Only two copies of “Farewell Song of Frederick Douglass” are known to exist—and one of them was acquired earlier this year by River Campus Libraries.

In a letter recently acquired by River Campus Libraries, abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass expresses his pleasure with a bust that can now be reproduced by anyone with a 3D printer.

A new hands-on learning and research lab envisioned for the Carlson Science and Engineering Library will give students and faculty a place to explore augmented and virtual reality—regardless of their level of expertise.

Several generations after the purchase of Alaska on March 30, 1867, the William Henry Seward Papers at the University of Rochester show the supposed folly to be a shrewd bargain.

iZone, a new collaborative gathering point under construction at on the first floor of Rush Rhees Library, was created in response to undergraduate students’ expressed desire for a collaborative space for innovation. It will perform triple duty as a program, a community, and a space and is slated to be open by fall 2018.

Like most African Americans born into slavery, Frederick Douglass was never told the date and year of his birth. He chose February 14 as the day on which to celebrate it, and in 2018 we celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. At the University of Rochester, one of the most extensive collections of Douglass artifacts in the country can be found in Rush Rhees Library.