Julia Wilbur

[L Verge]

Surratt House Museum had a good turnout on a rainy, cold Saturday yesterday for a program on Julia Wilbur, an abolitionist from New York, who was sent by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in 1862 to D.C. to assist the swell of contraband (later designated as freedmen) in the capital city's surrounds. Her work centered mainly around the numerous hospitals and camps sheltering the refugees in Alexandria, Virginia, and D.C.

Miss Wilbur kept a series of pocket diaries as well as lengthy ones that were eventually given to Haverford College in Pennsylvania. Most of her work has now been transcribed and digitized by members of Alexandria history groups and are really a treasure trove. Those of you who read BoothieBarn have seen parts of them, and members of the Surratt Society will read assassination-related excerpts in their April Courier, which goes in the mail this week.

You can also read her diaries year-by-year online. We enjoyed a talk by Paula Tarnapol Whitacre of Alexandria Archaeology, who discovered several of the pocket diaries and worked on the project of bringing Wilbur's work to light. A biography of the lady will be published soon.

In the course of that talk, I also learned about her friend, an amazing freedwoman named Harriet Jacobs. Harriet fled slavery as a young person when faced with the perpetual "interest" of her master. She literally fled to her free grandmother, who hid her in the attic for seven years. During that time, Harriet began to write about the conditions of slavery, especially for women, and became one of those rare sources of black, enslaved women who had her story published. Our February lecture series had featured a speaker on these African-American women who published in an era when education for blacks was largely illegal.

For five years, our museum's programs focused on the events of the Civil War and culminated last year with the commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the end of that conflict and the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. This year, we have been featuring things related to stepping away from slavery and making a step forward towards progress as African American citizens of a re-united, healing U.S.

[Gene C]

Laurie, are any of these presentations recorded or put on the internet?
Wish I could be present to see and hear them. When Thomas posted the brochure that had the schedule of events, it is/was an impressive lineup. I hope the community appreciates it.

[L Verge]

We started considering recording our conference sessions about 6-7 years ago and selling them. However, we soon found difficulties - mainly, it isn't cheap, and even one of our computer experts could not get top quality recordings where lips and voice were in sync. We also found that we could run into copyright issues, and also (and most importantly) not all of our speakers wanted to be recorded. We then asked the speakers to submit their speeches in finished form so that we could compile booklets. They reacted strongly to that because most just speak from notes and were not willing to turn those notes into a finished product.

We have had a wonderful reception from our community with these lecture programs especially. Our February one was standing room only (over 90 people in a room designed for theater seating of 75), and no one complained. Yesterday's audience was much smaller, but still over 30 people who dared a very miserable weather day to come out at 4 pm. Since we started doing these programs over 5-6 years ago, we have averaged about 40 per lecture. Music programs usually draw the most.

We had as many as 145 for one on Civil War music, over 100 for slave music, but the all-time high was a first-person Frederick Douglass presentation that had to be given twice to accommodate everyone. When we shut the doors the first time, we still had about 40 people waiting to get inside. Mr. Douglass gently told us that he would be happy to give a second performance. Our volunteers agreed to continue giving tours past 4 pm, so those still in line got free tours of the museum and then returned to our meeting room at the James O. Hall Research Center to hear Mr. Douglass.

I should add also that the programs generate publicity for Surratt House through press releases and word of mouth. We have had several of the hometown newspapers pick up on them and send reporters. Another great thing is that some of the audience members give us ideas for future programs. Yesterday's had a woman who gives first-person presentations on Harriet Jacobs, whom I mentioned in the Julia Wilbur posting. You better believe we have her contact information!

[RJNorton]

I really enjoyed reading the excerpts from Julia Wilbur's diaries in the April Surratt Courier. It's like a "you are there" experience to read her thoughts, observations, etc. She is a wonderful writer. She was in the "vast throng" at the March 4th inauguration and could only hear the President say, "The progress of our arms" and "with high hopes for the future." She describes the Illumination of April 4 and says "the War Dept. exceeded everything else." She walked by Seward's home and writes, "every window was occupied with a flag just the size of the window & with brilliantly lighted rooms the effect was very beautiful."

Very interesting reading.