Browse Items

James McCune Smith did this drawing of Benjamin Franklin while attending the Mulberry Street School. Smith was a top student and his intellectual brillance was recognized by teachers, students, and school trustees alike. Maybe Smith harbored the… Read More

Born in New York City in 1813, James McCune Smith referred to himself as “the son of a self-emancipated bond-woman” who owed his “liberty to the Emancipation Act of the State of New York.” He attended the Mulberry Street… Read More

This drawing of the African Free School on Mulberry Street was done by one of its students, John Burns. Read More

The African Free School no. 2 on Mulberry Street was one of several schools for black children established by the New York Manumission Society from the late eighteenth century on. It offered an exceptionally good education for a charity school of… Read More

Philip attended the Laurens Street School where Peter Guignon’s former classmate, Charles Reason, was the principal teacher. After graduating, he apprenticed in Patrick Reason’s engraving shop until it became apparent that he had no talent in… Read More

Crummell’s obituary noted that Peter attended the Mulberry Street School where his classmates were, in his words, “the most celebrated pupils which ever were enrolled upon its records.” He named several of these students, among them James… Read More