Paul and Gracia Hardacre collection, 1894-1902 | Amistad Research Center

This collection consists of materials collected by Paul and Gracia Hardacre. The collection includes correspondence, ephemera, and a photograph. Correspondence includes one letter each from Booker T. Washington and Rosetta Douglass Sprague. Materials also include a photograph of Frederick Douglass and an autograph with quotation from Douglass.

In the Booker T. Washington letter, from 1901, Washington thanks William B. Hoswell of Chicago for his donation of the dressing gown and smoking cap worn by Frederick Douglass at the Chicago World's Fair to the Tuskegee Institute. Also in the letter from Washington, he states that the donated items will be placed in the Institute's new Carnegie Library Building.

In the letter of Rosetta Douglass Sprague, written in 1902 to Mrs. Hoswell, Sprague writes that she regrets learning of the death of Mrs. Greene, a family friend and mutual acquaintance, and reflects upon their last interaction. Sprague also reports on the status of her children and grandchildren and notes her deteriorating vision and a forthcoming eye surgery.

The collection also includes a collected signature of Frederick Douglass from 1894, bearing the inscriptions "We differ like the waves but we are one like the sea," and "We are in the trade winds of the Almighty." The note includes Douglass' date of death, February 20, 1895, with the latter quotation in a hand other than Douglass'. Also included is a biographical card on Douglass with his likeness and a photograph of Douglass from 1895.