Join us on Monday, September 30, to celebrate and honor Reverend Edward Mitchell’s life and work! A graduate of the class of 1828, he was the first person of African descent to graduate from any school now identified as part of the Ivy League, and the third self-identified man of color to graduate from any American college. This day-long event series brings together international collaborators, the Libraries, Mitchell’s biographer, and more to highlight Mitchell’s unique story and legacy. We will also showcase the ambitious project to digitize Mitchell’s papers (85 items in total, including letters, schoolwork, essays, and sermons) that will make Mitchell’s writings available for current and future scholars. 

Event highlights include:

• a panel discussion featuring Woody Lee ‘68, Mitchell’s biographer 
• a viewing of materials related to Mitchell at Rauner Special Collections Library
• a tour of Digital by Dartmouth Libraries, where the Mitchell collection was digitized and transcribed.

For anyone who may not know about Reverend Edward Mitchell (1792–1872), his story was adventurous and spanned several countries. He was born in Saint-Pierre, the cultural and commercial center of the French colony of Martinique. At 18, with ambitions for a life at sea, he traveled from Saint-Pierre to Portland, Maine. A year later, in 1811, he traveled to Philadelphia, then a vibrant center of free Black life, to pursue a religious education. There, in 1820, he had a chance encounter with Dartmouth President Francis Brown which brought Mitchell to Hanover. 

Initially denied admission by the Dartmouth Board of Trustees in 1824, Dartmouth students protested the Board’s decision to deny Mitchell’s admittance based on race. In their letter, they vowed to “cheerfully receive him as a companion and fellow student.” The students’ activism was supported by the faculty, so the Board relented, and Mitchell took his rightful place in the student body. Shortly after graduation, Mitchell was ordained as a Baptist minister and traveled through New Hampshire, Vermont, and lower Canada on an evangelical mission, eventually settling in Georgeville, Canada, in 1837. 

Today, you’ll find Mitchell’s personal papers at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal, Quebec, where they are a valued collection illuminating early Canadian history. The digital collection is an international collaboration that includes papers from the McCord Stewart Museum as well as items from the Dartmouth Libraries.

Hear more about Mitchell’s life and work, the 19th-century context in which he lived, and the Libraries’ international collaboration to digitize Mitchell’s papers in a series of engaging and enlightening events. 

“Edward Mitchell and Dartmouth: 200 Years” panel discussion

• In this session, you’ll discover the details of Edward Mitchell’s extraordinary life, and how our international collaboration in digitizing and publishing his papers came to be. You’ll also hear from Mitchell’s biographer, Woody Lee ‘68, about how Mitchell came to be a Dartmouth student, and from Cheryl Bascomb ‘82 about Mitchell’s continuing inspiration of Dartmouth’s Black alumni community. Listen to Mathieu Lapointe speak about Mitchell’s significance to Quebec’s history, and Samara Cary from Dartmouth Libraries will demonstrate how crowdsourcing was central to transcribing Mitchell’s writings. 10:15am - noon The LINK, Berry 180 | RSVP for a reminder notification | Zoom for remote attendees 

Lunch On Us!

• Stay after the panel to extend the conversation and take the discussion further with our guest panelists. There are only 30 spaces available, so reserve yours today. 12 - 1pm The LINK Berry 180 | RSVP required

Digitizing and Transcribing Edward Mitchell’s Manuscripts: tour and demonstration

• Limited to 20 people, so reserve your place! Join a special overview of how Edward Mitchell’s papers from the McCord Stewart Museum and materials from Rauner Special Collections Library traveled through the Digital by Dartmouth Libraries’ workflows to become the Edward Mitchell Digital Collection. You’ll learn about the collaborative digitization process and see how we transcribe Mitchell’s documents using From the Page, our crowdsourcing platform. 1 - 1:45pm Digital by Dartmouth Libraries, Baker 02 | RSVP to save your place

Edward Mitchell and Dartmouth in the 1820s: tour

• What was it like to be a student at Dartmouth in the 1820s? Learn about the Dartmouth experience 200 years ago and view materials that illuminate how Edward Mitchell may have experienced his time on campus. Only 20 places available, so save yours now. 2 - 2:45pm Rauner Special Collections Library | RSVP