PUBLIC "-//Arlington Public Library::Center for Local History//TEXT (US::ViAr::ViAr00103::A Guide to the Freedman's Village and Reconstruction Collection, 1857-1996)//EN" "ViAr00103.xml" A Guide to the Freedman's Village and Reconstruction Collection, 1857-1996 RG 103 Heather Crocetto Arlington Public Library, Center for Local History © 2017 Arlington Public Library, Center for Local History Machine-readable finding aid derived from MS Word, created by Gregory Pierce, 16 September 2020 Description is in English A Guide to the Freedman's Village and Reconstruction Collection, 1857-1996 A Collection in Arlington Public Library, Center for Local History RG 103

Arlington Public Library, Center for Local History 2017 Arlington Public Library, Center for Local History Descriptive Summary Arlington Public Library, Center for Local History Freedman's Village and Reconstruction Collection, 1857-1996 RG 103 4 boxes. English Administrative Information Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Freedman's Village and Reconstruction Collection, Collection # RG 103, Arlington Public Library, Center for Local History

Acquisition Information

Gift of Roberta (Bobbi) Schildt in 2000.

Historical Information

Freedman's Village was founded in 1863 on the lands along Arlington Heights, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Originally a temporary camp for freedmen, it became a permanent community for freed slaves, first under the direction of the War and Treasury Departments, and later of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. In the 1880s the land became a military reservation, and the villagers had all moved to other parts of Arlington by 1900. Most of the land which made up the village is now contained in the area of the Arlington National Cemetery.

Scope and Content

Record Group 103 consists chiefly of copies and transcripts of materials collected by teacher Roberta (Bobbi) Schildt in the course of her research on Reconstruction and specifically Freedman's Village, in Arlington, Virginia. She used the collections of the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Freedom and Southern Society Project at the University of Maryland, among other repositories. A smaller portion of the collection consists of copies of newspaper clippings collected by Dusty Horowitt, her former student, during his research on the integration of Arlington schools in the 1950s and 1960s.

The collection measures approximately 2.5 linear feet and contains photocopies and transcripts of documents, and copies of graphics and maps, originally from 1857-1900. More recent notes, publications, and copies of articles date from 1930-1996. The donation included nineteen books, which have been removed from the collection (see list in File 103-1-37).

Ms. Schildt, a teacher in the H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program in Arlington, worked with her seventh grade students to produce the 1984 book (and 1992 reprint), Freedman's Village: Arlington, Virginia, 1863-1900.

In 1992, Ms. Schildt received a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant to study the Reconstruction era with Dr. Ira Berlin at the University of Maryland. In 1996 she produced a teachers' resource book to be used with the exhibit, "America's Reconstruction," held at the Virginia Historical Society in 1996.

Arrangement

Record Group 103 is divided into three series. Series 1 contains Freedman's Village materials. Series 2 concerns the "America's Reconstruction" exhibit held in 1996 at the Virginia Historical Society. Series 3 contains copies of articles and some exhibit posters concerning integration in Arlington.

Adjunct Descriptive Data Related Material

Other records related to H-B Woodlawn are in RG 370, H-B Woodlawn Collection. There are also several collections on Black history in Arlington, such as RG 11, Edmond C. Fleet Collection, RG 328, Lomax AME Zion Church Records, RG 307, Papers of George Richardson, and RG 349, Dorothea Hamm Papers, amongst others.

Index Terms Subjects: Freedman's Village (Arlington County, Va.) Arlington (Va.) Arlington County (Va.) Contents List Freedman's Village Freedman's Village: Arlington, Virginia, 1863-1900, 2nd ed. 1992 1 Copies of Articles about Freedman's Village and Slavery, n.d. (1) 1 Copies of Articles about Freedman's Village and Slavery, n.d. (2) 1 Copies of Articles about Freedman's Village and Slavery, n.d. (3) 1 Copies of Articles about Freedman's Village and Slavery, 1863-1887 1 Copies of Articles about Freedman's Village and Slavery, 1946-1970 1 Copies of Articles about Freedman's Village and Slavery, 1975-1992 1 Reissues of "Harper's Weekly," 1861-1865 1 Civil War Era Correspondence and Documents: Copies and Transcripts, n.d., 1857-1865 1 Freedman's Village Correspondence and Documents, Copies, 1866 1 Freedman's Village Correspondence and Documents, Copies, 1867-1889 1 Civil War and Reconstruction Era Graphics: Copies, n.d. 2 Civil War and Reconstruction Era Graphics: Copies, 1860-1869 2 Freedman's Village Graphics: Copies, n.d. 2 Arlington and other African American Graphics: Copies, 1 1863-1868 2 no file 16 Copies and Transcripts from the Freedom and Southern Society Project, n.d., 1861-1863 2 Copies and Transcripts from the Freedom and Southern Society Project, 1864 2 Copies and Transcripts from the Freedom and Southern Society Project, 1865-1868, 1888 2 Articles and Notes about Closing of Freedman's Village, n.d., 1864-1981 2 "Preliminary Inventory of Records of the Field Officers of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (fragment), 1974 2 National Archives Pamphlets: "Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869," and "Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872" 2 Pages from The Black Experience, edited by Carter Smith. New York: Facts on File, 1990 (1) 2 Pages from The Black Experience, edited by Carter Smith. New York: Facts on File, 1990 (2) 2 Pages from The Black Experience, edited by Carter Smith. New York: Facts on File, 1990 (3) 2 "Plain Counsels for Freedmen" by Clinton Fisk, 1866 2 Literacy Rates, 1870-1896 2 Copy of Inventory of G.W.P. Custis Estate, 1858 2 Freedman's Village Web Sites 2 Transcripts of Interviews with Arlington African Americans 2 Transcript of Interview with Martha Gray Gillem, 1963 2 Freedmen's Legacy Project Proposal, 1985 2 Freedmen's Village Foundation Constitution and Bylaws 2 Memorials for African Americans of the Civil War, 1986, 1992 2 Articles about and photographs of Arlington Churches 2 "Freedman's Village: Arlington, Virginia, 1863-1900" by Roberta Schildt 2 List of Books Removed from the Collection 2 NEH Grant Application for Roberta Schildt, 1991 3 Notes of Meetings with Dr. Berlin, 1992 3 Articles on Reconstruction Read While Working with Dr. Berlin, n.d., 1939-1989 (1) 3 Articles on Reconstruction Read While Working with Dr. Berlin, n.d., 1939-1989 (2) 3 "Federal Policy Towards Freedmen: Roadblocks to Freedom" by Roberta Schildt, n.d. 3 Disk with Documents, n.d. 3 "America's Reconstruction" Exhibit Notes, Proposal, and Captions for "America's Reconstruction," n.d., 1992, 1995 3 Reconstruction: Copies of Pictures, Articles, Bibliographies, Notes, n.d. (1) 3 Reconstruction: Copies of Pictures, Articles, Bibliographies, Notes, n.d. (2) 3 Reconstruction: Copies of Pictures, Articles, Pamphlets, 1860-1865 3 Reconstruction: Copies of Pictures, Articles, Pamphlets, 1866-1869 3 Reconstruction: Copies of Pictures, Articles, Pamphlets, 1870-1900 3 Reconstruction: Copies of Articles, 1930-1982 3 Copies of "Valentine News," 1992 3 "Arlington's Fight for Educational Equality" Exhibit Copies of articles used for exhibit, n.d., 1947-1955 3 Copies of articles used for exhibit, 1956 3 Copies of articles used for exhibit, 1957-1959 3 Copies of articles used for exhibit, 1960-1964 3 Copies of articles used for exhibit, 1965-1996 3 Oversize Box Posters (12) from exhibit and Arlington Map, 1983 (from Series 1, File 16) 3