Guides: Black History Month 2022: Black Health and Wellness @ Pitt: Primary Sources

Primary Sources Documenting Black Families

These materials are housed in the Archives & Special Collections Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Collections featured on this tab link to digitized content from these archival collections, so you can discover, read, and view from the comfort of your computer!

Have questions? Contact us.

Freedom House Ambulance Service
"Freedom House staff trained under Peter Safar, a Pitt anesthesiologist and medical visionary who had developed a method of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The lifesaving techniques performed on Pittsburgh streets and in local ambulances became the model for emergency medical care nationwide. The rich history of the ambulance service was told in the 2007 Pitt—sponsored documentary Freedom House. In marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of Freedom House Ambulance, and in celebration of Black History Month, Pitt sponsored the world—premiere screening of the film at the Twentieth Century Club. The one—hour documentary by Gene Starzenski of Genastar Productions has received wide praise and circulation, including a showing at the eighth annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, where it was nominated for an HBO documentary award in 2010."
Urban League of Pittsburgh Records
"The Urban League of Pittsburgh (ULP), the Pittsburgh branch of the National Urban League, was established in 1918. The first office was located at 505 Wylie Avenue in the Hill District. The Urban League of Pittsburgh online collection contains images from 1923 through 1958 showing group portraits from conventions and youth conferences, individual portraits of Urban League Fellows and Urban League staff, housing and work conditions for black employees, and children at Camp James Weldon. This includes images of ULP community outreach."
Jeannette Washington from the Urban League of Pittsburgh Records
"Baby show at the Morgan Community Center. Standing at right is Jeannette Washington, RN, who was the first Black public health nurse in Pittsburgh. Photo by E. Simantiras Studio on Wylie Avenue."
Ella P. Stewart from Blue, Gold & Black 2010 Publication
The first Black woman to earn a degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, pharmacy owner and goodwill ambassador for the US Dept. of State.
The Shooting Star Review
The Shooting Star Review was an international quarterly publication produced from 1987 to 1994 in Pittsburgh, PA. It was founded by Sandra Gould Ford, a graduate of Pitt's MFA program, and produced by Shooting Star Productions, Inc., whose mission was to explore the Black American experience through literature and art. The University Library System Digital Collections hosts all published issues online.

Select issues and excerpts related to Black health and wellness include:
Strategies for Building Healthy Relationships
By sociologist, Dr. Delores P. Aldridge.
The Question of Strength
By Sheryl S. Lynch
Let the Children Cry
By Earl Braxton
Kingsley Association Papers
"The Kingsley Association online collection contains images from about 1900 through 1969 showing many views of the Hill District and East Liberty and various activities as well as construction projects at the Lillian Home and the Kingsley House.For more information on the Kingsley Association, see Thirty Years at Kingsley House by Phillip Rosen (MPub 200), Study of Social Settlement Workers in Pittsburgh, 1893 to 1927 by Elizabeth A. Metzger (Mms 30), Neighborhood Centers Association (AIS 64:28), African Service Institute (AIS 63:1) and Eliot Papers (AIS 69:2), available at the Archives Service Center."

Select photos related to Black health and wellness include:
Healthcare
View of a visiting nurse attending to a woman at her home in Pittsburgh.
Weighing In
An infant is weighed while its mother looks on.

These materials are housed in the Archives & Special Collections Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Collections on this tab do not contain completely digitized content, but can be accessed by contacting us here!

Bebe Moore Campbell Papers
Bebe Moore Campbell was an award-winning author, journalist, teacher and playwright whose professional works reflected the African-American experience in the United States, including family life. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Campbell graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971. Several of her fictional works appeared in New York Times bestsellers lists. The papers document Bebe Moore Campbell’s professional life with specific focus on the creative and administrative process of publishing in the late 20th and early 21st century. Included are many drafts and revisions of her writings as well as contracts, correspondence, reviews, promotional activities and rankings of her works. Campbell's work touched on subjects and themes important to her, such as racial justice, childhood obesity, and mental illness.
God-Sent Grandparents Oral History Project
The God-Sent Grandparents support group was founded in the early 1990s in the Hill District and relocated in 1993 to the Salvation Army Third Street headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh, Pa. This faith-based group provides spiritual guidance, as well as material aid such as clothing and food, to African American women in the community who have devoted their lives to raising their grandchildren while coping with crime, poverty, and various other social problems. This collection is comprised of cassettes containing interviews with participants of the God-Sent Grandparents support group and a final summary of the project.
The Black Panther Journal
Black community news service.
Available on PittCat and on microfilm from University Microfilms.
Guide to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Pittsburgh Branch Records, 1940-1966
"The Records of the NAACP, Pittsburgh Branch, consist of correspondence, reports of the chapter to national headquarters; minutes of Executive Board meetings, reports of chapter's activities, chapter programs on: segregation in labor and industry, employment, education, housing, and public accommodations; membership campaigns, cards, and record books; financial statements, paid bills, and receipt books. The records also include public relations information and miscellaneous pamphlets."
Urban League of Pittsburgh Records, 1915-1963
"The records of the Urban League of Pittsburgh, founded in 1918, contain minutes, correspondence, department reports, photographs and Urban League Fellows theses from 1915-1963, with a concentration of materials between 1918-1945. Many of the records were destroyed in a fire that occurred in the League offices in 1945. The collection is divided into 8 series according to subject and are arranged chronologically and alphabetically. The strength of the collection concerns African-American employment and training. Topics such as federal housing projects, youth employment, worker discrimination and African-American welfare work. The records contain extensive material about the National Urban League, Negro Industrial Welfare Workers, National Vocation Opportunity Campaign and Camp Weldon Johnson. The photographs separated from the general collection maintain the file numbers present in this finding aid."

The materials listed below are housed in the ULS Library System's PittCat A-Z Databases.

African American Communities
A diverse range of primary source material is showcased in this collection that focuses on race relations across social, political, cultural and religious arenas. Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, Brooklyn, and towns and cities in North Carolina this collection presents multiple aspects of the African American community. Through pamphlets, periodicals, correspondence, official records and in-depth oral histories, it reveals the challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and the expressions of a unique African American culture and identity.
Black Thought and Culture
Covering 1,200 non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. The material is fully described and organized so that the user can browse and search by a variety of subjects.

Primary Sources are...

Original materials that provide direct evidence or first-hand testimony of a participant or eyewitness of an event or topic.

Primary sources can be contemporary sources created at the time when the event occurred (e.g., letters and newspaper articles) or later (such as, memoirs and oral history interviews).

Primary sources may be published or unpublished. Unpublished sources are unique materials (e.g., family papers) often referred to as archives and manuscripts.

What constitutes a primary source varies by discipline. How the researcher uses the source generally determines whether it is a primary source or not.

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

Black History Month 2022: Black Health and Wellness @ Pitt

Blue, Gold, & Black Experience

Primary Sources Documenting Black Families

This information adapted from Finding Primary Sources @ Pitt.