Travelling Librarian: University of Illinois Chicago

My person in visiting the Library at the University of Illinois Chicago was to spend time with staff from Special Collections and Digital Projects with whom I'd been working with 18 months ago on a joint digitisation bid, and to look at some of the collections we'd been talking about.

The University of Illinois Chicago holds three collections that were of interest: one collection of archives and two book collections.

•The Sierra Leone manuscripts collection consists of items related to the British administration of Sierra Leone, including public and private papers of British officials in the colony of Sierra Leone, 1792-1825. The collections includes reports and hand-drawn plans of the settlement and diaries and correspondence from Lt. John Clarkson (1973-1828) - Governor of Sierra Leone, 1792-1793; and from Captain Edward H. Columbine (d. 1811) - Governor of Sierra Leone, 1809-1811; an early collation of laws of Sierra Leone; Journals of various West African voyages  ( Lt. George Mitchener, Commander of the Brig, "Protector" - Reports of a cruise to Whydah and Benin, 1811; Lt. George W. Courtenay, Commander of H.M.S. "Bann." describing his experiences as a member of the anti-slavery patrol on the West African Coast, including visits to Sierra Leone and Liberia, 1823-1825; Richard M. Jackson, "Journal of a Voyage to Bonny River on the West Coast of Africa in the Ship Kingston from Liverpool" discussing a trading voyage, a trip to the Cameroons and the West African slave trade, 1825-1826; and John and Richard Lander, correspondence from their expedition in West Africa which led to the discovery of the mouth of the Niger River, 1830-1834

•The Atlantic Slave Trade Collection consists of over 200 years of legal, religious and secular publications documenting the Atlantic slave trade, including works issuing from Spain, France, Portugal, England, Africa and the Americas.



•The H.D. Carberry Collection of Caribbean Studies contains almost 1,000 volumes of English language literature and non-fiction by Caribbean authors. The works in this collection are generally first editions, published in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century. Note also: Images of the Caribbean Diaspora: Book Jacket Art from the H.D. Carberry Collection of Caribbean Studies.