The Manuscript Poems of Phillis Wheatley at AAS

The curators at AAS connect audiences with objects, such as the manuscript poems of Phillis Wheatley. As some visitors to AAS know, the Society holds two original manuscript poems of Wheatley’s, “To the University of Cambridge” and “On the Death of the Revd. Dr. Sewall.” These items may be found in the AAS catalog here.

The AAS Manuscript Collections focus on four areas of collecting: papers of prominent New England families; paper and records of New England businesses, families, voluntary associations; New England diaries, and U.S. book trades history.  The Wheatley poems in our collections don’t fit easily into any of these categories. So how did they end up at AAS?

We are pleased to share a new video about the story of these poems, which you can watch below or on our YouTube channel!

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