On August 31, 1898, a representative of the American Missionary Association in New York City wrote to Paul Laurence Dunbar in Washington, D. C., inviting him to speak at the group's annual meeting. The Association oversaw several schools in the South that provided training for African Americans.
The Fifty-second Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in Concord, New Hampshire, October 25th - 27th. It is the unanimous and most cordial desire of this society that you should favor us with an address upon some feature of the work which we are doing in the South. You will see by the Annual Report that Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee; Talladega College in Alabama; Straight University in New Orleans, Louisiana; Tillotson College in Austin, Texas, etc., etc. are under our auspices and direction. We should feel honored by your presence and would highly appreciate it if you could accept our invitation. Your traveling expenses would be paid and you would be most hospitably entertained. We should be glad to have you bring Mrs. Dunbar with you.
Reverend A. F. Beard to Paul Laurence Dunbar, August 31, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
Paul often had to turn down speaking opportunities due to the requirements of his job at the Library of Congress. He mentioned the invitation in letters to his wife Alice, but considered it unlikely that he could accept. Alice had studied at Straight University, and Paul found a photo of her in the materials that the Association had sent.
It is dreadfully hot here and we are working very hard at the library. Mr. Hutcheson says nothing about my leave to go to Cincinnati and I should like to resign if I dared. I am also wanted in Concord N. H. at the meeting of the American Missionary Association. They have set us to counting one by one the books on the decks and you know I have 70,000 on mine alone. It's awful.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Moore Dunbar, September 1, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
The American Missionary Association suggests that I bring you with me to New Hampshire in October and that it shall not cost me anything. Isn't that almost enough to make a man give up such a job as mine?
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Moore Dunbar, September 2, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
I was amused today to see among some of the American Missionary Association's samples of what they had done in the south, your chubby picture taken with your class.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Moore Dunbar, September 2, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
When the Association's annual meeting occurred in late October, Paul was ill at home. Booker T. Washington had invited him to appear at a Boston fundraiser for the Tuskegee Institute, but Paul again doubted he could participate because of his job. Paul suggested that Washington try to persuade John Russell Young, the Librarian of Congress, to give him a leave of absence.
As it looks now, unless I am able to get a leave until the first of the year, I shall not be able to go to Boston with you. I am now at home sick, and have been for two weeks past. If you can, as you thought, use your influence with Mr. Young, I shall be most happy to join your enterprise.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Booker T. Washington, October 26, 1898. Booker T. Washington Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.