This book contains a piece of minstrel music with racist lyrics and imagery, as well as news articles which use racist and outdated language to refer to both Jewish and Black people. Please take care when using the collection, and contact Special Collections with feedback or questions about the materials.

A commonplace book of information collected by Jane Beltzhoover from 1882 to 1885. The book contains recipes, newspaper clippings, passages of literature and poetry, sewing and crochet instructions, prints of cultural institutions and artifacts, and travel ephemera. Inscribed on the first page of the diary is Jane Beltzhoover’s signature and “Berlin, 1882.” The manuscript pages are written in both English and German, and the clippings are primarily from American and German publications on political and social issues, topics of general interest, and cultural events. A few of the articles saved in the album relate to the relationship between the North and South following the American Civil War and the legacy of slavery in the United States. At the rear of the book is a broadside of the minstrel song “Swannee Ribber, or, Old Folks at Home” printed by P.J. Dennis of Baltimore. There are also articles related to scientific and mathematical news, such as an op-ed from Johns Hopkins University president Daniel Coit Gilman about academic freedom and an article about the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition to the Canadian Arctic. The book contains political ephemera, such as tickets and clippings related to the 1884 United States presidential election between Grover Cleveland and James Blaine. The book also contains a "Catalogue of W.T. Walters' Picture Galleries," the art collection of William T. Walters that was later bequeathed by his son, Henry Walters, to the City of Baltimore and established the Walters Art Gallery.