Greetings all! I was able to help John a bit with his query via an old-fashioned telephone conversation, but wanted to make clear that the presentation he's referencing is a virtual talk in the Mark Twain House's "Trouble Begins" series tomorrow night (Wednesday, Feb. 7, 7 p.m.) on Douglass and Twain. Read all about it: https://marktwainhouse.org/event/the-trouble-begins-with-john-muller-on-frederick-douglass-mark-twain-virtual/ ...and as almost always, video of the virtual event will soon afterward be posted on the MT House's Educational Channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeofGFGuIBqgznwL91D4K2Q Somehow URLs posted on the Forum become huge, but I think not impenetrable. Cheers, Steve Steve Courtney, Curatorial Volunteer The Mark Twain House & Museum 351 Farmington Avenue Hartford, Connecticut 06105 860-302-8969 ________________________________ From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of John H. Muller <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 8:49 AM To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: [External] Mark Twain & Hartford's Black Community ? Good morning. If the previous message is not already queued - can you please send the below that has a small edit? Thank you. - JM --- Hi, all. As I scurry to compile a most thorough upcoming presentation on the friendship and associations of Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass I have pondered on Mark Twain's connections and/or relationship with Hartford's Black community during his years living there. I have reviewed available sources on Twain and John T. Lewis and George Griffin but am looking moreso for Twain's possible philanthropy and/or more general interactions with and towards Hartford's Black community. I have been able to confirm the relationships of Douglass to several members of Hartford's Black community while Twain is a resident. My inquiry is in possibly connecting Douglass associates to Twain in Hartford's Black community. More specifically I am trying to determine / confirm any possible connections between Twain and the Saunders Brothers merchant / tailor store at 254 Main street in Hartford and/or Thomas P. Saunders of Hartford who hosted Frederick Douglass on at least one of his stays in the city. Could Twain have patronized this establishment? Saunders was an influential member of Hartford's community and reports indicated he was for a time a tailor in Paris. I have cross-referenced several available resources (city directories, etc), databases (Twain at UC Berkeley) and have done extensive google searches but thought this group may know of a source(s) I am overlooking. In *The Primus Papers: An Introduction to Hartford's Nineteenth Century Black Community *(1995) the singular reference to Twain is not related to Hartford. I am looking for any scholarship that may have situated Twain within and/or connected to Hartford's Black community similarly to how Prof. Matt Seybold's recent scholarship helped to make connections between Twain and the Black community in Elmira, New York. Some of these questions will take time to better understand but I thought it a proper courtesy to ask this group for potential direction towards any scholars or works of scholarship that may help to better understand Twain and Hartford's Black community. Thank you for your time and help. respectfully, John Muller