Julia A. Wilbur was an anti-slavery and women’s rights proponent during the 19th century. The daughter of Mary Lapham and Stephen Wilbur, Julia Wilbur was born into a Quaker family on August 8, 1815, near Rochester, New York. In 1844, she began teaching in the Rochester public school system. Wilbur became involved with the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, for which she served as a correspondence secretary. The Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society sent Wilbur to Virginia in 1862, where she worked alongside Harriet Jacobs providing supplies and education to freed slaves. In 1865, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she became increasingly involved with the women’s rights movement and also took a job working in the U.S. Patent Office. Wilbur spent her last years living in Washington, D.C., with her sister, Frances, until her death in 1895.
This collection is comprised primarily of Julia Wilbur’s personal journals, which span from 1844 to 1895.