Harry Bradshaw Matthews is Associate Dean and Director of the U.S. Pluralism Center at Hartwick
College in Oneonta, New York. It is the home for the United States Colored Troops Institute for Local History and Family Research, the Harriet Tubman Mentoring Project, and the exhibit “Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Newton Arnold, and the Freedom Journey." Supporting the work of the Center is the privately owned Matthews Collection for the Preservation of Freedom Journey Classics that contains 2,500 items with a primary focus upon rare and first editions from the 19th century. The collection is shared on the USCTI’s Web site, selected for inclusion in the online guide African American Documentary Resources, which is facilitated by Cornell University.
Matthews, who is the founding president of the USCTI, also serves as the elected president of the Hartwick College Honor Society, whose membership includes faculty and staff members who were elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Societies prior to employment at Hartwick College. Matthews served during 2006-07 as an appointed member of the New York Commissioner of Education’s Advisory Council for State and Local History. He serves as a member of the New York State School Boards Association’s Diversity Committee.
Since its founding in 1998, the USCTI and Matthews have been honored with numerous speaking invitations, proclamations, and awards for research, preservation, and remembrance of the USCT. During February 2009, he was the keystone speaker at the Harriet Tubman Home, as well as a presenter at the New York Conference on the Underground Railroad Movement that was held at Union College. During November 2008, he was honored by Gettysburg College and the National Park Service as the guest speaker at the USCT Gravesite Salute during the commemorative program honoring President Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address. Other recognitions included a 2006 proclamation from New York Governor George E. Pataki, the 2004 Jeffries Carey National Achievement Medal, the Senate of Maryland Resolution 423 for outstanding historical and genealogical research, the 2003 Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust Award, and the 1998 proclamation from Governor Pataki honoring New York’s USCT.
A noted specialist on the Killingsworth lineage, Matthews is a Killingsworth descendant from South Carolina and the author of African American Genealogical Research: How to Trace Your Family History, which was selected in 2007 by the Library of Congress for its permanent collections. Matthews’ genealogical case study is identified in Foster Stockwell’s A Sourcebook for Genealogical Research as one of the 24 most important case studies in family research. Another one of Matthews’ genealogical studies, The Family Legacy of Anthony Johnson: From Jamestown, VA to Somerset, MD 1619-1995, was selected by the National Park Service for listing in its Annotated Bibliography of Virginia Indian Materials as a part of its study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown: The First Century.
Matthews was honored as a contributing essayist in the inaugural issue of New York Archives Vol. 1, Number 1, Summer 2001. He also was invited to write the entry on the United States Colored Troops for the Encyclopedia of New York that was published by Syracuse University Press in 2004. His latest writing is African American Freedom Journey in New York and Related Sites, 1823-1870: Freedom Knows No Color, Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers, August 2008. It was the subject of a 2009 interview with National Public Radio, WSKG, that discussed genealogy, the USCT, and the role of historic personalities of Hartwick College who were active in the Anti-Slavery Movement.
Matthews earned his bachelor of arts degree in Black-Hispanic studies and political science from the State University of New York College at Oneonta and his master of arts degree in counseling education from Northern Michigan University. He was elected to Phi Kappa Phi honor society in 1980, and elected a fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society (Commonwealth Trust) in England, and an ordinary fellow of the College of Preceptors (postnominal, FCollP) in England.
Contact Information
Hartwick College
U.S. Pluralism Center
103 Bresee Hall
Oneonta, New York 13820
Phone: 607-431-4428
Fax: 607-431-4405
E-mail: matthewsh@hartwick.edu
USCTI Web site: http://info.hartwick.edu/usct/usct.htm
