author

Anna Bustill Smith

1862–1945

A pioneering genealogist and writer, she helped preserve Black family and community history at a time when too much of it was being ignored. Her best-known work offers a rare early record of African American life in nineteenth-century Princeton.

1 Audiobook

Reminiscences of Colored People of Princeton, N. J.: 1800-1900

Reminiscences of Colored People of Princeton, N. J.: 1800-1900

by Anna Bustill Smith

About the author

Born in Philadelphia in 1862, she came from the prominent Bustill family, a long-established African American family with deep roots in Pennsylvania. Sources describe her as a suffragist and as the first known African American genealogist in the United States, reflecting her commitment to documenting Black history through both family records and community memory.

Her most recognized book, Reminiscences of Colored People of Princeton, N.J., 1800–1900, was published in 1913. It gathers biographical sketches and local history about Princeton's Black community, and it remains notable for preserving stories that might otherwise have been lost.

She spent time in Chicago after marrying James H. Smith and later returned to Philadelphia, where she died in August 1945. Today, she is remembered for careful historical work that connected personal remembrance, genealogy, and the broader story of African American life.