This image is from the Booker T. Washington Collection in the Library of Congress. There are no descriptive notes telling us about this particular image. Washington was born into slavery in 1856 and after Emancipation grew up in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia. At the age of 16 he enrolled in the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. In 1881, on the recommendation of staff at the Hampton Institute, he was hired to found a school for African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Booker T. Washington became a prominent leader as the result of his fund-raising efforts for Tuskegee. By 1895, Washington had a reputation as a public speaker which is reflected in this collection. He gained the respect of Theodore Roosevelt, who became a trustee of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1910. Washington died at Tuskegee on November 14, 1915.

The Collection's photographs document the activities of Booker T. Washington as a leader and agrarian organizer in the South at the turn of the century. Many depict Booker T. Washington's speaking engagements at such places as Ocala, Tallahassee, and Daytona, Florida, Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The collection also includes photographs that document classes and activities at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, including a parade for the celebration of the visit of President Theodore Roosevelt on October 24, 1905; celebrations for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Institute in 1906; and students building dormitories and other facilities. Also includes a group portrait of the faculty of the Institute in 1897, as well as a few images of such faculty members as Frederick Douglass, Emmett Scott, and George Washington Carver. In addition, the collection contains portraits of other African Americans, including Blanche K. Bruce, Henry O. Tanner, John R. Lynch, Richard T. Greener, and John M. Langston, as well as alumni of Tuskegee Institute. The Collection also includes portraits of African American students at other schools in the South. Many images are unique because of personal inscriptions to Booker T. Washington.

Medium : 1 photographic print

Created/Published : Between 1890 and 1920

Creator : Not attributed

Part of the Booker T. Washington Collection housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

Availability: Usually ships in one week

Product #: cph3c19922