(EDUCATION) Autograph album kept at the Kentucky Normal Indu

Sale 2663 - Lot 175

Unsold

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(EDUCATION.) Autograph album kept at the Kentucky Normal Industrial Institute. 58 partly-printed pages, each completed in manuscript by a different classmate, plus several draft letters to classmates on verso of leaves. Oblong 8vo, 4¼ x 6¾ inches, with original printed front wrapper reading "Kentucky Normal Industrial Institute, Lest We Forget, Memories of Friends" and the original owner's name stamped below; lacking rear wrapper and possibly some final pages, moderate wear, minor dampstaining. [Frankfort, KY], circa 1925

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Additional Details

This HBCU was founded in 1886 as State Normal School for Colored Persons, and is today Kentucky State University. The album was kept by student Mattie Leona Strange. Each of her 58 friends recorded their name, address, birthday, nickname, past-time, favorite boy and girl, a favorite verse, their opinion of Mattie, and more. Many entries are leavened with humor; asked to record their color, one classmate reported a light blue complexion with pink hair. We have not traced Miss Strange in census records, but several of her classmates were born from 1903 to 1905, and one young man recorded his birthday as "April 17, 1925."