Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 177

Price Realized: $ 1,062
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(EDUCATION.) Catalogue of the Bluestone-Harmony Academic and Industrial School, with minutes of the Bluestone Baptist Association. 17 volumes. 8vo, original wrappers; some with pencil notations, some worn or dampstained, others with only minor wear. Various places, 1910-1962
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The Bluestone Baptist Association was an organization of several dozen Black churches in south-central Virginia, mostly in Mecklenburg and Charlotte Counties. In 1898, they launched the Keysville Mission Industrial School, later named the Bluestone-Harmony Academic and Industrial School. According to the Keysville town website, "for about 50 years, it had the largest enrollment of any black boarding school in the east and sent a large number of graduates on to college."

Offered here is the school's printed catalogue for the 1934-1935 school year, 30 pages long with two applications blanks, and photographs of the Principal Marcellus Carlyle Rux, the science department, girl's dormitory and the teacher's home. The teachers and their previous experience are listed, the curriculum is described in detail, and the students are listed with their home towns, from small children up through high school seniors.

Also included are 14 pamphlet printings of the "Minutes of the . . . Annual Session of the Bluestone Baptist Association" for 1910, 1914, 1921-1924, 1926, 1929, 1930, 1938, 1940, 1944, 1946, and 1962, hosted in rotation by the churches. They often contain membership tables of the constituent churches, lists of pastors and delegates, a moderator's address, and reports by the Committee on Education. The 1910 minutes include a resolution that "Whereas there is but little possibility of the schools of this State for the colored people being improved by this State, we urge that patrons organize leagues for the improvement of school property and lengthening school terms. We are aware of the fact that education is a power, and therefore the more education of the right kind one has the more power" (page 15). Also included are the 1941 and 1942 "Minutes of the . . . Annual Session of the Harmony Baptist Sunday School Convention."