WASHINGTON BOOKER T Booker T Washington

Sale 2239 - Lot 502

Unsold

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

WASHINGTON, BOOKER T. Booker T. Washington. Large lithographic portrait, 20x16 inches; dry-mounted (as issued) to a large piece of cardboard; paper evenly toned; a couple of small holes in the outer margins where brads were used when framing, not affecting the image. Boston: George H. Walker and Co, circa 1885-1890

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Additional Details

A scarce image of a very young Washington from a photograph. Probably done in the first decade of Tuskegee. General Samuel C. Armstrong, the head and founder of Hampton Institute, where Washington had worked, recommended him to a group of education advocates led by Lewis Adams, George Campbell, and some former slaves from Alabama who were planning to establish a school for African Americans in Macon County. On July 4, 1881, Washington and the others opened the Tuskegee Normal Industrial School. At the time the school had no land, no buildings, and only a small state appropriation of $2,000 a year for faculty salaries. Washington borrowed money to buy a dilapidated plantation, employed students to erect buildings in exchange for tuition, and the rest is history as they say.