Remarkably intense portrait of Dr. Washington w/ unusual inclusion of female staffers in a school image. Important and early capture.

Washington flanked by Emmanuel Jay Scott (nicknamed the Architect of the Tuskegee Machine), Nathan Hunt (Washington’s personal secretary), Sue B. Williston whose husband was on staff & considered the first black landscape architect in the nation (she was likely active on staff as well wearing a timepiece with the other women), Clinton J. Calloway & J.H. Palmer (both of the Extension Department and responsible for establishing rural outreach schools) & perhaps the closest way to date the photograph is the presence of Ernest T. Atwell, the third football coach at Tuskegee (1902-12).

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Identified reverse

Back row left to right : Mr. C.J. Calloway, Nathan Hunt, J.H. Palmer. (2) row : Mr. E.T. Attwell, standing to left of Dr. Washington Mrs Sue B. Williston. Front seated : Dr. Booker T Washington & Emmanuel J. Scott.

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Obvious loss at bottom corners, right edge & top right (emulsion only) w/ many horizontal creases. Press credentials reverse, 7.75 x 9.75”.

Rare reference and likely unique.

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Paired w/ a 1901 endowment letter to complete the display.

Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute : For the Training of Colored Young Men and Women letterhead dated June 24, 1901, addressed to A.E. Carlton of Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Carlton was a successful gold mine magnate in Colorado at the time. The text of the letter is secretarial, but the signature is clearly in Washington’s hand.

Dear Sir: I write thinking that you might like to take some interest in our work. Our students pay their own board partly in cash and partly in labor but are wholly unable to pay their tuition in addition. Any sum, however small, will help us. The enclosed circular gives definite information. Yours truly, Booker T Washington 

Principal.

Single sheet ledger ruled paper w/ staple hole top left, smudge at the word June and original folds (6 x 9.5").