Washington, Booker Taliaferro, New International Encyclopaedia (1905)

What it is

This is an encyclopedia entry on Booker T. Washington from The New International Encyclopaedia, published in New York by Dodd, Mead and Co. in 1905, while Washington was still alive. Its opening describes his birth as the child of a mulatto slave and a white man, his years as a plantation slave in Virginia, and his work in a salt furnace and coal mine after the Civil War.

The entry then describes how he paid for his studies at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute by working as a janitor, taught at Hampton from 1879, and in 1881 was appointed to establish a colored normal school at Tuskegee, Alabama, which the state legislature supported with an annual appropriation of $2000 for teachers' salaries.

Why it matters

Encyclopedias shape how readers understand a person, so this entry shows how a national reference work described a Black educator in 1905. It names General Armstrong, who led Hampton, and records Washington's work with about 75 Indian students there. It is a summary written by others, not Washington's own words.

Look closer

• What does the entry say about Washington's early life, and which details does it leave out?
• What words does the entry use to describe people, and what might those words tell us about 1905?
• How does this short summary compare with Washington's own writings about his life?