Washington, Booker Taliaferro (The New Student's Reference Work)

What it is

This is a reference entry on Booker Taliaferro Washington in The New Student's Reference Work, published in Chicago in 1914 by F. E. Compton and Company. The entry describes him as principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and gives a short biography.

The entry says he was born a slave and worked in salt mines in Malden, West Virginia, before reaching Hampton Institute. It gives his birth as about 1859, while other reference works in this archive give about 1858.

Why it matters

Reference works like this one shaped how students and the public learned about Washington. The entry presents the school's aim of combining academic training with manual and industrial work. It also shows how a school encyclopedia summarized a living public figure in the early twentieth century.

Look closer

• Which facts about Washington's life does the entry choose to include, and which does it skip?
• Why do different reference works give different birth years for the same person?
• How does the entry describe the school's purpose, and whose goals might be left out of that description?