Teaching Black Educational Philanthropy Through Photography, 1863–1920s

This article explores the use of photography as a strategy for teaching Black educational philanthropy. Ordinary consumer-philanthropists, white and Black, saw value in the production, sale, and circulation of photography for the support of African American schools in the former Confederate states. In reading these historic photographs, students bear witness to the curated photographic collection of liberated children, traveling choirs, and Historically Black College and University (HBCU) campus communities who left little-to-no written records. The materiality and content of the historic photographs enhances the teaching of Black educational philanthropy from the Civil War to the early Jim Crow era.