Archaeological Survey of Tennessee's Rosenwald Schools

Summary

In 1911 Booker T. Washington, President of the Tuskegee Institute, met with Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, to discuss building schools for African-American children in the American South.  From 1912 to 1932 the Rosenwald program helped fund more than 5,300 schools, shops, and teachers’ homes.  The Tennessee Division of Archaeology is currently conducting a survey to locate and record the sites of Tennessee’s 354 schools, 10 shops, and 9 teachers’ homes.  The project is one in a series of thematic site surveys that began in the mid-1970s.  Thus far Division researchers have visited about half of the Rosenwald sites.  This presentation summarizes the methods used for locating the sites and the types of remains that have been observed, including some standing buildings.  The goal of the project is to locate and record all the school sites then produce a final report of the findings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Education: From Pedagogy to Practice   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

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Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 233