1866 Primary School for Freeman, in Charge of Mrs. Green, at Vicksburg, Mississippi
date: label: date published
content: 1866-06-23
name: label: original artist
content: Waud, A. R.
label: publisher
content: Harper & Brothers
notes: label: Description
content: This print was made from a woodblock engraving and appeared in the Harper’s Weekly issue dated June 23, 1866. The image depicts classroom setting with the primary Freemen School of Vicksburg, Mississippi in the background. A woman named Mrs. Green appears to be the teacher. There are about 40 African American children and adults seated in long rows, many of whom are reading from a lesson book. Others appear to be playing and talking. This image has a companion image captioned June 23, 1866, Noon at The Primary School for Freedmen, Vicksburg, Mississippi.
label: Description
content: The article accompanying the illustration indicates that Mrs. Green is one of a few whites in the community who believes in educating blacks. The author goes on to compare the Freeman School to a New York public school by pointing out “…these people showed the average intelligence displayed in the New York public schools.” During Reconstruction, Northern freedmen's aid organizations began establishing schools in the former states of the Confederacy. These benevolent organizations raised funds, recruited teachers, and attempted to keep the future of the freed people before the Northern public.
label: Description
content: The original artist was Alfred Rudolf Waud (1828-1891), a British-born American illustrator. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts before immigrating to the United States in 1850. According to Britannica, Waud’s “lively and detailed sketches of scenes from the Civil War, which he covered as a press correspondent, captured the war’s dramatic intensity and furnished him with a reputation as one of the preeminent artist-journalists of his era.”
label: Description
content: Harper’s Weekly was an American political magazine based in New York City and was published by Harper & Brothers from 1857-1916. It featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, as well as illustrations.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dr. Richard Lodish American School Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2017.3049.103
label: nonaccession number
content: 2017.3049
label: catalog number
content: 2017.3049.103
objectType: label: Object Name
content: periodical print
label: Object Name
content: newspaper clipping
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/2 in x 12 1/2 in; 24.13 cm x 31.75 cm
label: Measurements
content: print: 8 1/2 in x 11 in; 21.59 cm x 27.94 cm
label: Measurements
content: image: 7 in x 10 1/2 in; 17.78 cm x 26.67 cm