Rare ALS signed “Booker T. Washington, Prin.,” one page, 8.25 x 10.75, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute letterhead, March 13, 1897. Handwritten letter to Ella Kent of Cambridge Massachusetts, in full: “The barrel of clothing sent by yourself and sisters to Tuskegee is most helpful, I assure you. We use such gifts in a way to teach our students how to help themselves, the greatest lesson I learned from that great man, Gen. S. C. Armstrong was the one of self help and it is the foundation of all our work at Tuskegee and is to be the foundation on which the race is to rise to independence." Attractively double-matted and framed with a bust-length portrait of Washington to an overall size of 20.5 x 17.5. In fine condition, with some light edge creasing. Handwritten letters from Washington remain quite rare—this being our first in nearly seven years—with this particular example especially desirable given its strong closing passage and reference to Union general and pioneering educator Samuel Chapman Armstrong, whom Washington here deems a "great man."



Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-1893) was the son of missionaries in Hawaii, who rose through the Union Army during the American Civil War to become a general, leading units of African American soldiers. Armstrong became best known as an educator, founding and becoming the first principal of the normal school for African-American and later Native American pupils in Virginia, which later became Hampton University. He also founded the university's museum, the Hampton University Museum, which is the oldest African-American museum in the country, and the oldest museum in Virginia.