frances benjamin johnston - Selected Photos
This exhibit has been separated into chapters. These include an essay about prominent West Virginian, Frances Benjamin Johnston's impact on historic preservation nationwide and several galleries of selected work organized thematically. This project was curated by Ksenia Bradner, Preserve WV AmeriCorps member serving with the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia. The project is made possible by support from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Volunteer West Virginia, and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
gallery: about Frances Benjamin johnston
portraiture
In 1902 and 1906, Johnston was hired by the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute, founded in 1881, was a vocational school for training teachers and other students the practical skills needed to succeed at farming or other trades typical of the rural South. The Institute hoped the photographs would show the importance of the school’s mission of self-reliance to attract further donations to the Institute and other black schools in the South from wealthy white philanthropists. While working on the project in Ramer, Alabama, a lynch mob erupted when Johnston and five African American men, including agricultural scientist George Washington Carver, were spotted by the postmaster’s son going into the woods towards one of their homes. Johnston and the men dodged bullets and fled for their lives. After Johnston and the five men were safe, Johnston and Carver discussed what to do. Johnston’s instinct was to complain to her powerful connections, such as the governor or her friend Teddy Roosevelt. Carver advised her to just let Tuskegee President Booker T. Washington decide what to do. Washington knew the incident would only garner negative press for the Institute, and he decided to stay silent. Either out of respect for Washington’s decision or a new understanding of the easy provocation of white violence against black men, Johnston herself kept silent for the rest of her life.
carnegie survey - Harewood
These three photographs are of Harewood estate in Jefferson County, West Virginia. 1935. Harewood was built by George Washington’s younger brother Samuel Washington in 1770. Johnston briefly stopped in West Virginia some time during her work for the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South project.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.
