Commems Collection Classic: 1946 Booker T Washington - Ephemera III

Here's another of the small pamphlets printed and distributed by the Booker T. Washington (BTW) Memorial Birthplace to help promote the BTW commemorative half dollar. While it does not directly promote the coin, it does present a view into BTW's character and the message he tried to convey to all, but especially African-Americans in the South.

Statue of Booker T Washington by Charles Keck

(Image Credit: Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain.)

(The statue is titled "Lifting the Veil of Ignorance" and is located on the grounds of the Tuskegee Institute in Macon County, Alabama; it was dedicated in 1922. Keck is a noted coin and medal designer/sculptor, whose numismatic credits include: the 1915-S Panama-Pacific Exposition gold dollar, the 1927 Vermont / Battle of Bennington Sesquicentennial half dollar, the 1927 Vermont / Battle of Bennington Sesquicentennial Official Medal, the 1927 George Clinton - First Governor of New York Sesquicentennial Official Medal and the 1936 Lynchburg Sesquicentennial half dollar.)

From the early days of the Tuskegee Institute, BTW regularly addressed the students and teachers of the school, as well as visitors, on Sunday evening in the school's chapel. The talks were given in a conversational style vs. that of a formal speech or address and often presented his views on education. In Character Building, a book first published in 1902, Washington presented transcripts of a personally-selected group of "Sunday Evening Talks" that he had given at the Institute. In the volume, BTW stated "I have attempted from week to week to speak straight to the hearts of our students and teachers and visitors concerning the problems and questions that confront them in their daily life here in the South."

The Birthplace Memorial printed a transcript of the talk BTW gave on Sunday evening, October 17, 1915. The talk focused on team work and the virtues of a group working together; it was particularly focused on working together for the benefit of the Tuskegee Institute.

The talk was the last "Sunday Evening Talk" BTW gave, unfortunately, as he died about a month later on November 14, 1915 from complications related to his hypertension. After feeling poorly while on a trip to New York City, BTW was taken to a doctor (and subsequently to two different hospitals) who all agreed on a short-term, terminal diagnosis. With no chance of recovery, BTW traveled by rail back to Tuskegee where he died at home.

I split this pamphlet into six panels and present them in order (vs. their layout in the pamphlet). By doing this, I was also able to make the panels fairly large and reasonably easy to read.

Team Work Pamphlet of Booker T washington's "Last Sunday Evening Talk"







Among the objectives of the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial was to "commemorate the life and perpetuate the ideals and teachings of Booker T. Washington." (Public Law 79-610) IMO, the pamphlet above was a very effective tool in helping to accomplish this objective (as was the pamphlet I presented in my previous BTW post).

1946 Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Half Dollar



To learn more about the BTW coin and related ephemera, check out:

- 1946 Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial
- 1946 Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial - Ephemera
- 1946 Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial - Ephemera II
- Booker T. at Mardi Gras
- Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial - Coins Depicting Places Thread