Newly-struck 1946 Booker T. Washington (BTW) commemorative half dollars were presented to US President Harry S. Truman on December 16, 1946. The presentation was made during a morning ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC by Henry Swain. Mr. Swain, 90 years old at the time, was believed to be the only surviving boyhood friend of Booker T. Washington.
President Truman was given three sets of the new BTW half dollars - presumably P/D/S sets, though not specifically recorded. Also in attendance at the White House ceremony was Sydney J. Philips, President of the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial, Mrs. Portia Washington Pittman, BTW's daughter, Mrs. Fannie Pittman, Portia's daughter, T. C. Cottrell, a Board of Trustees member of the Birthplace Memorial, Judge A. H. Hopkins, Franklin County, VA and John McBride, Clerk of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
Secretary of the Treasury, John W. Snyder, and Director of the Mint, Nellie Tayloe Ross, were also present at the ceremony and were also given coins.
Mr. Swain - "Uncle Henry" to the residents of Franklin County, Virginia where he lived - was invaluable as a source of BTW history for Sydney Philips and the Birthplace Memorial team. For example, Swain identified the location on the old Burrough plantation (site of BYW's birth and the Birthplace Memorial) where the cabin in which BTW was born originally stood - his recall established where the Birthplace Memorial placed its reproduction/reconstruction of the cabin. (Later, Swain's recollection would be called into question and largely discredited based on archaeological evidence.)
At the time, Philips was quoted as saying, "Uncle Henry was one of the best and most reliable sources of information on the boyhood days of Booker T. Washington." (Approaching 90 years old at the time, however, his memory wasn't perfect!)
Mr. Swain died on March 16, 1953 at Burrell Memorial Hospital, a historically African-American hospital in Roanoke, VA; the hospital was established in 1915. It operates today as the Blue Ridge Behavioral Health (BRBH) Burrell Center in the building constructed in 1954-55 as a replacement for the previous hospital structure.
A coin presentation was also made to New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey in New York City at the Roosevelt Hotel. The presentation was made by Dr. Emmett J. Scot
t, BTW's secretary for eighteen years. Dewey was the Honorary Chairman of the Executive Committee Sydney J. Philips had assembled to spearhead the sale of the BTW coins. Other notable members of the Committee included, John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers, Frank Stanton, CBS President and Dr. Robert G. Sproul, President of the University of California. Philips was an effective recruiter!
1946 Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Half Dollar
For more of my topics on commemorative coins and medals, including more on the history and design of the BTW half dollar presented here, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 10/31/2022 1:19 pm
