This remarkable picture, from the State Archives of North Carolina, features five teachers from the Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial Institute.  The Palmer Institute was founded in 1902 by 19-year-old Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown specifically to educate black students in elementary and high school in rural North Carolina. (19 years old!)

March 14, 1905

The school was located  near Greensboro, North Carolina and it was very successful. 90% of graduates attended college, and over 50% pursued postgraduate degrees. I’m not sure how that compares to a modern school but that sounds very impressive.  This story blends together two themes on this site this week: education and fire. The school was closed after a fire in 1971 destroyed the administration and classroom building.

The faces of the women in this picture jumped right out at me. It’s an excellent character study, isn’t it? The woman on the lower left in particular has such an intensity to her face. I didn’t see the teachers’ names but I wonder what became of them.