Edited by Sarah Hermanson Meister. With a contribution by LaToya Ruby Frazier

 

In 1899 Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) was commissioned to photograph Virginia's Hampton Institute, and her mesmerizing images of the school's African American and Native American students learning ancient history, composing music, or measuring the combined draft of horses embody a sense of promise and possibility far from the cruelties and injustices of the post-Reconstruction South. Acclaimed upon its debut at the 1900 Paris Exposition, Johnston's album is now recognized as a landmark in the history of photography as well as a touchstone for the divergent visions of African American progress espoused by W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington (himself a Hampton alumnus). This book marks the first publication of The Hampton Album in its entirety; it includes a contextualizing essay by curator Sarah Hermanson Meister and a reflection on the contemporary resonances of Johnston's work from artist LaToya Ruby Frazier. 192 pp.; 173 illus.