Landscape view depicting the National Farm School founded in 1866 by Henrie De Mareil of New York and situated on a hilly plot of land with trees, bushes, meadows, and cleared fields. Shows, in the center foreground, three African American children harvesting wheat under the guidance of a white, bearded man. Behind them, two men plow a field with horse-drawn tractors across from individuals binding sheaths of wheat in an open field near a dirt path. In the foreground, cows stand and/or drink in a pond. In the left background, two individuals plow a field with horse-drawn tractors. In the distance center and left background, people mill in front of dwelling, farm, and school-like buildings standing in front of grassy hillsides. The school-like building (center background) is adorned with two flags, a French and an American one. Incorporated by Congress in July 1866, the mission of the school was to provide "normal and school education, as well as a practical knowledge of farming in all its branches" to "orphan and dependent children of colored soldiers, and of other colored orphans." By November 1866, the school was under construction and had fifty pupils. That month, the French Opera Comique Troupe held a benefit concert for the school in Philadelphia that was reported to "not have been as well attended as it should have." By May 1867, the school was reported to still be under construction in order to accommodate two hundred pupils who after "two or three years course [are] to take any position, from a valuable field hand, to a market-man and overseer upon the plantations of the South or the great farms of the West.", RVCDC, LCP copy contains repaired tears around the edges,, See "Amusements," Philadelphia Inquirer, November 16, 1866, p. 3., See "Academy of Music," Press, November 20, 1866, p. 8., See "Freedmen's National Farm School," Helena Weekly Herald, May 2, 1867, p. [2]., See 39th Congress, 1st Session, H. R. 802.
Date
[1866]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Education [P.2023.4]
