The Hampton Album

The Hampton Album elegantly depicts the industrial and agricultural skills that were taught to students at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (later Hampton Institute in 1930, and finally Hampton University in 1984), the historically black school founded in Virginia in 1868 to educate freed slaves. The original images in this album were part of a series of photographs compiled by W.E.B Du Bois for the exhibition of African American life featured at the sensational world’s fair, the Paris Exposition of 1900. Du Bois won a gold medal for his role as compiler and collaborator of the highly regarded show which challenged mainstream racist caricatures of African Americans and depicted life beyond slavery. The photographer, France B. Johnston, was a Washington, D.C. local, and one of two American women photography delegates represented at the Exposition. Her studio was located in the famed U St.-Cardozo corridor near Howard University.