[African Americana]. [Texas]

Eighth Annual Catalogue of East Texas Normal Industrial Academy Tyler, Texas for the Session 1912-13 [cover title]

Tyler, Tx. Byrne Publishing Co., [1912]. 18pp., plus six full-page photographic plates on three leaves. Original printed wrappers. Moderate chipping to spine, some soiling and foxing to wrappers. Uneven toning, some foxing to text. Portions of blank margin of first photographic plate chipped. About good. Item #5520

An extraordinary and early surviving catalogue from a long-defunct HBCU in Texas. The East Texas Normal and Industrial Academy was founded in 1905 by the East Texas Baptist Association, and was renamed Butler College in 1924. Butler College closed in 1972 after an extended period of declining enrollment. The present catalogue comes from the eighth year of the school, when Cornelius Moses Butler (later the namesake of the institution) was still president of the school; the first photographic plate upon opening the pamphlet is a portrait of him. The text includes a school calendar, listing of trustees, administration, and faculty, general information on the school's history, campus life, and so forth, information on courses of study by department and grade, and about six pages listing the students of the school along with their hometowns. Besides Butler's portrait, the plates picture a group of "boarding students," the five students comprising the graduating class of 1913, the boys' dormitory, the girls' dormitory, and the administration building. We could locate no copies of any academic catalogue for East Texas Normal and Industrial Academy in OCLC.

"Like Guadalupe College, Butler College sprang from independent action on the part of local Black Baptists. In 1905, the East Texas Baptist Association founded Butler College in Tyler, Texas. Named initially East Texas Normal and Industrial Academy, the school offered elementary and high school courses, a few sewing classes, and a junior college curriculum.  By 1908, there were 41 male students and 79 female students enrolled, with two male and four Black female teachers.... Reverend Cornelius Moses Butler, a moderator of the East Texas Baptist Association, served as the school's first president. Reverend Butler understood the struggle to obtain education firsthand. He was born into slavery and remained in bondage until he was seventeen. Encouraged by his wife, Reverend Butler pursued education as a free man, learning reading, writing, and mathematics. As a result, he earned a high school diploma and a bachelor's degree from Bishop College in Marshall, Texas. With this newfound passion for learning, Reverend Butler dedicated himself to the perpetuation of academics for all African Americans. He oversaw the college for nineteen years, until his death in 1924" - Texas Historical Commission.

Price: $1,750.00