Today's photo of the week is the startlingly modern image that adorns the front cover of the Howard Orphanage and Industrial School's annual report for 1912-1913. The institution was founded as the Home for Freed Children and Others in 1866, and later renamed after Oliver Otis Howard, a Union general and commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau who was also the namesake of Howard University. The Howard Orphanage became a central part of the social fabric of the Black community at Weeksville, in what is now known as Crown Heights.
Though this publication is over a century old, the imagery looks like it could be a contemporary work by Kara Walker (who many Brooklynites may know as the artist who created a massive installation at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg before its demolition). The black silhouette illustration shows a young girl running after a rabbit amidst abundant grass and flowers. The pastoral theme is appropriate for an institution that had, just one year prior, moved from its Brooklyn location at the corner of Dean Street and Troy Avenue to a farm out on Long Island, where girls learned "domestic science, sewing, basket making" and boys learned "carpentry and cobbling, and care of stock, and farm and garden crops." The report states that in 1912-1913, the farm produced 1,800 pounds of apple butter, 900 bushels of potatoes, 164 bushels of wheat and much more. This agricultural labor is represented by an additional illustration of two children gardening on the report's back cover:
Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal of Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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