Editor’s note: This article is part of a special edition of this year Craft Archive Scholarship Cohortorganized in conjunction with the Center for Craft to support new work by emerging and established scholars in the field, with a focus on underrepresented and non-mainstream stories.
In the fight for African-American education, historically black colleges like Howard, Hampton, and Tuskegee come readily to mind. These schools were key sites during the Jim Crow era, credited with producing some of our country’s greatest black minds.
Nestled on 444 acres in Simpsonville, Kentucky, the little-known Lincoln Institute (now the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Job Corps Center) fought for African-American education at the college level and in trades or trades learning. “industrial education”. such as woodworking and blacksmithing, and domestic arts (such as sewing and cooking) which are trades in their own right.
Berea College established the Lincoln Institute in 1911. The relationship between the schools and their place in the history of black craftsmanship in Kentucky is a complicated story – a story marked by racism, “benevolent” white donors and black educators committed to equipping young black people with skills in industrial trades.
It starts with Beree
Founded by abolitionist minister John G. Fee, Berea College opened in 1855 as the first coeducational, interracial college in the South. As with Hampton (1868) and Tuskegee (1881), manual labor formed the core of a Berea education.
This orientation stemmed from the founders’ belief that “education cannot be obtained primarily from books” and that the hands of students “must be trained to obey the mind and the eye in distinguishing the things that different”.
The first university catalog never mentioned industrial education, but the 1889-1890 edition proclaimed that “the students of Berea devote themselves to a large extent to manual work”, that “industrial training projects in the field of trades are under discussion” and that “an encouraging start was made this year with our printing press. This training predated Berea’s Student Craft program, founded in 1893. Not neglecting women, the 1892 catalog noted that “young women also receive special instruction in making and repairing clothes.”
Students took an active role in campus life, from masonry to farming, and at the request of a wealthy donor, they helped build Phelps Stokes Chapel. According to Berea’s former art teacher, Robert Piper Boyce, with over 30,000 feet of timber sourced from Berea’s forests, “students employed in the woodworking department produced all of the interior trim trim” (Building a College: An Architectural History of Berea College).
Since black and white students were present in roughly equal numbers, black craftsmen figure prominently in Berea’s history. But their stories are hard to find. The first registers list offers of “trade courses” such as printing and carpentry and “industrial training” such as cooking and sewing. Sometimes the yellowed pages detail student enrollment, listing students by race but rarely by name.
The college’s educational archive collection, kept at the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center, contains material artifacts like textiles and furniture. Some objects, such as baskets and pottery – perhaps representative of black or indigenous craft traditions – are not identified by student or cultural origins.
Given the college’s emphasis on interracial education and its failure to document specific black craftsmen over time, evidence of black craftsmanship can be difficult to locate. As Tim Binkley, Manager of Special Collections and Archives, notes, “Direct links to documentation at the intersection of Berea craftsmanship and pre-1950 African Americans are not extensive or very obvious.” This presents a conundrum for researchers. But it makes Berea and Lincoln Institute research even more important for understanding black craft traditions.
Lincoln’s Road: The Day the Law Ousts Black Students
Berea’s commitment to interracial education remained intact until 1904, when the Kentucky Legislature passed the law of the day, prohibiting blacks and whites from attending school together. The law forced black students out, and Berea administrators decided to open a separate school for them.
The Lincoln Worker, a publication of the new school, describes Lincoln Institute as “a child of Berea” and “the only endowed school for Negroes in Kentucky”. William Goodell Frost, then president of Berea College, looked to Berea and Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) as models. He wanted to emphasize industrial education, especially masonry, carpentry (woodworking), and blacksmithing. The institute would also house a “normal school” to train a new generation of teachers.
True, Frost protested the Day Act and vigorously raised funds for the Lincoln Institute, successfully securing a $200 matching grant from Andrew Carnegie. But Frost and other supporters also reflected an all too often downplayed historical reality: While defenders of the Institute, they also expressed anti-Black ideologies.
Speaking to a crowd of potential black donors in Louisville, Frost stated his intentions for the school. The Lincoln Worker, written by white and black supporters and printed by Berea College, reported on the event. While it’s unclear if Frost said these words or if the authors wrote an op-ed, their commentary on black abilities is unequivocal:
“What people of color need more than anything else is to have an uplift that will benefit all members of their race. Justly or unjustly, every colored man is more or less blamed for the faults and failings of every other colored man. We all know that there is a greater proportion of people of color who are unhappy or criminal than there should be, and that the proportion of those who are prosperous and well off is far too low.
Although Frost and other white (and even some black) supporters held unfounded racist beliefs, the Lincoln Institute hired a black architect along with several black educators and skilled workers to carry on the black craft tradition.
Constructing Black Educators: Geo T. Corderey and Seaton Baldwin
Industrial training was the foundation of Lincoln Institute’s vision from the very beginning. The institute’s board hired Geo T. Corderey, a graduate of the Hampton Institute, as superintendent of carpentry. He helped repair buildings and taught carpentry when the school opened. Seaton Baldwin, a graduate of the College of Agriculture and Mechanics (now North Carolina A&T State University), served as superintendent of electricity, heat, and water and taught ironworking. Together, they shaped the school and contributed to developing what we can now call crafts education.
Prior to Lincoln’s opening, Corderey and Baldwin worked on buildings and infrastructure to ensure the facilities would be fully operational. Baldwin coordinated with the building contractor to install the campus power and heat plant. Corderey also helped with the construction by rebuilding the barns that would house the horses and cattle. Experts in their fields, both men used their skills to make the Lincoln Institute self-sufficient.
Lincoln Institute Craft Programs
The Lincoln Institute offered craft programs that incorporated woodworking, ironworking, sewing, cooking, and more. The carpentry program featured fine woodworking in course descriptions. The first year required a background in mechanical drafting, while the second year focused on carpentry and building. This training reflects the high level of craftsmanship that teachers maintain and pass on to students.
Lay the foundation
When Lincoln Institute opened in 1912, it offered black students an education that most of the country prohibited. In the 1930s, the school fell into financial difficulties due to the Great Depression. The difficulties continued into the 1940s, and Lincoln was deeded to the state and became a high school.
Black craftspeople at Berea College and Lincoln Institute are examples of underrepresented figures in American society and the development and continuation of craft traditions. It should be noted that Lincoln did not emerge until 47 years after slavery. The craft traditions his early students learned were most likely traditions within enslaved communities. This history needs to be explored to truly understand the contributions and impact of black people in craft traditions.
