As staff from the Grand Rapids Public Museum worked to digitalize its magic lantern slides, they discovered 69 black-and-white, photographic magic lantern slides depicting the Tuskegee Institute at the turn of the 20th century. Now referred to as Tuskegee University, the institution is a historically black university, located in Tuskegee, Ala. Its first president was Booker T. Washington (pictured above) and it was the home of scientist George Washington Carver and of the World War II era Tuskegee Airmen.
According to historian, author and professor Dr. Randal Maurice Jelks, Washington traveled throughout Michigan seeking support from industrialists and wealthy Protestant churches. He came to Grand Rapids at least four times and made significant inroads into the city’s business and religious communities. He was such an important future in Grand Rapids that when he died in 1915, there was a city-wide memorial for him.
Lantern slides were widely circulated in the Grand Rapids Public Schools district for decades as an engaging teaching tool that could transport students around the world. There has been renewed interested in the slides by researchers because of their role in the history of technology and as a visual resource for local historians. With support from IMS, the Public Museum will digitize, catalog and rehouse roughly 5,000 magic lantern slides over the next years. The slides can be viewed online. Click here.
