Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1885. First edition. Original publisher's cloth binding with gilt to spine and front board. Measuring 175 x 110mm and collating complete with frontis: [2], vi, 7-129, [1, blank]. Spine gently rolled and a touch of shelfwear along joints and to corners; faint stain to lower front board. Internally clean and pleasing with minor offsetting to title page. Contemporary gift inscription to front endpaper, linking this copy to a student of Miner's school: "Miss Charlotte E. Hunter. Compliments of the Trustees of the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth." Charlotte E. Miner (b. 1866) was a graduate of the Institute; listed in the 1870 Census as "mulatto" and in the 1900 Census as "Black," she was raised in Washington, DC by her formerly enslaved grandmother Charlotte and mother Harriett. The 1900 Census lists both of her elders as "housekeepers" while listing Charlotte's occupation as "teacher" -- a mark of how her education led to improved economic and social possibilities. Scarce institutionally and in trade, we have been able to locate 18 physical copies in U.S. libraries. Of the three copies to appear in the modern auction record, the most recent was in 1996.

"Myrtilla Miner was a leader in teacher training for free African American women, as she viewed knowledge and education as essential to ending slavery" (National Abolition Hall of Fame). After requesting that the Newton Female Institute in Mississippi, where she was teaching, allow her to enroll Black students, she was forced out of her position and left the state. But her disgust with her colleagues shaped into a plan "to train African American girls to become the teachers of their people" and to raise the social and economic possibilities for free Black communities. Founded in 1851, the Normal School for Colored Girls (later renamed the Institute for the Education of Colored Youth) would ultimately grow into the School of Education at Howard University. In its earliest years, Miner's school faced brutal opposition from the local white community. Two arson attempts and threats of lynching led Miner to relocate her school from a small residence to a three acre property on the edge of DC; but the small program continued to grow. Before it even reached its first decade, the Normal School's first six students had opened and were teaching in schools of their own.

While the school temporarily shut down during the Civil War, it was reopened in 1863 with a Senate charter renaming it the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth; and its governance was managed by a board of directors that included Myrtilla Miner. Miner herself had spent much of the Civil War years traveling to build awareness and raise funding for the school; but she tragically died in an accident in 1864 and never had a chance to see the lasting impact that she had. The present memoir, published by friends and supporters of her work, documents her lifelong belief in and commitment to ensuring that Black women had educations that would improve their lives and the lives of their families and communities.

In addition to students like the original owner of this copy, who emerged from the school as teachers, Miner's school is also where Charlotte E. Ray, the first Black woman attorney in the U.S., earned her first degree.

Notable American Women. 1870 and 1900 U.S. Census. Near Fine (Item #5388)