Hillcrest School Farm Promotional Pamphlet
-
No requestable containers
Scope and Contents
This promotional pamphlet, titled A Problem and a Solution, was produced ca. 1920s to publicize the Hillcrest School Farm, an industrial training school for African Americans located near Nashville, Tennessee.
Sections include: “Facts from Negro History,” “The Negro in Slavery,” “The Negro Freed,” “Progressing,” “Religion,” “Negro Education,” “The Farm the Negro’s Salvation,” “The Hillcrest Idea,” “The Corporation,” and “All Can Help.” A key feature of the publication is its promotion of the school as a model of Black self-help and agricultural uplift.
The pamphlet includes photographic illustrations depicting students and staff engaged in farming activities, campus buildings, livestock, and a residence earmarked for conversion into a sanitarium. The school may have had some affiliation with the Seventh Day Adventists. The inside of the front wrapper is printed with a map entitled "The Southern States: Our Present Mission Field Showing the States, the Colored Population, and the Percent of Negro Illiteracy."
The pamphlet reflects both the rural industrial school movement and the broader racial uplift ideology promoted by African American educators and reformers in the early twentieth century.
Dates
- Creation: 1920
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Due to the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to certain materials may require additional advance notice.
Conditions Governing Use
Researchers are responsible for using the materials in conformance with United States copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any copyright claimants in collection materials. Copyright for official University records is held by The University of Alabama. The library claims only physical ownership of many manuscript collections. Anyone wishing to broadcast or publish this material must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of literary property rights or copyrights. Please contact Special Collections (archives@ua.edu) with questions regarding specific manuscript collections.
For more information about copyright policy, please visit: https://www.ua.edu/copyright/. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals without the consent of those individuals may have legal implications, for which the University of Alabama assumes no responsibility.
Biographical / Historical
The Hillcrest School Farm was an African American industrial training institution located approximately six miles outside Nashville, Tennessee, during the early twentieth century. Occupying a 188-acre tract of land, Hillcrest combined agricultural training, manual labor, and industrial education.
Though concrete documentation about the school's administration remains limited, the promotional literature suggests possible ties to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a denomination known for supporting rural training schools and health reform initiatives among Black communities during this period. The school also made plans for a “colored sanitarium,” reinforcing the Adventist emphasis on health education alongside industrial labor.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The University of Alabama Libraries acquired the Hillcrest School Farm Promotional Pamphlet from McBride Rare Books in 2022.
Physical Description
16pp/ Illustrated. Original pictorial wrappers, stapled. Most of spine split but holding by one staple, minor chipping and soiling to covers, ink stamp reading "File copy do not remove" on front cover. Internally clean. Very good.
Processing Information
Processed by Courtney Tutt, June 2025.
- Title
- Guide to the Hillcrest School Farm Promotional Pamphlet
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid created by Courtney Tutt, June 2025.
- Date
- June 2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections Repository