Rosenwald History

In the early 1900’s Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish philanthropist from Chicago joined forced with  Booker T. Washington to erect schoolhouses across the South.

Their goal was to establish education for the rural African American children who had not previously had the opportunity for formal teaching.

Our gallery and studio are housed in a Rosenwald funded schoolhouse where children were excited to come together to learn.Their joy and laughter still resonate within the halls.

Since the early 1990’s my family and I have made our home in a renovated Rosenwald schoolhouse in rural Tennessee.

Many of our neighbors were students and teachers in the school… They often drop by and share their recollections with us. This schoolhouse was clearly an important part of their lives, and they have sentimental memories of their days spent here.

I began to photograph these former students to thread together a sense of unity and togetherness that this community shared, This, my home, was their haven.  Their playground. And, in a sense, their ‘other’ home.