Report of the Principal of the Utica Normal & Industrial Institute Utica, Mississippi 1910-1911 [cover title]

Utica, Ms, 1911. Very good.. 8pp., accompanied by a single-page fundraising typed letter, signed, and original transmittal envelope. Original mailing folds to pamphlet and letter, minor wear and toning. A very rare annual report from the Utica Normal & Industrial Institute of Utica, Mississippi, issued by the school's founder and principal, William Henry Holtzclaw. In his report, Holtzclaw includes passages on a recent "cyclone" that hit the school, the construction of Booker T. Washington Hall, enrollment stats, the "work of our graduates," the "religious training" and "farming industry" at the school, information on the endowment fund, summer school, and other subjects. The last page is a financial update on the school in their "Statement of Receipts and Disbursements." The only photographic illustration in the work appears on the front cover, and depicts "students cultivating corn" in the fields of the Utica campus. In addition to the pamphlet, Holtzclaw includes a typed letter, signed to one of his past donors, A.E. Walbridge of Buffalo, New York. In the letter, Holtzclaw asks Walbridge for another donation in order "to keep the work up...[and] render even more efficient service."

William Henry Holtzclaw (1870-1943) was a native of Alabama and graduate of the Tuskegee Institute. He founded the Utica Negro School in 1902, which was then incorporated by the state of Mississippi as the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute, with Holtzclaw as principal. In addition to his duties as principal, Holtzclaw worked to publish a local newspaper, as well as the Utica school newspaper. In 1915, he published his autobiography, The Black Man's Burden. He served the school he founded until the end of his life. After his death, his school became the Utica Institute junior College and eventually the Utica campus of Hinds Community College, as it remains today. The school's library is named in honor of Holtzclaw. OCLC records a smattering of annual reports from various years of the school, but apparently not this particular year.