Tuskeana 1948: The Official Publication of the Senior Class of Tuskegee Institute [1948 Tuskegee Insitute Yearbook, SIGNED]

Tuskegee, Alabama: Tuskegee Institute, 1948.

Hardcover. Signed 168 times by students of the Tuskegee Institute, this 1948 edition of the Tuskeana yearbook offers a special view into the post-WWII period at the iconic historically Black university. This copy of the 1948 Tuskeana belonged to a popular senior in the Tuskegee Institute's School of Commerical Dietetics and member of the NAACP and the Southern Negro Youth Congress, and it comes heavily signed with the well wishes, words of wisdom, and names of his classmates, including fashion designer Booker T. Felder (1922-2016, Senior Class President, Best Dressed, Most Popular), 11th head football coach at Tuskegee University Haywood Scissum (1924–1995), Miss Tuskegee and Queen of the May Bobbie Goodson, mother of Bishop T.D. Jakes Odith Patton Jakes (1926-1999), the cofounders of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority's Gamma Kappa Chapter Cleo Daniels, Hazel Scruggs, Georgina Evans, Phyllis Peters, Buena Powell, Agnita Turner, and Grace Watson, and several veterans of the Second World War.

The young college students who signed their names and well wishes in this postwar yearbook were celebrated in their obituaries for the many firsts they represented: aeronautical engineer of the Tuskegee Airmen Bob Baker (1921-2015) became the first black production supervisor at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant; Oscar Stanback (1924-2014) went on to become the first African American Certified P.E. Teacher in Muscogee County Schools; Alice Crowell Ferguson (d. 2011) became one of the first female department chairs of health, physical education and driver education in the state of Virginia; architect Curvin H. Hollimon (1925-2016, "Most Likely to Succeed") was the first Black licensed architect and engineer to be employed by the city of Philadelphia in the City Architect’s Office, the first black architect to be employed by the U.S. Post Office, Department Regional Office in Philadelphia, and the first Black architect to be employed by the Department of General Services, Bureau of Engineering and Architecture in Harrisburg.

This 1948 Tuskeana was dedicated to the United Nations Assembly and revisits the theme of "One World" throughout. Its pages are packed with photographs of campus buildings, landmarks, and historical figures, faculty and staff, and the senior class, "trade grads," junior class, and sophomore class with nicknames and club associations. It includes among its contents: senior superlatives, class history, class prophecy, class will, senior directory, an original class song and class poem, and a great many organizations and club photographs including Chapel Ushers, Alpha Kappa Mu, School of Veterinary Medicine, Student Fire Squad, YMCA, Tuskegee Institute Choir, Agriculture Forum including Miss Agriculture, the Tuskegee Institute Band, Technical Arts Club, Liaison Officers Club, New Farmers of America, the Insitute Council, the Campus Digest, A. W. S. Council, Little Theatre, Former Marines Club, Apha Pi Gamma, Nyx Club, the Polka Dots, Commercial Dieticians Club, R.O.T.C., Physical Education Club, Home Economics Club, Pyramid Club of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Kappa Scroller Club, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Ivy Leaf Club, Arconian Club of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Lampodos Club of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Football, Men's and Women's Basketball, Baseball, Dancing, Track and Field, and a section of "Misses," inlcuding Miss Tuskegee, Queen of the May, Little Miss Tuskeana, and Miss Commercial Dietetics, and 8 pages of candid photographs of students around campus, along with special events like homecoming and the first day of sale for the postage stamp commemorating Tuskegee professor and famed scientist and inventor George Washington Carver (circa 1864-1943).

10 7/8" X 8 1/8". Unpaginated. Glossy burgundy cloth over padded boards, mottled with dark gray to evoke leather, with cloud-encircled globe wrapped around with a banner to upper board reading: "Tuskeana / I will allow no man to drag me down so low...as to make me hate him. / 1948", featuring a famous quote by Booker T. Washington, the first president of the institution. Rather heavy wear to binding, with fraying to extremities, lettering rubbed from spine, rubbing to exterior hinges, and soiling to upper board. Hinges are tender and text block a touch shaken. Some gatherings uneven. Binding remains sound. Occasional foxing and light age-toning to pages throughout. Previous owner's own picture cut out of Commercial Dietician's Club page. Signed on endpapers, flyleaves, and on photographic pages throughout over 165 times by the 1948 senior class of the Tuskegee Institute and their peers. Good. Item #11152

Price: $450.00