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Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School Collection
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Held at: Temple University Libraries: Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Temple University Libraries: Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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The Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School (DIAS) operated from 1905 until 1993 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The school was a non-profit institution geared toward neglected or under-achieving African American youth. Founded by prominent Philadelphians John S. Trower and William A. Creditt, the Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School was established to provide academic and vocational training to African American teenagers who were in danger of being declared "delinquent." Creditt, who was pastor of Philadelphia's First African Baptist Church, felt that a northern counterpart to Alabama's Tuskegee Institute was much needed. John Trower, a member of Reverend Creditt's congregation, also shared this belief. Trower was a prominent businessman and caterer who counted himself as one of the wealthiest black men in Pennsylvania. Together, the two men located land in Chester County and established the school. Both Trower and Creditt served as principals of DIAS until their respective deaths in 1911and 1921. They were succeeded by J.N.H. Waring and his son, John Waring II, both notable for their work with inner-city African American youths.
DIAS boasted a 110-acre campus and two dormitories that housed approximately one hundred and ten students a year, both boys and girls. Though it originally operated as a non-denominational private institution, it became state funded in 1907. The school achieved national recognition and was well-known and respected by the local community. Under the Warings' regime DIAS was advertised in African American newspapers from all major northeastern cities. Applications to the school were accepted from parents, guardians, and child welfare programs. The school prided itself on the wealth of available extracurricular activities, including sports teams for boys and girls, domestic studies, and college prep classes. Group activities and socialization were highly encouraged in addition to the academic curriculum or vocational training. The Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School closed in 1993. In 2002 Delaware County Community College opened its Chester County Campus on the school's former site. (Information from the Diamond Jubilee (1905-1980) pamphlet, with notes corrected by Mrs. Clay Griffin.)
This collection documents the Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School (DIAS) from 1907-1993, a vocational high school for African American students located in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Items included are administrative and financial documents, publications, correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, memorabilia and other ephemera. The earlier years of the school's history are well-documented, but the later years are less well-represented in this collection. Also not included are student rosters or enrollment information. The strengths of this collection include a visual documentation (in photographs) of the early years of the school, as well as how DIAS was portrayed in the press.
Series 2: Publications, 1929-1985, undated
Series 3: Scrapbooks, 1906-1943
Series 4: Memorabilia and Ephemera, 1929-1933, undated
Series 5: Photographs, 1929-1932, undated
The collection was donated to Temple University by Mr. Charles L. Blockson in 1985. Mr. Blockson acquired the materials three years earlier, courtesy of a Downingtown faculty member, while giving a commencement address at the school.
Processed by Lyndsey Brown, Jessica Clark, Timothy Horning, Jenna Marrone, Megan Miller, Group leader: Sara Borden, Supervisor: Aslaku Berhanu, April 2010.
The collection maintains its deposit organization structure. Loose materials (primarily photographs, but also newspaper clippings, publications, and memorabilia) were found tucked into the photograph book of George B. Lomax and the scrapbook of Clara Clark. These items were removed and re-housed in separate folders or envelopes and placed within the appropriate series.
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Subject
- Publisher
- Temple University Libraries: Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
- Finding Aid Author
- Machine-readable finding aid created by: Rajkumar Natarajan, Sky Global Services India (P) Ltd.
- Finding Aid Date
- January 2025
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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The Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School Collection is the physical property of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries. The creator/donor has not assigned their rights to Temple University Libraries. Other creators' intellectual property rights, including copyright, belong to them or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.
Collection Inventory
This series includes the president's report of 1907. Also included are a few pages of correspondence (1976-1985).
This series spans many decades of the school's operations and serves to illustrate the depth of events going on at DIAS. Included here are commencement programs, banquet programs, a few issues of the Downingtown Bulletin, and a yearbook, the 1972 Downingtonia. Also included are newspaper clippings, some of which are undated.
This series contains scrapbooks that include newspaper clippings arranged chronologically and comprising various subjects. Included are: School business, including hiring, tuition, honor roles, commencement and other official events; girls' and boys' sports; an advertisement for DIAS; discussions of funding; the effects of World War II, including Civilian Defense training of students and teachers, the sale of war stamps, and the impact of the draft on DIAS's faculty; health issues at the school, including smallpox vaccination and a scarlet fever quarantine; racial issues at West Chester Hospital and Cheyney State Teachers' College; and "Friendly Cooperation Is Aim of Negro-Owned Institutions." Additionally, various other newsworthy occurrences at the school are documented, including a fire, a fight, the marriage of faculty members, and the death of the President of the Board of Trustees.
This series is made up of seven scrapbooks of photographs and newspaper clippings, memorabilia and other ephemera. The series is comprised of two parts. The first is a ledger book that was repurposed as a scrapbook, containing a significant number of newspaper clippings. The second includes a scrapbook and a collection of diplomas and records belonging to Clara Clark (1929-1933).
This series contains all photographs in the collection. One album which belonged to a school official named George B. Lomax is included here, and dated 1925, but not all of the photographs are from this year; dates are included where possible. This album and the Clara Clark scrapbook contained many loose photographs that are now in separate envelopes for maximum preservation. Most of the photographs are from the Lomax album. There are many photographs of students, faculty, and facilities, a large portion of which are unidentified.