Celebrated faculty of Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth, 1850s-1890s.


Image of Bassett, Catto, Campbell, White, and others in ovals
Full Size

In the 1800s, the ICY had one of the most accomplished African American faculty of any black school in the United States. Among those pictured here are O. V. Catto; Ebenezer D. Bassett, the first black American diplomat; Professor C.L. Reason, who had previously taught French Language at New York Central College; and Robert Campbell-in the turban-who after visiting the Niger Valley with Martin Delany in the 1850s, permanently moved to Nigeria in 1862.