{"value"=>"<p>Consists of correspondence dating from 1909 between Booker T. Washington and Olivia E. P. Stokes conceiving of a school in Liberia modelled on Tuskegee Institute and additional correspondence by Fund and mission board officials regarding the founding of the school in Kakata, Liberia in 1928. The series contains legal documents relating to the incorporation of the school in 1929 and the dissolution of the American board in 1954 at the time of the school's transfer to the University of Liberia. Additional correspondence relating to the early days of Booker Washington Institute may be found in the James L. Sibley correspondence in the Anson Phelps Stokes Files of the OFFICE FILES series.</p> <p>Other material includes general correspondence and minutes for the Advisory Committee on Education in Liberia, the American Board of Trustees of the Institute, and the Liberian Board of Managers. The individual correspondence of trustees, principals, and others discusses the administrative, financial, and political problems at the school throughout its history. The trustees' correspondence includes that of Claude A. Barnett; Thomas Donohugh and A. B. Parsons representing mission boards; Harvey Firestone, Jr.; Edward Robinson of the General Education Board; Emory Ross; and George G. Wolkins of the Trustees of Donations for Education in Liberia. The correspondence of the principals, acting principals, faculty, visitors, and public officials also reflects the difficult relations with officials of three Liberian governments and the ongoing financial and administrative difficulties stemming from a division of authority between New York and Kakata. Significant correspondents, other than the trustees and principals, include Samuel Coles, Jackson Davis, United States ambassador to Liberia Edward R. Dudley, Harvey Firestone, Jr., Ambrose Hall, Liberian ambassador to the United States C. D. B. King, Norris Miles, Howard W. Oxley, Frank Pinder, Lester Walton, and Henry Litchfield West.</p>"}