History of Penn School / Penn Center of the Sea Islands: Penn School Papers

The collection includes correspondence, mostly from 1900-1950, of Penn School directors and other leaders, minutes from board of trustee meetings, subject files, printed materials, many photograph albums and loose photographs, and other papers covering topics from emancipation, African American education, Reconstruction, political and social change in South Carolina, agricultural extension work, public health issues, damage from hurricanes, World War I and World War II, the boll weevil and the cotton industry, the effects of the Great Depression on the school and the local population, changes in Penn School leading to a greater emphasis on social action in the outer world, and the end of the school and the turn to community service. The roughly 3,000 photographs in the collection document school activities, Island scenes and Islanders, classes and teachers, baptisms, agricultural activities, parades, fairs, and special events at the Penn School.