File:M. J. Sherman to Alice Mary Longfellow, 6 March 1889 (b245e622-a612-4c68-b588-8a5330720db0).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1007.001/002.003-001#039

[printed letterhead: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute]
Hampton, Va., March 6, 1889.
Dear Miss Longfellow
At last I send you a the annual Indian letter, which you must have expected for a long time.
Miss Richards wishes me to say that she did not send you a letter at the annual time last year, as she thought you might be intending to devote the money to Annie Dawson. When the check came, then seemed to be no one to assign.
Culbertson is one of our bright boys. He is doing pretty good work in class, and seems anxious to improve. He is a general favorite everywhere, and we hope will go through the school with credit.
With many thanks to you for your interest in our Indian students, I am
Very truly yours,
M. J. Sherman
[verso, printed letter:] Hampton N. & A, Institute, February, 1889. To Contributors of Scholarship Gifts of Seventy Dollars, already made or hoped for.
Please find enclosed a letter of acknowledgment, original and uncorrected, from a student who has been assigned this year as your beneficiary, and who writes to express his appreciation, and to give some account of himself. While free tuition is thus provided, the student is responsible for board, books and clothes, the cost of which is chiefly worked out in the labor departments.
No reply is expected, yet an answer would be greatly enjoyed. Much good has resulted from the relations established by these letters.
Unless a definite promise has been made, no one is considered as pledged ahead for a scholarship contribution.
Since students, especially new comers, need several months' training in expression by language and writing, scholarship letters are not sent till February, and then, that the work of sending over three hundred may be done with the least interruption to teaching and study, they are all, or nearly all, prepared and sent at once. Hence the response to a scholarship gift is not always prompt.
S. C. ARMSTRONG,
PRINCIPAL
Hampton N. & A, Institute, February, 1889.

• Keywords: long archives; document; alice m. longfellow papers (long 16173); education; hampton institute; organizations; correspondence; Manuscripts (1007.001); (LONG-Subcollection); Correspondence (1007.001/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Scholarship Student Correspondence (1007.001/002.003); (LONG-SubseriesName); Letters to Alice Longfellow (1007.001/002.003-001); (LONG-FileUnitName)