Professor Henry Carr Pritchett, Photograph - Pages 25 and 26
Scope and Contents
The May Benson Lyle Scrapbook contains Fifty-six (front and back) unnumbered pages with forty-nine black and white photographs (one each on the front and back covers of the scrapbook) recording May Benson Lyle's time as a student at Sam Houston Normal Institute from 1905-1908.
The images in the scrapbook are of campus buildings such as Austin Hall, Old Main Building, and the Peabody Memorial Library. There are also images of faculty members such as Ida Lawrence, Sue Smither, Professor Coleman, Professor Henry Fishburne Estill, Joseph (Joe) Pritchett, and his brother President Henry Carr Pritchett. Additional images show May Benson Lyle and her friends at the boarding house they lived in while attending Sam Houston Normal Institute.
Dates
- Creation: 1905 - 1908
Biographical / Historical
Henry Carr Pritchett was born on August 12, 1852, in Warren County, Missouri, to William Ira and Martha Ann Hubbard. His younger brother, Joseph (Joe) Lucien Pritchett, was a mathematics professor and Dean at Sam Houston Normal Institute.
In 1867, his family moved to Glasgow, Missouri, where Henry attended Prichett School Institute, a private school founded in 1866, named after his uncle, Carr Waller Prichett, the Institute's first principal. Henry graduated from the Institute in 1873 and received his master's in arts at the Institute two years later. Afterward, he continued his education at the University of Michigan in graduate studies.
On December 28, 1876, Henry married Kate Smith in Missouri. They moved to San Marcos, Texas, where he was elected as a teacher and co-principal of the Coronal Institute. Three years (1881) later, they moved to Huntsville, Texas, for his new role as a mathematics and astronomy professor at Sam Houston Normal Institute. On June 12, 1884, they had a son named Henry Lucien Pritchett. In 1890, Henry became the state superintendent of instruction until his new position as president in 1891.
The Texas Governor, Sul Ross, appointed Henry Pritchett as the Institute's president (the first time the term "president" was used instead of principal) and was approved by the current president, Joseph A. Baldwin, upon his resignation to become the new chair pedagogy at the University of Texas. Pritchett's presidency at SHNI lasted for seventeen years (1891-1908), where he saw the construction of the Peabody Memorial Library, the first separate library at a Texan college.
Henry Carr Pritchett died on March 9, 1908, in Galveston, Texas. He is buried in San Marcos, TX.
Extent
1 Photographic Prints : Black and white photograph. Handwriting in black ink. Pencil markings.
Language of Materials
English
Physical Description
Page 25: Black and white photograph of Henry Carr Pritchett outside with the Peabody Memorial Library in the background. Underneath the photograph in stylized writing is "Professor Carr." in black ink.
Throughout the page and on parts of the photograph are pencil markings.
Page 26: Blank
Repository Details
Part of the Thomason Special Collections & SHSU University Archives Repository