Full caption: Group of young women reading in library of normal school, Washington, D.C. Francis Benjamin Johnston. 1899. Prints and Photographs Division. LC-USZ62-100288.

Full caption: Group of young women reading in library of normal school, Washington, D.C. Francis Benjamin Johnston. 1899. Prints and Photographs Division. LC-USZ62-100288. Full caption: Group of young women reading in library of normal school, Washington, D.C. Francis Benjamin Johnston. 1899. Prints and Photographs Division.
LC-USZ62-100288.

Late in the spring term of 1899, Frances Benjamin Johnston photographed these young women pursuing an education with the intention of becoming educators themselves. Johnston had been commissioned to make a photographic survey of Washington, D.C., schools to show the public what was meant by the new, “progressive” education. Her photographs were displayed at the Paris Exposition of 1900 and were also used to illustrate a series of publications titled The New Education Illustrated.