ABSTRACT
Joseph Hill began his primary education being privately tutored by Ada H.Hinton, an opportunity that well-to-do Olde Philadelphians like his parents were able to provide to their children. From being taught in Miss Hinton’s home, Joseph enrolled in the Bird School-later renamed James Forten School-which was established in 1822 as the first private school for Blacks in Philadelphia. Joseph was well prepared academically for the entrance examination given by the Institute for Colored Youth, which he entered in 1873. The Institute for Colored Youth was supported by the Orthodox Society of Friends or Quakers and offered a prestigious preparatory education in the classics or vocational training in the trades. The Institute for Colored Youth boasted that its principal, Fanny Jackson, was the first female to head a preparatory school; that one of its teachers, Edward Bouchet, was the first African American to earn a Ph.D.; another teacher, Ishmael Locke, was the father of the first African American Rhodes Scholar; and yet another teacher, Grace Mappe, was one of the first Black females to earn a college degree. Joseph Hill availed himself of these outstanding teachers and was among the largest class of graduating seniors (eighteen) who received their certificates of completion in 1876, the same year the world’s fair Centennial Exposition was held in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.
