Charles Sumner Bowman (–unknown), was an American architect and educator. He had his own architecture firm in Kansas City, Kansas, and served as the director of the industrial department of
Western University in
Quindaro, Kansas from 1898 until 1902.
Biography
Charles Sumner Bowman was born in in Mississippi.
He and his three siblings were raised by his single mother Mattie (or Marta) Bowman, who was widowed, and worked as a maid in
Vicksburg Vicksburg most commonly refers to:
* Vicksburg, Mississippi, a city in western Mississippi, United States
* The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign
* The Siege of Vicksburg, an American Civil War battle
Vicksburg is also the name of ...
.
He attended night school at
Tuskegee Institute
Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature.
The campus was de ...
(now Tuskegee University) starting in 1892.
By 1895, Bowman had enrolled in the day school at Tuskegee Institute, where he earned a
normal school
A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...
diploma and carpentry diploma in 1898.
After graduation he became a director of the newly created industrial department known as Quindaro Industrial School at the Western University a
historically black college
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
(HBCU) in Quindaro, Kansas.
He taught courses in carpentry, woodworking, machinery, architectural drawing, mechanical drawing, and cabinetmaking.
Bowman worked for Western University from 1898 until 1902, followed by opening his own architecture firm in Kansas City.
Bowman was married to Etta B. Buford for less than one year, she had been a student at Western University.
Many of the biographical details of Bowman's life are unknown, including his circumstances in death, which was sometime during or after 1925.
Bowman's profile was included in the biographical dictionary ''
African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865–1945'' (2004).
Works
* Stanley Industrial Hall (1900),
Western University, Quindaro, Kansas (now demolished)
* Dr. Isham H. Anthony apartment building (1904), 1512 North 5th Street, Kansas City, Kansas (now demolished)
See also
*
African-American architects
African-American architects are those in the architectural profession who are members of the African diaspora in the United States.
Their work in the more distant past was often overlooked or outright erased from the historical records due to ...
References
1870s births
Date of death missing
Tuskegee Institute alumni
African-American architects
People from Kansas City, Kansas
People from Warren County, Mississippi
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