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• 1 2020-07-22T21:00:44+00:00 Harriette Gibbs Marshall 4 plain 2020-07-29T20:16:32+00:00 Harriette Gibbs Marshall (1868-1941, OC 1889) was a musician, writer, and educator. She enrolled at the Oberlin College in 1880, where she took classes in the preparatory department and in the Conservatory of Music. She graduated in 1889 with a diploma in music. In 1906 the Oberlin Conservatory changed their program and any diploma in music became a Bachelor of Music degree. Marshall received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1906 as a result. She was the first African American woman to graduate from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
  
  After graduating she continued to study music in Chicago, Boston, and Paris. In 1890 Marshall helped found the conservatory for the Eckstein Norton University in Cane Springs, Kentucky and began working as the director of music there. After working there for ten years, she moved to Washington, D.C. From 1900 to 1903 Marshall was the “director of colored schools,” for the Washington Public Schools. In 1903 she founded the Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression, which she passionately supported. Marshall organized many campaigns to encourage patrons to help support and expand the school’s facilities and programs.
  
  She married Napoleon Bonaparte Marshall in 1906 and the couple soon moved to New York City. In 1920 she was made the Vice President of the Martin-Smith School of Music. However, her husband was made military attaché to the Haiti Legation of Port-au-Prince by President Warren Harding in 1922. Marshall and her husband moved to Haiti in that year and she left her position at the Martin-Smith School of Music. In 1928 Marshall founded the Jean Joseph Industrial School in Port-au-Prince, otherwise known as the L’Oeurve des Femmes Haitienne pour L’Organisation du Travail. She was the vice president for the school. Marshall also learned about Haitian cultural and life while living in the country and wrote a book entitled, The Story of Haiti (1930).
  
  Her husband died in 1933 and she returned to Washington, D.C., where she ran campaigns to increase the funding and support of the Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression. In 1937 she created the National Negro Music Center, which was part of the conservatory. Her remaining years focused on helping the Washington conservatory grow.
  
  Sources:
  Erickson, Shannon. “HARRIET GIBBS MARSHALL (1868-1941).” Last modified June 27, 2008. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/marshall-harriet-gibbs-1868-1941/
  
  Robinson-Nkongola, Audrey. “Biographical Sketch of Harriet (Hattie) Gibbs Marshall, 1868-1941.” (Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street, 2018). https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_det%20%20%20ails%7C3893428/biographical-sketch-harriet-hattie-gibbs-marshall-1868-1941#page/1/mode/1/chapter/bibliographic_entity|bibliographic_details|3893428
  
  Student File (Harriette Gibbs Marshall), Alumni & Development Records, O.C.A.