Typed letter signed ("Booker T. Washington"), as Principal, to Everett P. Wheeler. Tuskegee, Alabama, 15 April 1903. 1p, approx. 8 1/4 x 11 in., on "Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute" letterhead. Docketed on verso "April 16, 1903. Booker T. Washington appeal for his school."

Washington writes to Wheeler, in part: "...I take the liberty of calling your attention to [the school's] condition. Our most urgent needs at the present are in the direction of securing money to pay current expenses and the increasing of our Endowment Fund."

Washington was a tireless fundraiser for the Tuskegee Institute, and cultivated personal relationships with a network of wealthy philanthropists who donated to the school including Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. This letter is likely to Everett Pepperrell Wheeler (1840-1925), a New York lawyer, politician, and a co-founder of the American Bar Association.