Eastman Business College

Diploma awarded by Eastman Business College

Eastman Business College was founded by Harvey G. Eastman in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1859. Rather than merely being a theoretical school, students gained practical experience in the business arts by actually performing the tasks that would be expected of them in their working careers, a novel approach at the time.

In 1897, Eastman Business College had a business department that offered hands-on practice in a mock bank and mock railway and express office and also taught bookkeeping. The college also included a school of shorthand which trained students in shorthand, typing, duplicating, and filing. In addition, there was a school of penmanship, which prepared students to teach writing and pen art. The school of telegraphy trained students as telegraph operators.

Information in the 1898 catalogs of the Eastman Business College and its affiliated school, the New York Business Institute included this statement: "These schools do not receive students of the Negro Race". In 1905 S. V. Daniels, a 17-year-old from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands withdrew from the main college and transferred to the Harlem branch following the petition of 160 southern students alleging that he was partially of African descent.

During its most successful period in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Eastman was one of the largest commercial schools in the United States. The college closed on June 10, 1931.

• "Daniels Leaves College", Washington Post, April 18, 1905
• A Brief History of Eastman Business College, 1875

• Office Museum