James M. Colson Family

This family portrait taken about 1906 depicts James M. Colson, his wife, Kate D. Colson, and their children. An 1883 graduate of Dartmouth College, James Colson was an original member of the faculty of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (later Virginia State University). In 1885 he became the acting principal of Virginia Normal, replacing the first principal, James Storum. Colson left the school in 1904 to become president of John A. Dix's Normal School in Dinwiddie County.