Its mission was promoting public education in the South as well as modern agricultural methods and rural community development.
[1] The director was Edgar Gardner Murphy, an Episcopal minister from Montgomery, Alabama.
[2] Leading Board members included Robert Curtis Ogden (1836-1913), president; Charles D. McIver (1860- 1908), secretary; George Foster Peabody (1852-1938), treasurer; Edwin A. Alderman (1861-1931); William H. Baldwin (1863-1905); Wallace Buttrick (1853-1926); J.L.M.
Curry (1825-1903); Charles W. Dabney (1855-1945); George Sherwood Dickerman (1843-1937); Hollis B. Frissell (1851-1917); H.H.
[3] Its records are held by the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.