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the late Professor Jehu Brainerd in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, but the material anticipated is not at hand.

Professor Brainerd published a text book of drawing based upon geometry and arranged progressively, each exercise leading logically to the next, for the use of the schools of that city.

The following brief account of Professor Brainerd's services was given in the little historical volume* prepared for the Centennial by Hon. Andrew Freese, the well known superintendent of the city schools of Cleveland. Professor Brainerd, who was subsequently and for some years before his decease an examiner in the Patent Office at Washington, was somewhat remarkable for his interest in scientific researches and pursuits; he acquired reputation as a skilled microscopist, and among other public spirited undertakings he was active in the estab lishment in Cleveland of a homœopathic college of medicine, in which, for some years, he occupied acceptably a professor's chair. In default of the more definite statement of his connection with the introduction of drawing into the public schools of the city, this account by Mr. Freese is inserted:

Drawing was introduced into the schools as a regular exercise in 1849. The board of school managers for that year say, after speaking of penmanship: "Drawing, too, has been taught—in the higher schools by a professed teacher of this useful and beautiful art, Miss Crosby; in the primary schools by their respective teachers. Numerous specimens of linear and a few of perspective drawing, most of them deemed very promising, were exhibited at the examinations." Miss Crosby's services were discontinued after a few months, for it was the expectation of the board that the regular teachers in charge of the schools would themselves be able to keep up the classes in drawing unaided. They did make a heroic attempt to meet this expectation. They employed teachers and took private lessons, first of Mr. Shattuck, author of an excellent work on drawing, then of Prof. J. Brainerd, of Cleveland. Professor Brainerd had so much sympathy for the teachers in their new labors that he followed them into their schools and assisted them in teaching. He kept up visiting the schools and giving instructions in drawing for several months without promise of compensation or expectation of receiving any. A quotation from the school report for 1857 will, perhaps, suffice for the history of the year previous to its publication :

Professor Brainerd, actuated more by his love for the beautiful and useful art of drawing, and by a desire to encourage its proper cultivation, than by the trifling compensation he has received, has afforded considerable instruction in the schools. His course is to familiarize youth with the principles of drawing, both plain and perspective, so that they may sketch natural objects with freedom and accuracy, rather than to make them mere copyists of the drawings of other people, which last, although the most that is generally attempted in schools, is not drawing in any true and liberal sense-not that the exercise of copying from books is without its uses, particularly to primary scholars, with whom the principles of the art would be too abstruse for comprehension, but that in the higher departments, certainly, a much more radical training should be had. Professor Brainerd, at the request of the board, has embodied his Course of Drawing Lessons in a plain and cheap publication, an improved edition of which is being printed, the first having been taken up by schools in this vicinity. But now, since drawing had been so generally introduced into all the departments, the board of managers made a more permanent arrangement for its continuance. They engaged the services of Professor Brainerd and put this branch of instruction under

Early History of the Cleveland Public Schools, by Andrew Freese. Published by order of the board of education. Cleveland, Ohio: Robinson, Savage & Co., book printers, Frankfort street. 1876. pp. 128.

his management. He entered upon his work with a great deal of zeal, and a new interest in drawing was manifested throughout all the schools of the city. Professor Brainerd was in the employ of the board for a period of seven or more years continuously. The general proficiency made by the schools was very satisfactory, considering the small amount of time devoted to it—one hour a week in the upper grades, half the amount in the lower-and there were individual instances of attainments in every school that were marked; here and there a genius was developed. Hundreds will remember "Hinman," of the Central High School, for his special gifts in sketching; Rockwell School had a "Nast," whose pictures made everybody laugh, and so on. The many may become elegant penmen, leaving, for all practical purposes, no more to be desired; the few, by culture and training, develop high gifts in the art of drawing, while the many remain on the lower plane, appreciative, perhaps, but without a "cunning hand" to execute; at least this seemed to be so from our few years of experience.

It is most probable that in many cities and towns in these United States, during the present century, efforts have been made, from time to time, with similar purposes. It was not the design in this chapter to essay any complete record of such attempts, but only to show that the plan successfully introduced in Boston was not to be understood as claiming to be a novel scheme, or that it promised any royal road to success in the arts and industries never before discovered; but, rather, to show that it was the very system which wise artists and educators in this country had many times previously urged upon their immediate communities, and that it should be received not with the suspicion of an untried experiment—a new-found "philosopher's stone”—but with the confidence due to a system which had been thoroughly tested in other countries and which was well understood and thoroughly ap proved by many American artists and educators long before the English Government art schools of South Kensington were founded.

* For extracts from the text books and addresses of Mr. Peale and Mr. Minifie. see Appendix A, Part I.

CHAPTER II.

STATE ACTION IN REGARD TO DRAWING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF MASSACHUSETTS.

The history of the introduction of the study of drawing in the State of Massachusetts, as recorded in the statute books and official educational reports of the StateThe origin and cause of the movement - The need of some form of industrial education recognized by the educational officials - The widespread recognition of this need as shown in the reports from the several cities and towns-Petitions to the legislature-Reports of committees -The methods by which information was disseminated and public opinion created — The final passage of the law making it a required study-The calling of Walter Smith and his joint employment by the State and city authorities-The rapid progress of the movement thus begun for the thorough technical industrial training of the people.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PREVIOUS FAILURES.

The history of these several abortive attempts to disseminate a general knowledge of drawing in the various communities, as related in the preceding pages, is of twofold value: first, from the evidence. thereby given by many persons eminently qualified to render an intelligent judgment upon such a question as to the utility of the study and the practicability of teaching it in the common schools; secondly, as illustrating the difficulties to be overcome by any successful attempt to introduce it.

In the instances just cited it is clear that neither the communities nor the educators were then ready for the undertaking; still, in the light of subsequent events, it is easy to see how these very unsuccessful efforts tended to educate some in the community and to awaken more general interest in the subject, while, owing to the rapid progress of events in the industrial countries of Europe, the necessity of some positive action on the part of the manufacturers of the United States, unless they were willing to submit to inglorious inferiority in all but the lowest grades of production, was becoming more and more pressing; for, however prominent at times in the discussion of this question the educational features of the new study may be made to appear, it is well always to remember in considering it that it is owing alone to its direct bearing upon the industries of a people that its claim to admission as a required study in the free common schools of the country is justitied and urged.

It has been also by many authorities ably advocated, as we have noted, by reason of its educational, refining, and artistic qualities and

influence, all of which inhere to it; but still, its irrefutable claim for admission to the common, primary schools of the people rests and must rest upon its utility.

THE CLAIM OF THE NEW STUDY RESTS PRIMARILY UPON ITS UTILITY.

If this cannot be shown beyond peradventure, all the other arguments are futile, and of right ought to be. As food, clothing, and shelter are the absolute conditions of life, without which there is nothing, but with which all progress is possible; so there are, for a people, certain primary needs of education which must be supplied to every child, to the exclusion, if need be, of many other else most desirable opportunities. As nations progress in civilization and as the consequent competition between them increases, the preparation required for the struggle for existence varies, as well for the individual units who compose the nation as for the nation itself. Hence it follows, that what was not felt by any one as a necessity a century ago, is everywhere recognized as indispensable to-day. This is as true as to what are to be held as absolute essentials in education as it is in all other respects. It was the recognition of the fact that, in all the industrial arts, this nation was in danger of relative inferiority, that forced the consideration of this matter of remodelling the studies of the common schools with a view to definite industrial training of the hand and eye. The general study of industrial drawing by all the children of the community is urged from a desire to insure to the country that adopts it a class of trained art workers, who shall be fitted to compete with the most skilful artisans of the world. These throngs of children, in the common schools of these United States, are the future workers who will form the great industrial armies of the country.

Through their intelligent efforts the countless resources of this land are to be developed and also the prosperity and liberties of its people guaranteed.

As a great manufacturing community, it was, therefore, natural that the first serious movement to inaugurate this new popular industrial education, of which, it must not be forgotten, the training in drawing is but a feature, fundamental and important as it is, should have its origin in Massachusetts.

JOINT ACTION OF CITY AND STATE EDUCATIONAL OFFICIALS.

The city of Boston and the State of Massachusetts, in their corporate capacities, severally and jointly, undertook the new experiment, an experiment which the whole country watched with great interest, for the need of some device to meet the increasing difficulties was generally appreciated. Having already recounted several of the earlier unsuccessful attempts in different places, it remains now to show how, and by what methods, Massachusetts relatively succeeded in an undertak

ing in which, heretofore, so many communities and individuals had failed.

As briefly as may be, the history of this movement in Massachusetts, from its first inception to the present time will be given as derived from published official and other authoritative sources. As the Massachusetts scheme is a comprehensive one, it will be given in detail, the various instrumentalities and courses of studies adopted being set down in full.

The limits of this report prevent any attempt to give so detailed a history of the similar experiments which have followed in other States and cities.

The scheme for Massachusetts, having been prepared by an admitted authority and having passed the ordeal of twelve years of actual operation, is suggested as a desirable model for consideration by other communities, its minor details being changed by them as difference of circumstances may require. As a thorough, progressive system, it has proved admirably adapted to the demands of the public schools in Massachusetts.

HOW NEW STUDIES ARE LEGALIZED IN MASSACHUSETTS.

In Massachusetts certain studies are enumerated in the law as required to be taught in all the public schools, while certain other studies are enumerated as permissible at the discretion of the school committee. The first appearance of a given subject in the list of permitted studies and the subsequent appearance of that study in the list of required studies thus furnish an index of the progressive movement of common school education upon higher and broader planes.

In the thirty-eighth chapter of the Massachusetts General Statutes, as published in 1860, is the following paragraph:

Algebra, vocal music, drawing, physiology and hygiene, shall be taught, by lectures or otherwise, in all public schools in which the school committee deem it expedient.

This seems to be the first legal authority to teach drawing in the public schools. The words "vocal music and drawing" were inserted in the law during the revision of the laws which was made by the joint committee of both houses, adopted by the legislature at the extra session of 1859 and first appeared in full in the volume of the general statutes of 1860.

In the annual volume of laws for 1869, in chapter 80, the board of education is directed to prepare a plan for free instruction

To men, women, and children in mechanical drawing, either in existing schools or in those to be established for that purpose, in all towns and cities in the Commonwealth having more than 5,000 inhabitants, and to report a definite plan therefor to the next general court. Approved June 12, 1869.

This shows that the subject had already attracted public interest. The volume of the next year shows how that public interest had crys

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