tion of the record, from official publications, of what the countries of Europe have thought proper to do, in adding to their collections from the treasures shown at the several recent world's fairs, will need no explanation. If those old lands, so rich in examples of art, feel the need of such special efforts to increase their stores, it needs no argu ment to demonstrate the essential value of public art collections, especially of articles of industrial art, in a new country lacking many other opportunities for general art culture.

The admirable and eloquent lecture delivered by Cardinal Wiseman upon "the artisan and the artist," is inserted, in view of objections that have been made against any scheme of general industrial art education; and, as showing most convincingly the unbroken chain which links all art, and all art workers.

An attempt has been made to secure a list of all art, and art educational, publications; especially of all the educational series of textbooks which have been recently issued in this country. A list of these, compiled from the returns made by publishers in response to inquiries from this Bureau, is inserted.

PURPOSE IN PLANNING THE REPORT.

In short, in the preparation of this Report, the object sought has been to place in the hands of educators, and educational officials, the material not only for forming an intelligent judgment upon the advisability of introducing the study of drawing into the public schools; but also, as well, to furnish the facts needed for a like consideration of the questions arising in regard to establishing special schools of technical industrial art training, high art academies, public art museums, art libraries, and of making occasional public art loan exhibitions. This purpose must explain the somewhat miscellaneous nature of the articles contained in the Appendices.

While in the text descriptive of the several institutions, the latest facts received down to the date of publication have been embodied; in the tables of statistics, June 30th, 1877,* was taken as the date of closing the tables and unless otherwise stated, is the date of the statistics given.

The delays, which have caused the publication of this Report to be

*The statistics as published in Part I. of this Report are those of the summer of 1882. The statistics above referred to were published in the annual report of the Commissioner of Education for 1877.

so long deferred, have not been without compensation in the added material, and more correct information, which has thereby been obtained. The conviction, that in the introduction of instruction in drawing in all the public schools of the country, and in the further development of industrial art education which must inevitably follow such universal elementary training of the hand and eye, there will be found, in no small degree, a remedy for the acknowledged defects of our present system of exclusive literary education, largely prompted the preparation of this work.

In the artistic development of our industrial resources will be found, it is believed, the surest foundation of our future material prosperity as a nation. The question of the kind of training that shall be given in the public schools of the country, is a vital one to the political economist, no less than to the moralist and the law-maker.

DETAILS OF ELEMENTARY ARTISTIC AND TECHNICAL TRAINING MUST BE ADAPTED, BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES, TO THE NEEDS OF THEIR SEVERAL COMMUNITIES.

A nation of workers are to be taught how to work. The problem of how to best educate a whole people is ever present and pressing for a solution.

The present Report has been prepared with the purpose, among others, of aiding the intelligent consideration of this question, in one of its important phases, by the local authorities in charge of schools in their respective States and neighborhoods; for, while it is believed that such simple training in the elements of drawing as has, for example, been given in the public schools of Washington, D. C., during the past few years, can be successfully introduced, with advantage, in every district school in each of the States; it is, at the same time, evident that the extent to which such instruction should be pursued, and the technical direction it should take, must be determined for each community, by the industries and needs of the different localities.

This diversity, which must be taken into account by the local authorities, has been kept in view in the preparation of this Report, and must explain the somewhat eclectic character of the articles in the Appendices, still further varied by the extent of the subjects treated, which embrace the whole scheme of art education;-from elementary drawing in public schools, to the founding of public museums of art.

If this Report shall be held to have contributed, in a slight degree, to the solution of the industrial problem, a great purpose will have been accomplished.

ADDENDA.

The pages immediately preceding, descriptive of the plan of this Report and its Appendices, and beginning with the account of the preliminary circular on drawing, etc., published by this Bureau in 1874; were written in 1877 when the manuscript was, for the second time, made ready for the press; it was again ready in 1880, and the statistical tables then expressly prepared for this special report, appear in the annual report of the Commissioner of Education for that year.

DIFFICULTIES DUE TO DELAYS IN PUBLICATION.

This delay in going to press, being synchronous with the most wonderful activity and development of general interest in all art matters, as shown by the founding of special educational institutions, both for instruction in high art, and in all the applications of art to industries; and also, in the establishment of museums, and the holding of numer ous art loan exhibitions, in widely scattered localities; it resulted that it was next to impossible to keep step in this Report with the art progress of the country,-though this task was industriously undertaken. The statistics which are now embodied in the tables which appear in Part I of this Report were collected down to the close of the school year 1881-1882. A comparison between these twenty-five crowded pages and the four meagre pages of similar statistics, in Circular No. 2, 1874, given in Appendix B, strikingly illustrates the extent of this progress. The rapidity of the progress of interest in, and knowledge of, the many related subjects embraced in this general art movement of a whole people, has had a tendency to make much that was apposite in 1876 and 1878, almost obsolete in 1880 and 1882-the elementary statements important in the ealier stages of this development, seeming almost impertinent in the later stages, when knowledge of these topics has in some communities become so widely diffused.

If this progress of development had been alike all over the country, it is evident that much that is here included could properly be at once omitted. Nevertheless, in spite of this sudden awakening of interest and the eager pursuit of a knowledge of art matters, in many communities, there remain so many places, both in the older States, and in the newer settlements, where not even a beginning of practical industrial

art training has been attempted, that there is still ample opportunity for the usefulness of the most elementary portions of this work.

To rewrite this Report from the beginning, with a view to the present condition of general interest and intelligence in art matters, were as fruitless as the endeavor to make the first pages of an encyclopædia, published serially, as inclusive of the latest acquisitions and discoveries of science as the pages last printed; with every passing day, progress is made, and the attempt in either case, would be comparable only to the unending labors of Sysiphus, or the fruitless task of the Danaides. While in the historical account of the various institutions it has been sought to embody all details down to the latest moment, there seemed no more feasible plan than the one adopted, namely, in adding the new matter to leave the history as previously completed,* and under the head of "addenda" to proceed with the subsequent statements. In several of these statements where either the history was early finished, or where the later development has been the most important, the supplementary "addenda" far exceeds in length the history to which it is attached.

So it happens that, in its present form, this Report may, perhaps, be held to resemble somewhat, if only in the manner of its construction and consequent long-delayed completion, one of those vast, rambling, mediæval structures, to which succeeding ages have builded additions as the needs, or tastes of new generations impelled. In such a case as is suggested in this comparison, the house, which has been the family home for centuries, comes finally to seem rather a living growth than a dead building, and to grow vital with the continuous life of its inmates; the very irregularities, mistakes and inconsistencies, of the builders; the incongruous angles, gables and towers of the structure; but adding to its vitality, and lending themselves to combinations of picturesque beauty unattainable in more formal and academic edifices. It must be

*In view of the illustrated articles on several of the leading art academies and museums, which have appeared in the magazines during the past few years, purporting to give their history as well as a contemporary description, it is only just to the author and editor of this Report to state that the histories of the older institutions, down to that time, as given in Parts III and IV, were prepared and compiled by him as early as 1877, from original sources and investigations, and were by no means easily and lazily compiled from these magazine articles, which did not appear till long after the manuscript of this part of this Report had been completed. That this note is needed is one of many misfortunes incident to the delays in printing this Report.

far otherwise, in the instance of a work like this, to whic hsuch idealiza. tion could, by no stretch of fancy, attach; the analogy, as is the wont of that delusive figure of speech, failing at the critical point, in a most essential quality; at best, such a comparison could only serve as an apology for a lack of external unity and form, consequent upon hin drances and delays in preparation. Sufficiently fortunate will it be, if, in this present work, an interior essential unity of purpose and design can still be recognized.

NEEDS OF EDUCATORS, AS SPECIALISTS, KEPT IN VIEW.

It may not be out of place to suggest that, in common with most of the publications of this Bureau, the needs of educators as specialists, rather than the general public interest in a subject, have been kept in view. The many dry details of methods, the different courses of study here catalogued, which would be distasteful to the general reader will prove, it is hoped, of value, for comparison, to the instructors of similar institutions, and as showing the precise methods used to obtain certain specified results. In the account of the different schools much of this detailed material has been embodied with a view to its practical utility.

INTERESTS OF THE GENERAL READER CONSULTED WHEN POSSIBLE.

On the other hand, in the series of "Preliminary Papers" and in the histories of the older institutions, whatever was thought likely to add to the interest of the general reader was, so far as the matter seemed at all germane to the subject, included; while in the Appendices, many extracts from the eloquent writings of the great word masters who have written upon art have been collected.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE REPORT IN PARTS, OR VOLUMES. It remains to add that in the final revision of the materials collected for this Report,-made long after the previous paragraphs were written, it was found expedient to arrange the work, designed at first to occupy but a single volume,-in four "parts," or volumes-and to bind with each "part" the Appendices particularly relating to its subject matter, so that each "part" will be, in a measure, complete in itself.

In accordance with this plan Part I. contains first the official orders and correspondence relating to publication, followed by this "Introductory Chapter," and by a series of original papers, concerning the several topics comprised in these volumes, together with a consideration