This school examination, with it's elaborate display of cursive penmanship, was created in March 1900 as an example of how politics influences school curriculums. The Binondo Boy's School in Manila was one of many established by the Catholic Church and the Spanish government, which first opened missionary school in 1565. By 1865, the Spanish government decreed there should be at least one primary school for girls and one for boys with each municipal government. The classes were taught in Spanish frequently by Jesuits priests, but the schools were state sponsored, and officially not religious or faith-based educational institutions. While enrollment was technically open to all, in reality there were not enough schools or teachers, so attendance was limited to the privileged.
Throughout much of the 1890’s, the Philippine resistance had been fighting to wrest control from Spanish rule. In the spring of 1898, while Commodore George Dewey was battling Spanish forces in the Philippines, the Filipino resistance was declaring independence from Spain, a move neither Spain nor the US recognized. Dewey’s victory at the Battle of Manilla Bay substantially contributed to ending the Spanish- American War so in the 1898 Treaty of Paris in December Spain ceded the Philippines to the US. President William McKinley issued a proclamation that for the good of its people, the Philippines would have a “benevolent assimilation.” The U. S. then set about establishing Americanization programs like those occurring within the continental United States. Note the use of American symbols like flags and eagles on some of these papers. Under the new school system all students would be provided a basic education, not just the upper classes, but the American annexation also resulted in English being taught in place of Spanish, and in a Protestant based curriculum with traditional history classes highlighting the successes of select white male leaders, courtesy of American publishers. Industrial school education was also introduced. Private and “church” schools were retained as the country had neither enough teachers nor schools, so first members of the military, and later a large influx American teachers, known as Thomasites, were recruited. The government also established normal schools to train native born teachers.
These examination papers were most likely sent to the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition for the Philippine Education Building as part of the Philippine Exhibits. The Binondo Boys Public School is listed in the official catalogue published in January 1904, as exhibiting regular class work, arithmetic, geography, language, drawings, and photographs. The exhibit highlighted the importance of teaching English in the schools as a need for a common language and displayed native dialect charts contrasting the school papers with examples of the English alphabet. This was also a period where penmanship was a graded course and an important part of education.
Following patriotic fervor generated by the Centennial celebrations of 1776 and a resurgence in Nativism due to a fear and concerns of loss of white Anglo-American as a reaction to the large influx of foreign immigrants, classrooms began including patriotic symbols and school tools and supplies
This small child size little red schoolhouse bank represents the multiple and often conflicted messages of the white Anglo citizenry toward their new immigrant neighbors. Theodore Roosevelt, who, on January 3, 1919 wrote a speech for the American Defense Society "… We have room for but one language here and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, and American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house." (See Jan 7, 1919 edition of The Chicago Daily Tribune). Fifteen years earlier, as president, Roosevelt had come to the defense of Asian immigrants fighting school segregation in California. His comments on English came days before his death, so the quote is remembered as his final statement on immigration.
The bank’s inherent message of saving for a bright future is positive. In 1816, Boston Provident became the earliest American savings bank. Savings banks were popular among immigrants and 71 % of Boston Provident’s early depositors were women and children. Early savings banks were charitable institutions, created to assist the poorer working class into developing thrift habits. Charles Loring Brace created a savings bank in 1854 for the boys he was assisting in vocational schools for the Children’s Aide Society in New York. School banking systems developed in the late 1870’s with public schools in New York but by 1885 had spread throughout the country. This bank was clearly meant to be functional as it has as a small slot on one side for coins and is easily opened with a latch on the bottom. The bottom is stamped “controlled by/Jos D. Lowe Co./ Banks and Brokers/131 Tremont St. Boston, Mass./for the price of 25cts. /patented.”
Jos. D. Lowe Co. was a relatively new business in Boston, catering to women, according to advertisements in local newspapers of the period, and founded by botanist Josephine Dyer Lowe (1843-1930). She married in 1867 naturalized citizen, British-American Rear Admiral John Lowe, a Civil War veteran and expert in torpedo boats and submarines for the US Navy. Josephine attended Mount Holyoke College for Women in 1863 and 1864. She had varied interests and passed her unquenchable curiosity to her two surviving daughters Edith Brinton Lowe (b. 1875) and artist/author/ amatuer archaologist Alice Lowe Ferguson (1880-1951). Josephine began attending MIT in 1896, where she studied architecture and engineering according to student records and graduated in 1899. She and her husband settled in Washington, D.C., where she was very active socially, published in botany, and was a member of several botanical societies. Daughter Alice married geologist Henry G. Ferguson in 1914 and they purchased "Hard Bargain Farm" in Accokeek, Maryland, which later became part of Piscataway National Park across the river from Mt Vernon.
The bank was produced inexpensively from wood, cardboard, and paper. Since the base is stamped with a small price and given value it may have been sold or given to good customers, but more likely it would also have been used as an incentive to be awarded as a premium, which was a common practice at the time. Clearly the bank was created with the Nativist viewpoint in mind and designed for a child’s use. The text printed on the surface on both the back wall and the roof are what make this a wonderful artifact for teaching about Americanization. The back wall is devoted to the patriotic rhetoric and flag legend including that the designer of the “stars and stripes” was George Washington and its maker in 1777 as Mrs. Elizabeth (Betsey) Ross. There is a line at the bottom proclaiming the Town of Dorchester as the site of the first public school on May 30, 1630, a claim by the town that is open to debate.
Under the eve of the roof is the Balch flag pledge, which predates the Pledge of Allegiance by several years. It was created by George Thatcher Balch, a Civil War veteran appointed by the New York City mayor to inspect city schools for health issues led to a preoccupation with the teaching of Patriotism within the schools. His pledge involves a salute that looked much like the Hitler youth salute. The words of the pledge are “I give my heart and my hand to my country—one country, one language, one flag.” The last part was adopted was modified as a slogan for the Americanization movement that Balch was so invested in and is what is printed on the bank. The motto proclaims: “On These We Insist: One Nation, One Flag, One Language, One School.”
The original 23 word version of the Pledge of Allegiance is also included on one side of the roof in faded, painted letters. It reads: I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO MY FLAG AND TO THE REPUBLIC. FOR WHICH IT STANDS ONE NATION INDIVISIBLE - WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR All. The Pledge of Allegiance was created for the Columbus Day 400th anniversary ceremony at the Columbia Exposition and encouraged to be recited in schools throughout the country; it was published in the Youth’s Companion Magazine in September of 1892 a month before the ceremony. The Americanization movement continued until about 1920 but this bank was probably made between October 1892 and 1905.
From the 1770's through the 1960's globes have been a basic geography teaching tool for educational institutions, from academies and universities to schools of all sizes and libraries in more recent years. In the 1700’s, they would have been imported and were often purchased by the wealthy. This terrestrial globe was created by James Wilson, one of America's earliest globe manufacturers, in 1811. It is an example of one of Wilson's earliest globes to be used in academies and larger schools and was used in Vermont in the 19th Century. The globe is hung on a brass meridian ring and set in maple stand supported on 4 turned legs joined by cross stretchers. The printed horizon ring displays zodiacal signs, months of the year, and degrees longitude pasted on a circle. It is printed and tinted on a paper surface and inscribed: "A NEW [/] AMERICAN TERRESTIAL GLOBE on white the [/] PRINCIPAL PLACES of the [/] KNOWN WORLD [/] are [/] ACCURATELY laid down [/] with the traced attempts [/] of CAPTAIN COOK to [/] discover a Southern continent [/] by [/] JAMES WILSON [/] 1811."
James Wilson was born March 15, 1763, to James and Eleanor Hopkin Wilson, of Londonderry, New Hampshire, Wilson was a farmer and a blacksmith before he became interested in geography, perhaps due to reading almanacs. He became fascinated with European globes after a visit to Dartmouth College. Largely self-taught in cartography and geography, Wilson obtained an 18 volume Encyclopedia Britannica and moved to Bradford, Vermont to study at the Bradford Academy in 1796 and produced his first an experimental globe, a wooden sphere covered in paper and pen and ink drawings. He attempted to study engraving with James Akin in Boston and Newburyport but was rejected. A few years later he headed to New Haven, Connecticut to study with engraver Amos Doolittle, who had published the first American geography book in 1784, Jedediah Morse's "Geography Made Easy."
By 1810, was he had a growing family and was producing and selling accurate and aesthetically pleasing globes and advertising them as more affordable than any imported from London. As a blacksmith, Wilson was able to produce his own presses, lathes, and other tools and produced the early globes from home. His globes were produced in pairs: terrestrial and celestial and were advertised in three sizes: 20", 16", and 13." The 13” globe appears to have been most popular as several have survived and was documented as having been sold for $50.00 in Boston in 1813. He exhibited his globes in Boston in 1814, and soon became a commercial success. He established a second “artificial globe manufactory” in Albany, NY in 1818, bringing his sons Samuel and John into the managing and manufacturing of J Wilson & Sons the NY shop and youngest son David drawing and engraving maps. The Wilsons recognized the growing demand from schools, so began producing globes in the smaller more affordable sizes of 13.5", 9" and 3". By the 1830s, globes were no longer a luxury but a necessary piece of equipment for most schools, though they varied in quality and cost, but the company was fulfilling much of the need. In 1827, Wilson displayed his globes before Congress hoping to obtain an official endorsement. Unfortunately, Wilson’s sons died in 1827 and 1833, and David's son Lavallette, who drew maps as a successful surveyor, was not interested in the business. In 1833, Cyrus Lancaster, who had joined the firm in 1826, took over Wilson's business and married into the family. James Willson died March 26, 1855, in Bradford, Vermont.
Kindergarten as a concept was developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), a student of Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Froebel’s German kindergartens encouraged children to enjoy natural studies, music, stories, play with manipulative learning toys. He recommended teachers use geometric shapes and crafts for teaching and advocated the use of ‘gifts’ or playthings in the form of geometric shapes to promote learning and occupations or activities. Froebel also incorporated learning through expression, systematized play and social imitation. The first kindergarten opened in Germany in 1837; the first in the US was opened by Margarethe Schurz to a German speaking community in Wisconsin in 1856. In 1860, Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English speaking kindergarten in Boston. Over time, kindergarten was introduced into public schools with the changed purpose of providing an early academic foundation for 5 and 6-year old children preparing for 1st grade.
This set of blocks is the sixth “gift” in the series manufactured by the Milton Bradley Company. The blocks are in a square cherry wood box with a removable sliding top and a faded green label on one side. The box contains thirty-six wood blocks of three standard sizes: sixteen long, wide rectangular blocks; six long, thin rectangular blocks; and fourteen short, wide rectangular blocks.
Milton Bradley Company was established by Milton Bradley (1836-1911) in 1860. A mechanical draughtsman and patent agent interested in lithography, board games and puzzles, Milton Bradley became interested in the kindergarten movement after he attended a lecture by Elizabeth Peabody in 1869. Elizabeth and her sister Mary, who was by then the widow of educator Horace Mann, were devoted to promoting Froebel’s philosophy of creative play for pre-school children and helped spread of the Kindergarten Movement to America’s cities. These “gift boxes” are examples of school equipment made by Milton Bradley sometime between 1880 to 1900 for use in kindergartens. Milton Bradley produced educational materials free of charge for the kindergartens in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts and was committed to developing kindergarten educational materials such as these gifts, colored papers and paints.
Public schools encouraged the Americanization of newcomers with programs and images intended to inspire patriotism. In most classrooms, American flags hung alongside images of the American eagle and images of George Washington.
This small handheld brass school bell reinforced the message of patriotism with an eagle shaped handle. It was used to alert students to the start of the school day, to the end of recess, and to gain student attention when the classroom became too noisy.
William P. Goodman from Kansas City, Missouri, received a U.S. patent for an improved desk. Patent no. 152224 was issued on June 23, 1874.
The remaining parts of this desk model are four slats of dark wood that are indented on each side. The slats are connected by a museum foam board. According to the drawing and specifications both the seat and desk can be folded. The desktop was designed to be supported at different angles and included an ink well strip and bookrack. When the desk was folded, items sitting on the desk would not roll off.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
Morris Lancaster from Richmond, Indiana, received a U.S. patent for an improved hinge to work with the school desk lid. Patent no. 181689 was issued on August 29, 1876.
This model features a combination of wood and metal. The patent has a new mechanism called a “pawl” or “dog” that acted as a stop concerning the desk lid. This held the lid in position and operated automatically to hold or release it.
Morris Lancaster was born in 1842 and became a carpenter in Richmond, Indiana.
Addison S. Vorse from Des Moines, Iowa, received a U.S. patent for an improved school desk. Patent no. 97005 was issued on March 16, 1869.
This seat frpm the desk model is made of wood and has steel hardware attached to the bottom. A wooden plaque with a metal piece is screwed into the board as well. The seat was able to fold down, and there is storage for books. According to the patent draeing, the desk is attached to the back of the bench.
Addison S. Vorse was born in 1821. Along with his brother, Norman, he manufactured and sold agricultural implements in Iowa.
Bickford N. Hemenway from Rockland, Maine, received a U.S. patent for an improvement on adjustability of school desks. Patent no. 129559 was issued on July 16, 1872.
This model contains a mechanism that allows the desktop to be adjusted in height. The desktop has a crevice to hold pencils and an inkwell. It is made of dark wood. Only the desktop has survived, and there is a crack down it's middle. It should be noted that while the application for the patent emphasizes an improvement for school desks, the text of the patent specifications also mentions the use could be applied to writing desks in offices and counting houses.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
Eldridge J. Smith from Washington, D.C., received a U.S. patent for an improved school desk and seat. Patent no. 128432 was issued on June 25, 1872.
This patent featured a school seat and desk that improved adjustability. Only the seat exists from the original model. There are small nails that hold the wooden slates to a circular wooden frame.
Eldridge J. Smith was born in 1825 and became a patent lawyer in Washington, D.C.
Thomas Redmayne from Sheffield, York, England, received a British patent for an improved school desk. Patent no. 169478 was issued on November 2, 1875.
This is a partial model, consisting of a dark wooden rectangular plank with metal screws and two brackets that are connected by three screws, and there is a metal circular piece on each end. The desk was made of dark wood and designed to be adjustable. A wheel mechanism was used for adjusting and altering the angle of the desktop. Lying flat, it formed a table; reclined, it formed a desk, and placed in a vertical position, it served as a seat back.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
Henry R. Fry from Marion, Indiana, received a U.S. patent for an improved standard support for the school seat and desk. Patent no. 164160 was issued on June 8, 1875.
This model shows a side view of a seat only. The model has two wooden legs and a hinge bracket for the seat to rest on. Both are painted black. The patent features a way to simplify and improve the end pieces of the desk support. While it was intended for school desks, it also had applications for general business purposes such as folding seats in theaters.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
Charles M. Hughes from Lima, Ohio, received a U.S. patent for an improved hinge. Patent no. 249627 was issued on November 15, 1881.
This model is made of wood and comprises two pieces. It has a hinge that goes up and down like a lever, making the seat and desk compactable for more space. The design includes a place to hold books.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
Seth Wilkinson from Cross Plains, Tennessee, received a U.S. patent for an improved wooden school desk. Patent no. 30102 was issued on September 18, 1860.
This school desk is positioned so that the student is at a right angle to the seat. This would make sitting more pleasant and help with posture. The construction of his desk takes up less room than other desks. However, it is not adjustable or compact.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
James Blair from New Haven, Connecticut, received a U.S. patent for an improved school desk. Patent no. 63839 was issued on April 16, 1867.
This desk is made of polished wood and metal hinges. The desk tilts towards the chair, and its sides are made with slabs of wood instead of constructed legs. The patent features a reversible desktop that would switch easily between a traditional wood desktop and a slate blackboard. "James Blair, New Haven CT" is painted on the bottom of the desk.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
John Peard from New York City received a U.S. patent for an improved school desk and settee. Patent no. 66384 was issued on May 7, 1867.
This model is made of wood featuring a Gothic design. "John Peard" is lightly written on the top of the desk. Only a fragment of the patent model has survived. The support piece has two grooved pencil areas and a circular cutout in the center. There are several tags attached to the piece.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
Henry G. Sellman from North Newburg, Michigan, received a U.S. patent for an improved school desk. Patent no. 114869 was issued on May 16, 1871.
This model features an improved hinge that facilitates a seat that folds up and a desk on the back of the backrest that folds down. The innovation would give more room between desks when necessary. The desk and seat combination was constructed of metal and wood but only the side support featuring the hinge remains.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.