Sebastian C. Adams’s Chronological Chart of Ancient, Modern and Biblical History is a colorfully illustrated scroll approximately 27.5 inches high and 22 feet long. Its linen-backed panels are wall-mounted with wooden cranks on each side. The scroll traces the course of human history from 4004 BC to 1883 using time lines, flow charts, and family trees that encompass settlements, countries, empires and civilizations around the world, from Babylon, Sparta, and China to Italy, Russia, and Wales. The text is accompanied by pictures of landmark events and personalities, including architectural monuments like the pyramids, history-changing tools and weapons, inventions, and portraits of famous rulers, adventurers, scientists, and cultural figures, as well as everyday people. The illustrations contain stereotypical ethnographic images that were typical of the period in which they were created. Maps drawn by J. A. Paine appear in the early panels of the scroll depicting the races and settlements of Noah, ancient Egypt, the conquests of Alexander the Great, Solomon’s Empire, the Roman Empire, 16th century Europe, and the United States. The last section shows the U.S. Presidents, other world leaders and sovereigns of the time, a list of eminent men (no women!) and a list of events in United States history up to 1883. Vertical red lines mark every 10 years and the bold black text highlight events, governments, and individuals. The Chronological Chart was produced as a series of chromolithographic panels and first published in 1871. It was published both as a scroll and in a foldable book form and a fabric cover for the scroll as well as a 7 page key were available for purchase at an additional cost. The Chronological Chart… became very popular, especially with church schools and was reproduced in several later editions as well a knock off copies in American and England. A British copy called The Wall Chart of World History, was published in 1890 by the Irish geologist Edward Hull (ca 1829-1917). It was incorrectly attributed to him when he added a geological strata, and this version of the foldout book has been reproduced in facsimile as Time Chart History of The Wall Chart of World History with additions at the end to include the 20th Century.
Sebastian Cabot Adams (July 28, 1825-January 5, 1898) was a minister, educator, pioneer, missionary, and writer who created the Chronological Chart of Ancient, Modern and Biblical History. Adams was born near Sandusky, Ohio but moved with his family to Galesburg, Illinois when he was twelve years old. As a young man, he resettled in Oregon, where he taught school (1852-54) and in 1856 opened his own school which eventually became Linfield College. He also worked as a preacher, surveyor, county clerk and state senator. In 1871, he published the first version of his Chronological Chart, a minutely illustrated scroll tracing the evolution of human civilization from Adam and Eve through much of the 19th century. Adams spent several years traveling to promote the scroll. The Oregon Encyclopedia notes that it is now prized by museums and library collections as an early representative of commercial illustration that made history lessons “colorful and dramatic.”
John Alsop Paine (January 14, 1840-July 24, 1912) was an archeologist and naturalist who drew the maps included in Sebastian Adams’s Chronological Chart of Ancient, Modern and Biblical History. Paine was born in Newark, New Jersey, and trained as a theologian but left the ministry in 1862 to do botanical work for the New York State Board of Regents. He went on to teach natural science at Robert College in Constantinople (now Istanbul) from 1867-69. He served as an archeologist on the First Expedition of the Palestine Exploration Society, a British organization created to study the topography and ethnography of the Levant region in the eastern Mediterranean. John Alsop Paine later held the office of curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City from 1889-1906.
Strobridge & Company of Cincinnati, Ohio were the lithographers of this piece. Known as the “Tiffany of lithographers, they were accustomed to producing large theatrical and circus posters in eight or more colors by the 1870’s, producing in a multi-sheet format with backing. The firm was established in 1867 as Strobridge and Company and changed their name in 1880 to Strobridge Lithography Company. They were an outgrowth of a firm established by Elijah C. Middleton and W. R. Wallace. In 1854 Hines Strobridge became their partner but after a fire in 1866, the former Middleton, Strobridge and Company was just Strobridge. The company continued to publish until 1971, producing advertisements, calendars, and posters.
This fifth edition version of the Chronological Chart of Ancient, Modern and Biblical History was copyrighted in 1883 and published by Colby & Co. of New York City. John E. Colby, the owner, wrote and produced the seven page “key.”
This model is the 1877 Monitor Slate Desk which was also known as Shepherd's Improved Writing Slate Wood Desk. The desk was designed by Charles C. Shepherd of Passaic, New Jersey and New York. It was patented for use in school drawing and penmanship lessons, January 1877.
This wooden lap desk is comprised of a double sided stone slate top with a small hook to keep closed in transport. The base is wedge shaped to facillitate an angled writing and drawing surface and the base contains three divided compartments for storage of the patterns or stencils, slate pencils and other utensils, and another section contains a cleaning cloth. Double sided interchangable wood slat patterns and heavy card board paper patterns fit across the top in wooden slots on either side. Advertisements claim that the compartments below the hinged lid were used as a receptacle for pictures, slate pencils, and slate-rubber and of course patterns for copying. The interchangable patterns contain line drawings and images that include animals, household objects, human faces, numbers, cursive, symbols, and geometric shapes.
Charles C. Shepherd was born circa 1835 in New York. He was drafted by the Union Army during the Civil, but by the 1870 census was making a comfortable living as a maufacturer of slates, living in Passaic, NJ married to Anna E. (1849) , and had a growing family. In 1880 he listed himself as a manufacturer of transparent cloth. by 1900 he was an agent of fertilizer. By 1910 his wife was listed as a widow.
This blue covered paperback book with dark blue ink on the cover was printed in Boston by Geo. H. Ellis. It includes reports to the trustees of the school from the principals, Rev. Pitt Dillingham and Miss Charlotte Rogers Thorn between the years 1899-1900. The Calhoun School functioned as a county or district school for 260 African American students, and served as a boarding school for an additional 40 during the period of this report.
In 1892, a thirty-five year old Charlotte Thorn (1857-1932) and her friend Mabel Wilhelmina Dillingham (1864-1894) co-founded the Calhoun Colored School with collaboration and encouragement from Booker T. Washington. Miss Thorn was a Connecticut native and a member of an upper-class family who sympathized with the plight of freedmen seeking education. Previously, she had taught at the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), a school for freedmen established in 1868). Upon hearing that the town of Calhoun housed a large population of freedmen, she and Miss Dillingham decided to establish a school. When Miss Dillingham died of yellow fever, her brother Reverend Pitt Dillingham, a Harvard trained Unitarian Minister, stepped in for a few years to assist, but her death also resulted in greater attention to health issues and disease prevention at the school. Charlotte Horn remained the prime administrator though for over 40 years, working tirelessly on the expansion of the school and the school thrived under her leadership.
Fundraising began, and to the initial dismay of Thorn, the institution had to charge a monthly tuition for all students. In addition to these monthly fees, however, the school received support from philanthropic organizations throughout the country. The community pledged $250 to begin to build the school, and parents paid a tuition of twenty five, thirty five and fifty cents a month depending on their child’s grade.
The industrial education offered at Calhoun included agriculture, carpentry, cooking, sewing, and other manual and domestic skills, but the school was not without basic courses such as arithmetic and literature. Calhoun’s reputation increased as the curriculum expanded, making way for adult education classes in addition to regular school services. Students were taught to expect rewards for good work and be able to support themselves and their families as adults. To this end the school purchased land and a bank and developed a land company with a land ownership program. In the first 13 years $36,100 was paid on notes to 92 deeds issued to 85 people. Physical improvements to land and home were encouraged to improve quality of life and self-respect. One of the school’s mottos was ”The only freedom in life is to owe no man anything”.
Several Black institutions in the South were established by white, female teachers in the years following the Civil War. Though founded by white women, Calhoun employed a number of Black staff members during the early twentieth century. Both founders had volunteered at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and most of the early faculty of the Calhoun Colored had attended or taught at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, so it is not surprising that the school modeled their curriculum and many administrative procedures after the successful Hampton. Although the education of freedmen was generally regarded as positive in the North, racism persisted throughout Lowndes County. As a result, the school was primarily recognized in educational circles outside of Alabama. This book includes a report from the treasurer, a cash statement, a report from the academic department, and other reports on classwork. Typically, Calhoun’s annual reports also listed financial contributions from churches, civic organizations, and other local groups.
Winifred Weislogel earned this white cardboard certificate on March 14, 1944, for neatly and accurately writing Gregg shorthand for five minutes at one hundred words per minute. While there are various shorthand systems, all shorthand consists of symbolic writing for words or phrases that allow the stenographer to quickly record oral dictation. Shorthand was invaluable for business records before stenography machines, dictation machines, typewriters, recorders, and personal computers. Gregg shorthand was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888 and is a phonetic shorthand based on elliptical figures. Winifred Weislogel’s secretarial training in high school taught her shorthand and typing, and she went on to a career in the U.S. Foreign Service between 1957 and 1978.
This1876 black and white steel engraving by Illman Brothers was first published in Peterson Magazine, a periodical for women which published tips on fashion, etiquette and child rearing from 1855-1892. This print was one of a series of engravings which was reprinted and bound in 1888 in an additional publication by the magazine called Choice Gems.
This print depicts a seated school girl holding a slate with a math problem on her lap. She is seated in a room, possibly a kitchen, with a stack of cards next to her and a door behind her. An axe and a piece of wood with chopped wood are depicted in the background, along with a shelf holding a cooking pan and pitcher.
Illman Brothers were a Philadelphia firm of engravers and printers, consisting of Edward, George, Henry, and William Ilman active circa 1860 to 1907. Johann George Meyer von Bremen (German, 1813-1886) was the artist of the original image, an oil on canvas.
This fabric patch was worn on a school blazer circa 1975, during a period when many public schools were easing restrictions on dress codes while private schools maintained uniform requirements. The patch has a black background, gold embroidered trim, the words CHARLOTTE HALL SCHOOL 1774 in white embroidery and an image of the school crest flanked by two figures and a gold eagle embroidered above the crest.
Charlotte Hall was founded in 1774 when the first board of trustees met. It was an outgrowth of Maryland’s “Free Schools” system which was established in 1723 by Queen Charlotte of England “to provide for the liberal and pious education of the youth of this province, the better to fit them for the discharge of their duties.” The General Assembly of Maryland originally expected a free school in each of the 12 counties but in 1773 it passed an act that provided for the sale of the free schools in St. Mary’s, Charles, and Prince George’s counties, and that the proceeds be spent on one school to “be erected at the place called The Cool Springs of Saint Mary’s County to be called Charlotte Hall.” 50 acres of land, part of Good Will Plantation, were purchased from the William Poston family in 1774. The first principal of the school, Reverend Hatch Dent was sworn in as a trustee on August 15, 1787 and was married to a member of the Posten family, Judith Poston. The school opening date was supposedly 1796, though the building probably wasn’t open until January 1797. Students were taught Latin, Greek, French, English, grammar, writing, and a complete system of mathematics. Military training was added early in the 1850’s. The school was opened continuously from 1796 until 1976 when it closed for financial reasons, making it one of the oldest and longest-running schools until it closed. The school had many illustrious as well as infamous graduates, from of all major professions including clergy, congressmen, the first Librarian of Congress, a U.S. Surgeon General, actors, and possibly two Lincoln assassination conspirators. While it began as an elite school for males of Anglo Saxon heritage, the school saw many changes in it's last fifty years. Female students were first admitted in the early 1970s due to the financial problems due to lagging enrollment and a couple of fires. At the time of it's closing, the school enrollment was predomineintly African American, in keeping with the local demigraphics, though its reputation for academic excellence was maintained in part as a result of resources provided through private tuition The school property once embraced 300 acres and is now part of Charlotte Hall Historical District, which operates the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home. The town was named after the school, and the Welcome Center is currently housed in the former headmaster’s residence.
By the 1830’s, the concept of a community supported public education began to take hold beyond New England in the form of the Common School. As the population expanded, so did the number of local schools and the development of the teaching profession. Schools created a path for opportunity and an improved way of life. Common school curriculum focused on the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, good citizenship, and rewarding ethical and moral behavior. By the late 19th Century, the educational curriculum had expanded, and schools had also become a place for testing social change. The growth of tax supported public schooling through the university level and was a factor encouraging a great immigration wave and promoting a literate, more educated society.
Crandall’s District School playset is a wooden manipulative used by primary age students for playing school long befor the Fisher Price and Playmobile plastic playsets. During this period, children were beginning to be subjects of early childhood studies, resulting in age-appropriate curriculum and toys. This educational toy was created in 1876 by Charles Martin Crandall (1833-1905), who took over his father's wood working factory and became one of the preeminent American toymakers of the 19th century.
The playset consists of the original wooden box containing wooden figures of a school master seated behind a desk, 21 hand painted, carved student figures including a standing boy figure with a dunce cap, 10 girls and 9 boy figures on seats, some holding books topped with printed paper, and Mary,from the nursery rhyme, standing with her little lamb. This set is missing the DUNCE stool and the advertising sheet that was originally packaged with the set. The wooden figures are placed in slots on wooden stands.The figures were designed to have a side silhouette view, with movable arms and legs. Setting the figures on the grooved stands helped promote manual dexterity. The toy was patented originally by Charles M. Crandall in 1867 and renewed March 30, 1975, May 4th, 1875, October 11, 1875, and January 25, 1875.
Charles Martin Crandall was born May 30, 1833. His father owned a wood working and furniture factory in Covington, Pennsylvania and Charles began inventing toys in the shop by age 12. At the age of 16, his father died, and Charles took over the business; after the Civil War though he began to focus on creating and selling toys. He took advantage of new tools developed during the industrial revolution, and produced a line of jig saw puzzles that oddly became popular in the U.S. Senate. In 1866, he moved to Montrose, Pa. His son Jesse went to work with him designing toys until Jesse opened a second shop in Brooklyn, New York. In 1885, industrialist Moses Lyman financed the Waverly Toy Works with Crandall in Waverly, NY so Charles moved to New York, leaving his other son Fred W. Crandall to manage the shop in Pennsylvania. Charles returned to Pennsylvania after the shop burned a year later, and in 1887 Charles developed a large and very successful toy factory in Elkind, Pa. Charles died in 1905, but the company remained in business a couple more years, closing in 1907.
By the time of his death, Charles M. Crandall Toys had become one of the preeminent American toymakers of the 19th century, obtaining over 400 patents for innovation on toys, and specializing in wooden toys, building blocks, alphabet blocks, puzzles, animals, jointed circus figures, games such as "Pigs in Clover" and the Crandall’s District School playset.
Author Emerson Elbridge White claimed he created White's A Complete Arithmetic: Uniting Mental and Written Exercises in a Natural System of Instruction to challenge the mind in a practical and philosophical manner. He summarized his work by stating that it was designed for students who had already mastered the elements of numbers. This 340-page hardbound grade school arithmetic text was used by Margaret Bacon Short in Illinois.
Emerson Elbridge White (1829-1902) was a native of Ohio. Educated at the Edinburg Academy and the University of Cleveland, he became the Superintendent of the Public Schools of Portsmouth, Ohio in 1856 and State Commissioner of Common Schools in 1863, as well as President of the Ohio Teachers Association. Three years later he was President of the National Superintendents Association and by 1872 he was President of the National Education Association. From 1876 to 1883 he was President of Purdue University and 1884-1886, he was president of the National Council of Education.
This book was published in 1870 in Cincinnati, Ohio by Wilson & Hinkle Co. which owned the copyright. This firm had been established toward the end of the Civil War to produce schoolbooks for the west and south out of Cincinnati as Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle Co. By 1866, Louis Van Antwerp, had joined the firm but in 1868 Mr. Sargent retired so the firm dissolved and is reformed as Wilson & Hinkle Co. By 1871, Caleb S. Bragg has joined the firm but when Wilson and the senior Hinkle retired in 1877, the company changed its name to Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company. Later editions of this book were published under this name. They took on more partners and began publishing in New York as well but by 1890 they had sold out to the American Book Company.
The New England Primer was the first reading primer designed in the American colonies. It is considered one of the most successful textbooks of the 18th century and continued with improved editions into the 19th century. Alphabet verses teaching morality lessons concerning good and evil comprise much of the book. Many of the teachings can be found from the King James Bible as well as Puritan ideals. Secular alphabet passages came later. The New England Primer also contained a catechism with questions and answers about faith and prayers. First published by Benjamin Harris in 1686 in Boston, the book was found in many homes along with the Bible. Modeled after British primers that had been created to educate the illiterate during the Reformation, this primer was nicknamed "The Little Bible of New England" and was used in early colonial schools such as Boston Latin School. Versions varied locally with the selection of lessons, and publisher and bookseller advertisements were included in many.
This is a 71 page hand bound edition published in 1808 and later reprinted in 1822 by Peter Brynberg (1755?-1816). Brynberg had a bookstore in Wilmington, Delaware. He published the Christian Repository and the Wilmington Gazette 1791-1799 with partner Samuel Andrews), and printed educational and religious books. His business was at Fourth and Shipley Streets.
Most primers were small to fit in a child's hand; this one is 3 5/8 inches x 3 inches. Unfortunately missing its hardcover and part of the last page, which has an inscription in verse and a signature of the owner from 1822. It has black block illustrations to accompany the morality lessons and the alphabet verses.
An all purpose training manual for young men of the 18th century, this work is typical of books found in the libraries of many of the country's founders. Washington had a similar book in his library; the Library of Congress owns a 4th edition of this book published in 1765. First published in 1755in London and Salisbury, this is the third edition and is know to have been published at least until the 6th edition in 1777.
The book contains 24 separate subject areas including “Rules for and Directions for reading and writing in English, geography and astronomy “circles of the Globe, fixed stars, Planets, and Comets” to Forms of Business in the Merchantile Way and Forms in the Law of General Use” to List of many necessary to be known, etc. The mathematics portion includes “a great variety of cuts and tables” in the text, “arithmetic”and practical geometry. It also includes information on business, creating wills and legal matters, making rockets and fireworks, and trades such as surveying, farriering, carpentry, bricklaying and gardening.
This book is known to have been a valued possesion of the Baird/Galbraith family, who immigrated from Londonberry in the early 19th Century. As a boy in the 1830's Joseph Baird attended West Nottingham Academy, in Colora Maryland. He later taught at the school as a young man. West Nottingham Academy is a prepartory boarding school that first opened in 1744 by Presbyterian minister Samuel Finley.
Greenleaf’s New Primary Arithmetic, Embracing Mental and Written Exercises, For Beginners is designed to introduce analytical reasoning and the fundamentals of arithmetic to primary school students. Each lesson plan is centered on everyday objects and activities and incorporates related illustrations. The book has 104 pages. The green front cover depicts a 19th Century schoolboy reclining in a meadow while practicing his arithmetic lessons. The pastoral scene includes a house and church steeple in the background. The rear cover lists the names of other texts in the Greenleaf’s Series. The inside front cover page contains a handwritten inscription by the owner: “Grace M. Hackett,/ Shurborough,/ Vermont,/ 1889.”
Benjamin Greenleaf (1786-1864) was a prominent American educator and author. He graduated from Dartmouth with an M.A. in 1813. He served as the Preceptor of Bradford Academy in Vermont. Greenleaf was a celebrated writer of early mathematics textbooks. He also served in the Massachusetts state legislature from 1837-1839.
Leech, Shewell and Sanborn, based in Boston, was a distinguished 19th Century publisher of textbooks, atlases, and literary works.
This tool for teaching children about fractions was designed by Emoline Wilcox Ketchum (1850-1909) of Providence, Rhode Island, who patented it in 1895. The patent was assigned the number 547,217. It consists of nine wooden “fraction balls,” spheres divided into pieces of various sizes, including one-half, one-third, one-fifth, and one-eighteenth. The fractional value of each piece is painted on the piece in black and each ball has a groove in which to use an elastic band (according to patent specifications) or a ribbon to tie a band around the ball to hold the pieces together. The balls are in nine separate compartments within a wooden box which has a removable sliding top and a faded tan label on the front. The label on the box reads: FRACTION BALLS / FOR SCHOOL USE / (Patent Applied For.) / E. KETCHUM PROVIDENCE, R.I. Described as an educational appliance, fraction balls were advertised for sale in Teacher's World for $3.50 and the Popular Educator Journal for $2.00. The instruction pamphlet was not acquired with the object.
Emoline Ketchum was a graduate of the Pittsburgh Female College and attended the Women’s College of Brown University as a special student from 1892 until 1895. She was the daughter of Annie E. Wilcox and physcian Alasan W. Wilcox, and the wife of Edgar Ketchum.
From the nation’s beginning, Americans have grappled with who gets educated and who pays for education. Both public and private schools have relied on a combination of public and private funding. Disparities in wealth and political influence have affected Americans’ ability to support schools. As a result, educational philanthropy has reflected inequalities in the American economy and society. Giving through contributions of time and money have both created opportunities for students and increased inequalities among them.
Beyond paying taxes, communities have helped to fund schools through giving time, money, and supplies. This portable library is typical of one that hung on school walls in the 1800s. In some schools, a portable library was purchased through community donations, while in others, an individual donated one.
First published in 1827, by the time of this 1850 edition, this volume sold as Smith's Second Book of Arithmetic. Practical and Mental Arithmetic on a new plan, in which mental arithmetic is Combined With The Use of the Slate: containing Complete System for All Practical Purposes being in dollars and cents...A Practical System of Book-keeping. The book, by Roswell C. Smith, contains simple math exercises in plain language with questions and answers that were devised by Smith while teaching in Providence, R.I. with his brother Asher L Smith. The cover consists of paper covered boards and the remains of a brown leather spine. This copy was published in New York. It was used in Maryland and is inscribed "Sarah Lee Brandenburg, February 22, An 1855."
Roswell Chamberlain Smith (1797-1875) was brought up in Connecticut with his brother Asher L. Smith. While his first edition received praise, the second edition 15 months later resulted in controversy and an 1881 claim by Professor Daniel Adams of Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, that some of the changes “had been filched.” Smith also wrote grammar, geography, and other arithmetic textbooks and was a supporter of Prudence Crandall and her effort to educate African American students. He should not be confused with his namesake nephew who was a lawyer, publisher, and founder of Schribner’s Monthly Magazine and the Century Magazine.
Publisher Daniel Burgess and Company was founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1830 by Daniel Burgess (1804-1856), who planned to provide textbooks and reference books for the common schools. The company worked independently but also partnered with John Paine, Spaulding and Storrs, Cady. In 1844 Burgess moved to New York, where he became a deacon in Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. He retained the operation in Hartford and opened a new headquarters in New York, which remained in business until 1883.
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 George Washington. Even the smallest of school supplies inspired patriotic thoughts. The lid of this Scholar’s Companion wooden pencil box has a lithograph with colorful illustrations of a globe, shield, American flag, and a bald eagle surrounding a stylized “ABC” motif. Other small containers such as stationery boxes, tobacco containers, and liqueur novelty boxes were also used to hold writing implements.
Scholar’s Companions were made in Germany from 1895-1915 and were imported to New York City stationery stores and school suppliers. They often had locks on them, as this one does, as supplies were costly. The boxes cost 10 cents each unfilled and the price would increase as accessories were added. They were marketed to parents or grandparents as gifts for students, and were advertised as equipment to lead to a student’s success, which would have resonated with many parents but particularly immigrants sacrificing to provide a better life for their children.
This box has a lock but the student user is unknown.