While awareness of the existence of globes was commonplace, the use of them was rare. Many of the schools were forced to report, as did one in Killingly, Connecticut: "We have no globes . . . of any kind." "37 Many educators saw this as unmerited neglect; for example, the writer mentioned in the paragraph above: ... And yet, so far as the knowledge and information of the speaker extend, these useful implements of learning are not to be found in many schools claiming to be well furnished with the means of instruction, and in many others, where they are found, are but little used, and that in a very superficial manner. There seems to have been two basic reasons for the neglect in the use of the globe: the relative high expense of the article; and the shortage of teachers trained to use them and lack of suitable textbooks to instruct untrained teachers in their use. The first reason was by far the larger one. This gave rise to a "doit-yourself" movement in which educators admonished teachers with the idea that illustrating the earth as a sphere was the only important thing and the purchase of an expensive school apparatus was not essential for this. The problem was summed up by one lecturer in this way: If unprovided with an artificial globe, he [the teacher] could not think even to buy an orange, and draw upon it with his pen an outline of the continents-much less, besides this; to take off the rind, and illustrate the projection of maps.30 Another writer told how he solved the problem in an inexpensive way: I advise you to have a globe. [Then he says sarcastically.] You cannot expect to obtain one from your school committee, but you can have a large wooden ball made, upon which you can yourself paste white paper, and draw anything you wish. A still cheaper method came from Dwight's School-Masters Friend: You have seen pumpkin lanterns-yes, and you have made them too. Well let nothing prevent you from having a globe of some kind or other in the school. He then proceeds to tell the teacher how to hollow out the pumpkin and make a globe. Maps In the more progressive schools, maps were extensively used as this remark by a Massachusetts' educator in 1841 shows: "We have 7 Report of school visitors in Connecticut Common School Journal (1841), p. 197. 38 Fleming, op. cit., p. 164. Adams, op. cit., p. 345. maps, charts, and atlases greatly multiplied and introduced into all our schools." 99 40 In the outlying district schools, however, the use of maps was probably even more rare than the use of globes. Expense was one reason. Moreover, the technology of mapmaking was still relatively crude, and the teacher by free hand could sketch a map that would serve the purpose as well as the inferior wood-cut or copper-cut maps. Thus many of the maps in the schools were drawn by teachers. The following excerpt from an 1838 journal describes the process. ... Those who have used outline maps in the study of geography, can need no recommendation of them. . . . Outline maps may be readily made and at a very small expense, by tracing the boundaries, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc., on one or more square yards of coarse white muslin, omitting the names. A camel's hair pencil may be used, with a mixture of lamp black, Gum Arabic, and water. The gum will prevent the fluid from spreading, even on unseized paper." The Abacus and the Numeral Frame This apparatus, known by many names, came into general use during this period to offer a new dimension in math instruction. In 1830, Adams described it and listed it as one of the four essential apparatuses for the classroom of his day. The Abacus-this consists of a square frame, divided by ten strong wires, each of which passes through ten painted wooden balls, easily movable from one end to the other. This instrument is highly useful in illustrating the various combinations of numbers." Sometimes the apparatus was advertised as a numeral frame; at other times as a counter. An 1866 edition of an educational journal called it the Arithmetican.48 An idea of the simplicity of the item can be gotten from this article from an 1842 journal telling the teacher how to make his own numeral frame. For our purposes, an old slate frame will answer very well. The vertical sides should be pierced for 11 wires, 10 of which should be at equal distance, the eleventh further apart-say double the distance. On each wire should be placed 10 beads, half of one color and half of another-say blue and yellow-arranged as follows: 3 yellow, 2 blue, 2 yellow, 3 blue. Thus we shall have 100 beads, on 10 wire.“ In this way the child could cipher any number under 1,000. 40 Fleming, op. cit., p. 164. 41 Connecticut Common School Journal, Dec. 1838, p. 38. 42 Adams, op. cit., p. 346. 43 American Journal of Education, Vol. XVI (1866), p. 577. "Connecticut Common School Journal (Feb. 1842), p. 49. The most practical teachers soonest see that pupils, who have been through THE PATENT ARITHMETICAL FRAME, imperfectly represented in the cut below. It consists of eighteen slats, which re- Several teachers who have used this apparatus, have expressed themselves This Frame is equivalent to a movable blackboard, having examples With young pupils the teacher may divide the 18 slats of the frame For Multiplication cach slat is a multiplicand, and any desired multi+ In Division cach slat is a dividend, and proper divisors are given by the The Key contains very many suitable examples, with answers in all the In well graded Primary Schools there will be little need of For older Pupils the frame will furnish, by cach different arrangement, The Combinations of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and A very useful Exercise is, to set the frame and have all the pupils in Schools of every grade will find the frame well adapted to their wants. Arithmetical Frame Teaching Device from American School Apparatus Co. Catalogue New York (1867) p. 12. The Textbook Movement Webster and McGuffey The Revolutionary War interrupted trade with Great Britain and made school books extremely scarce. One young schoolmaster of the times, in Orange County, New York, decided a home source of textbooks was needed. In 1783, Noah Webster published a spelling book which evolved into the famous Webster's Blue Back that set the pace for American texts for the next quarter century. In 1785, only two years after its publication, it was selling at the rate of 500 copies a week. By 1818, 5,000,000 copies had been sold and for 40 years after that it was selling at the rate of 1,000,000 copies a year.* 45 Technologically, Webster's Blue Back represented no new improvements. The type was movable (set by hand) and not always too clear. The work was bound by hand and until 1829 consisted of a back of leather and sides of thin oaken boards pasted over with a dull blue paper. It was this bluish paper that gave rise to the nickname Blue Back. The book contained crude wood-cut illustrations. One edition was embellished with a dreadful woodcut of Noah Webster which made him look like a porcupine and was described by critics of the day as "being so ugly it scares the children from their lessons." 46 Textual material was about on the same level and mainly aimed at moralizing. Webster's Blue Back gave rise to a whole hoard of imitations. The first text to seriously rival it was the famous McGuffey Reader. Originally, William Holmes McGuffey had written a beginning reader for Truman & Smith of Cincinnati, in 1830. In 1841, he and his brother, Alexander, had completed a series through the Fifth Reader. These readers came to be the literary bible of the Middle West, the South, and parts of the East up to New England. The Readers were continuously revised, and by 1920 estimated sales were placed at 122,000,000. It is still on the market. McGuffey's Readers at first had all the crudeness of the earlier texts. However, as it lasted the whole century each new edition benefited from technological changes. For example, the first editions of McGuffey's Reader in 1836 and 1837 were printed from movable type. But by 1800, stereotyping had been invented by Stanhope and by 1840 had come into general use. Editions of the Readers after 1840 were printed from plates. This possibily accounts for the greater circulation of McGuffey's Reader, which was much larger than any of its 45 Johnson, op. cit., pp. 168-169. 48 Ibid. 645520 - 634 earlier competitors. In the 1860's, the book adopted the new electrotyping process of printing. Other Milestones in Texts While Webster and McGuffey dominated the textbook movement of this period, several other textbooks made new technological contributions. Peter Parley's Method of Telling About Geography, published in 1829, had the important innovation of flexible pasteboard sides. His National Geography, published in 1845, was the earliest to take the large, flat shape. This enabled the inclusion of good-sized maps and eliminated the necessity for a separate atlas. Also, a certain Arnold Guyot, a Swiss immigrant, caused in 1848, a minor revolution in the geography text field if not in map making in general. In 1862, he wrote his first geography for Charles Scribner & Sons which utilized illustrations and maps more than had any book published before. It appears he also introduced the technique of map coloring to indicate elevation (green for sea level, etc.). The political divisions of the countries were traced in red lines. These innovations were destined to win much praise from foreign educators at international exhibitions during the next half century." Photographic Illustrations in Texts In the mid-1800's, the new art of photography was reaching an advanced state of development, and educators and technicians began to use photographs to illustrate texts. Some tried filtering sunlight through the negative to yield etchings on copper or steel and then printing from the plate in the ordinary way. Sir David Brewster of Scotland suggested that the new process of galvanography could give the photographs the permanence of engravings and then could be used in the illustration of educational works. 48 Others sought to attach the photographs directly. In 1856, the first serious attempt to illustrate a text with the extensive use of photography was made by John W. Draper in his Human Physiology, Statical and Dynamical. The illustrations were printed from copper plates, which the artist had prepared from photographs. 47 Manual of Geographical Teaching, A Discussion of the Principles Underlying Guyot's Methods, New York, Scribner, Armstrong & Co. (1870), pp. 14-16. 48 Sir David Brewster, The Stereoscope, Its History, Theory, and Construction With Its Application to the Fine and Useful Arts and to Education, London; John Murray (1856), p. 196. |