LETTER. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, The Honorable THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, D. C.: SIR: The accompanying monograph, prepared at the request of the Bureau of Education by Dr. Herbert B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins University, relates to the methods of studying history in American colleges and universities. The subject is treated from an historical point of view, and is a substantial contribution to the history of the higher education in the United States. Doctor Adams' sketch of William and Mary College, Circular of Information No. 1, 1887, with its practical suggestions for reviving political education throughout our country, was preliminary to this larger report, which is designed to promote the study of history as a basis for political science. In December, 1885, a circular letter was issued from this Office inquiring into the present condition of historical studies, not only in colleges and universities, but also in high schools, normal schools, institutes, academies, etc. The returns, while extensive, were on the whole unsatisfactory. In a few instances there were encouraging signs of good work in both higher and secondary training, but the general results indicated a serious absence of proper historical instruction in all grades of American education. By my advice the tabulation of statistical returns was restricted to institutes of the college and university grade. The question of secondary education in history demands special treatment and a study of the best methods now in use in the German gymnasia, the French lycées, and the English public schools. From the unsatisfatory nature of the great mass of statistical returns, Doctor Adams was driven to another method of treating his subject to a descriptive statement of the best experience of a few representative institutions in different parts of the country, based upon an original and independent study of documents, official reports, and catalogues. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Cornell were selected to represent the best Eastern and Northern experience in the teaching of history; the University of Michigan worthily stands for the great West; while the young Johns Hopkins University represents the historical spirit of the New South. At this latter institution studies are in preparation upon Jefferson and the University of Virginia, and the History of Higher Education in North and South Carolina and Georgia. : The best colleges for women have been included in the present monograph, namely, Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr. Many other institutions are brought into rapid review by means of the statistical tables appended to this report, and representing returns actually made to this Office. Other colleges are mentioned in a special inquiry into the subject of American History in our Schools and Colleges, contributed to this report, at the request of Doctor Adams, by Dr. Francis N. Thorpe, Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania. An account of the Study of History and Political Science in the Washington High School, by Dr. E. R. L. Gould, formerly Fellow of Johns Hopkins University, concludes the report. Doctor Gould's account shows what can be done for the development of secondary education in history and economics, and what actually has been done in the Federal capital under the auspices of the Government. In this monograph, prepared by Doctor Adams, theoretical and ideal views of historical training have been carefully avoided. The writer has deliberately confined his attention to select chapters of actual American experience, and to things done or attempted by particular institutions and individuals, whose work he has studied from authentic records. He has thus opened up a new line of inquiry, namely, the history of academic departments. History is simply the record of human experience, whether in physics, politics, economics, ethics, or education. History has been called philosophy teaching by example, or, as teachers say, by object-lessons. Doctor Adams has applied the historical method to the discovery of the most approved methods of teaching history and of organizing histori cal departments in our American schools and colleges. One of the most suggestive and noticeable features of his work is the attempt to illustrate by photo-engravings and diagrams the actual environment or library surroundings of certain schools of history and pol itics. In these modern days the college or university library has been brought into close rapport with department work by means of an ingenjous system of seminary or class libraries in the very room where students meet. This suggested the introduction of the laboratory method for the study of history and other moral sciences. The growing value of historical and political studies, and the importance of promoting them throughout the country, as a means of strengthening good government and good citizenship, I need not emphasize. I beg leave to recommend the publication and illustration of this report on "The Study of History in American Colleges and Universities" as a most valuable contribution to the history of higher education in the United States. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Approved. N. H. R. DAWSON, Commissioner. H. L. MULDROW, Acting Secretary. HISTORY IN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. CHAPTER I. HISTORY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY.1 The growth of historical studies at Harvard College is a subject of special educational interest, for it illustrates a process of academic development which is now in progress throughout the country at large. This process marks the rise of modern studies, as distinguished, on the one hand, from classic humanism, our inheritance from the Renaissance, and, on the other, from theological training, our inheritance from the Middle Ages. The study of history at Harvard College began in connection with natural science, as one of the two most insignificant features of that scholastic and theological system which Harvard College was founded to perpetuate. The recognized branches of education, including philosophy, language, mathematics, history, and natural science, were all tributary to the interests of the established church of New England and to the training of the Puritan clergy. With the emancipation of the classics from the dominion of theology, history was set free from one mistress only to become the willing handmaiden of another. Once a slave to teaching Jewish antiquities, history, in the second stage of its existence at Harvard, became the medium of teaching Greek and Roman antiquities in a curriculum where classical studies, or humanism, ultimately proved the dominating power. For nearly two centuries history held a dependent position at Harvard College. Not until the year 1839 was this subject placed upon its own footing and allowed to advance along modern lines. The history of the rise of historical studies in Cambridge to their present eminence is worthy of close examination. THE SCHOLASTIC SYSTEM OF EARLY HARVARD. The earliest account of the course of study pursued at Harvard College, which was founded in 1636, is in a tract called "New England's First Fruits," originally published in 1643, reprinted in parts by the 1 The writer first treated the subject of historical work at Harvard in the Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. ii, pp. 87-94. Portions of the present chapter appeared in the magazine called Education for May and June, 1886, but they have been revised and extended so as to represent the present status of history at Harvard. 11 Massachusetts Historical Society in the first volume of its Collections, and in full by Joseph Sabin, in 1865. The tract consists of two parts, the first relating to the progress of missionary work among the Indians, and the second to the progress of education in New England, with special reference to Harvard College. The curriculum of study is described in a scholastic way, which, at first reading, is almost as confusing to a modern student as the modern elective system would be to a Puritan divine. In order to make the scholastic scheme more easily intelligible, it has been reduced from a descriptive to a graphical form, which, by historical courtesy, may be called the first "Tabular View" of Harvard College. Among the points worthy of attention in this curriculum are: (1.) The course of study was for three years, and was arranged for the socalled First, Second, and Third Classes. The First Classis was of thirdyear men. (2.) The attention of each class was concentrated for an entire day upon one or two studies, with "theory" in the forenoon and "practice" in the afternoon. (3.) Monday and Tuesday were devoted to philosophy, including logic and physics for the first year, ethics and politics for the second year, with arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy for the third year. All this work was done in morning hours. In the afternoon came philosophical disputations for each class in his own field of study ("every one in his art"). (4.) Wednesday was Greek day for all classes. First-year men studied etymology and syntax in the forenoon and practiced the rules of grammar in the afternoon; the Second Class studied prosody and dialects from 9 to 10 a. m., and prac ticed "in Poesy" after dinner; third-year men did likewise in the theory and practice of Greek composition, prose and verse. (5.) Thursday was devoted to the "Eastern tongues," with the theory of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac grammar in the morning, and practice in corresponding Biblical texts in the afternoon. (6.) Friday was given up to rhetoric. All students were taught the principles of rhetoric, and all were required to practice English composition, and once a month to declaim. (7.) Saturday, at 8 o'clock in the morning, all the students were taught "Divinity Catecheticall," and, at 9 o'clock, "Common Places." These latter were common topics of scholastic discussion and digests of doctrine, argument, or opinion.1 1In the Cyclopædia of the Sciences, published at Lyons, 1649, all branches of knowledge are treated under the head of Loci Communes, in special chapters, with such titles as Loci Ethici, Loci Oeconomici, Loci Politici, Loci Theologici, Loci Jurisprudentiae, etc., etc. Lord Bacon, in the fifth book (cap. 5) of his “Advancement of Learning,” says: “There can hardly be anything more useful even for the old and popular sciences than a sound help for the memory; that is, a good and learned digest of Common Places. I am aware, indeed, that the transferring of the things we read and learn into commonplace books is thought by some to be detrimental to learning Bacon, "I hold diligence and labour in the entry of common places to be a matter of great use and support in studying." Thus we see the connection between the mediæval idea of a well-ordered digest of knowledge, and the modern commonplace book or note-book. * *"; but, says |