all departments that permanent arrangements were made for retaining the services of such an able instructor, and Prof. Brainerd remained some seven or eight years.

Thus the subject of drawing was being agitated in all parts of the eastern section of the country, and many excellent projects were being attempted. As in any great movement many failures must endure before the cause is won, so drawing was constantly attacked and even repudiated for many years before it won its final and initial step in the widespread movement which was soon to sweep the whole country. As has been shown, a number of cities had started the subject as a common study for the public schools, but it remained for Massachusetts as a State to take the first step. In the thirty-eighth chapter of the Massachusetts General Statutes, published in 1860, the following is found:

Algebra, vocal music, drawing, physiology, and hygiene shall be taught, by lecture or otherwise, in all public schools in which the school committee deem it expedient. This is the early beginning of State action and was followed in the annual volume of laws for 1869, chapter 80, by directions sent the board of education

to prepare a plan for free instruction, to men, women, and children in mechanical drawing, either in existing schools or in those to be established for that purpose, in all towns and cities in the Commonwealth having more than 5,000 inhabitants, and to report a definite plan therefor to the next general court.

During this same year the city of Syracuse in New York State formed an art department in the high school. Here all pupils, and others, with permission from the superintendent, received instruction in drawing, and, furthermore, classes for the city teachers were formed. The course prescribed for four years was as follows: First year— geometrical drawing; second year-perspective; third year-model and object in outline; fourth year-model and object in light and shade.

Undoubtedly the subject was attracting public interest, and the very next year (1870) we read in chapter 248 of the annual volume of Massachusetts Laws, of "An act relating to free instruction in drawing." The act is in three sections and briefly states that "industrial or mechanical" drawing may be freely taught in any city and town, and free instruction must be given in cities and towns of over 10,000 inhabitants.

This final State action was the natural climax to a long series of discussions and arguments among educational and industrial men, but the immediate steps resulted from a petition presented to the legislature in June, 1869, by a committee of prominent citizens who were not only vitally concerned in the industries of the State, but who were interested in the educational welfare of the people.

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This memorable petition, indicative of the feeling of the time, is given below:

(CHAP. 80.)

RESOLVE Relating to provision for free instruction in mechanical drawing in the cities and large towns of the Commonwealth.

Resolved, That the board of education be directed to consider the expediency of making provision by law for giving free instruction to men, women, and children in mechanical drawing, either in existing schools or in those to be established for that purpose, in all towns of the Commonwealth having more than 5,000 inhabitants, and report a definite plan therefor to the next general court.

Approved, June 12, 1869.

Said resolve was passed in response to a petition signed by several well-known and highly respected citizens, distinguished for their interest in popular education, and for their connection with those great branches of mechanical and manufacturing industry which absorb large amounts of the capital and give employment to great numbers of the residents of the Commonwealth. The petition is as follows: To the honorable General Court of the State of Massachusetts:

Your petitioners respectfully represent that every branch of manufactures in which the citizens of Massachusetts are engaged requires, in the details of the processes connected with it, some knowledge of drawing and other arts of design on the part of the skilled workmen engaged.

At the present time no wide provision is made for instruction in drawing in the public schools.

Our manufacturers therefore compete under disadvantage with the manufacturers of Europe, for in all the manufacturing countries of Europe free provision is made for instructing workmen of all classes in drawing. At this time almost all the best draftsmen in our shops are men thus trained abroad.

In England, within the last 10 years, very large additions have been made to the provisions, which were before very generous, for free public instruction of workmen in drawing. Your petitioners are assured that boys and girls by the time they are 16 years of age acquire great proficiency in mechanical drawing and in other arts of design.

We are also assured that men and women who have been long engaged in the processes of manufacture learn readily and with pleasure enough of the arts of design to assist them materially in their work.

For such reasons we ask that the board of education may be directed to report in detail to the next general court some definite plan for introducing schools for drawing or instruction in drawing free to all men, women, and children in all towns of the Commonwealth of more than 5,000 inhabitants.

And your petitioners will ever pray.

BOSTON, June, 1869.

JACOB BIGELOW.

J. THOS. STEVENSON.
WILLIAM A. BURKE.
JAMES LAWRENCE.
EDW. E. HALE.
THEODORE LYMAN.
JORDAN, MARSH & Co.

JOHN AMORY LOWELL.
E. B. BIGELOW.
FRANCIS C. LOWELL.
JOHN H. CLifford.

WM. GRAY.

F. H. PEABODY.

A. A. LAWRENCE & Co.

Various reports of school committees throughout the State discuss at length the act of 1870, and the subject of drawing in particular,

and a marked increase of interest is evinced by these discussions. From year to year, more and more local reports take up the question and remark upon its highly successful outcome.

Other States, too, followed this movement of Massachusetts. Following an interesting annual report of Warren Johnson, State superintendent of common schools, the State of Maine took action in the year 1871 permitting free instruction to persons over 15 years of age in either day or night schools.

Largely due to the influence of the work of the art department of Syracuse, New York State enacted in 1875 a la compelling instruction in industrial or free-hand drawing in each of the State normal schools, in at least one department of a city system, and in each "union-school free district," unless excused by the State superintendent of public instruction. It is interesting to note that, whereas in Massachusetts in 1870 the term "industrial or mechanical drawing" was used, five years later in New York it was changed to "industrial or free-hand drawing."

In Ohio the State superintendent advocated at length the introduction of drawing as a required study, but though the larger cities, Cleveland, Cincinatti, Columbus, etc., were already experimenting, no definite State action was secured.

In Connecticut, Iowa, and Wisconsin similar inaction prevailed, though here also much public interest was aroused and the cities acted individually.

Meantime, in Massachusetts the State scheme was being carefully and systematically worked out. Following the act making drawing compulsory, the State board of education applied to the legislature for an increased appropriation for the following purposes: First, to secure the services of an agent competent to direct the work in normal schools and visit and confer with city school boards; second, to provide some means for training special drawing teachers. Early in the year the school committee of Boston had corresponded through the State board subcommittee with the head master of the School of Art, in Leeds, England, with a view to procuring his services as a director of drawing for that city. During the visit of Walter Smith to look over the ground and determine for himself the character of his work, should he accept, he met with a committee of the State board and they determined to secure his services for the State work. Finally, both positions were offered, with the provision that part time be given to both and the State pay two-thirds of his salary and his traveling expenses. Prof. Smith accepted the joint service and commenced his work early in the following autumn. So the work was finally begun on a systematic basis. Mr. Smith immediately began visiting towns and cities and addressing large bodies of teachers.

He continually preached that teachers must be trained, and with that aim in view he set himself to the task of bringing about the establishment of a normal art school, for, he said:

I have recommended that, to introduce drawing into the common schools, the regular teachers should be instructed by a special teacher of drawing; that then they be required to instruct their scholars.

The incredible results of his first year's work are ably set forth in his first annual report to the State board of education in 1872. Various paragraphs under the following heads show the extent of his first year's duties: The traveling museum; Personal visits to cities; Conferences with school committees and teachers; Addresses to teachers; Normal schools; Public meetings; Examination of night classes; Exhibition of drawings in Boston; Proposed State normal art school; Purchase of casts, etc., by different cities; the South Boston School of Art; Occasional duties. Under the last head he makes reference to numerous courses of study which he made out, guides to blackboard drawing, and a published work on "Art Education, Scholastic and Industrial." The praise of Col. Isaac Clarke is none too great for a man of such colossal power as Walter Smith. The mere enumeration of his first year's work, a stranger in this country, is overwhelming. Under such a leadership it is little wonder that from Massachusetts sprang the lasting fruits of art education.

During the second year of his work, in 1873, the Massachusetts Normal Art School was founded, with an appropriation of $7,500 for its maintenance. Walter Smith was at once made director, and in turn he appointed a competent force of instructors. The school was a success from the start, and its history records the development of art education from its foundation to present times, for its graduates not only became the promoters of this work in Massachusetts, but throughout the country as well. As directors of the foremost art schools, State supervisors, city directors, editors and writers, craftsmen, painters, sculptors, and architects, the alumni of this parent school and their children of one and two generations lead in the art world of these United States to-day.

Following the advent of a school for the training of drawing teachers, the subject increased in importance and value throughout the Commonwealth. Cities began to employ specialists with most creditable results. For three years the school had an opportunity of strengthening the work so well started by the State director, when the State was called upon to exhibit her results at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, in 1876. When the exhibition opened—

It was found that the subject of industrial art drawing was carefully and fully illustrated by the exhibition in the gallery appropriated to them in the main building, of examples of the work done in the Normal Art School and the public schools of the State, as shown by the Massachusetts school authorities. Besides this comprehensive

showing of the working of a complete State system, there were many other similar collections of drawings by school children shown by the school authorities of towns and cities of other States, but these last were necessarily scattered in different places with the several educational exhibits, as has been stated, so that it was only possible to see them singly.1

The following report of the United States Centennial Commission, edited by Francis A. Walker and taken from Volume VIII of the Reports and Awards, group 28, best describes the art work exhibited, and shows not only the character of work throughout the country, but expresses the aims and ideals held paramount by the leaders of that time:

At the Centennial Exhibition, Massachusetts undoubtedly held first place. This is shown by the report of the judges for the educational exhibits. "On every hand and in many forms, are presented the fruits of her genius to the gaze of the enchanted visitor. In the faces of many there was a manifest bewilderment. Was this imported work selected from the famous art schools of Europe-the École des Beaux Arts, the great school of Kensington, or the noted schools of Germany and Italy? Or was it' possibly done by American artists trained in those great nurseries of art? It certainly was not the work of Yankee school boys and girls with only such training as it is said they are getting in these latter days in the common schools!"

There seemed to be, however, some question as to whether the methods of teaching in Massachusetts conformed altogether to the opinions of the higher authorities. The report speaks of this as follows: "Touching the question whether the methods of art instruction employed in the Massachusetts schools are those best calculated to accomplish the object, it is proper to say that the judges were not unanimous, some being of the opinion that more time is spent in geometric drawing than is generally profitable and that much of the effort devoted to drawing from flat copy could be very advantageously applied to drawing from the round and from natural objects."

The work as covered at that time is outlined in the report as follows: "In the primary schools the pupils are trained in geometrical definitions and in the simplest principles in decorative design; in drawing with the freehand from printed copies, from memory, from dictation, and from blackboard copies, and in original composition. There is practice in proportional enlargement and reduction. Only two dimensions are represented and there is no imitative drawing of natural objects. Conventional leaves and flowers are used in some of the decorative designs.

In the grammar schools, the work of the primary schools is continuous, but is of a much more advanced character. Plane geometrical drawing with instruments is added, and freehand drawing in outline from models and objects, prints and the actual models and objects being used in conjunction. Thus a beginning is made in representing the three dimensions pictorially. Some instruction is given in historic ornament and decorative styles. Geometry forms the basis of the work while the instruction is rational, not dogmatic.

*

"The subjects taught in the grammar schools, with the exception of plane geometrical drawings, are continued in the high schools, the models and objects, however, being drawn in light and shade as well as in outline. More emphasis is laid upon making industrial designs for a particular purpose, as for jewelry, tiles, fans, lace, calico, prints, pottery, etc. Instrumental, perspective, and mechanical drawing are added, also drawing from the cast and from nature; also botanical analysis for industrial design and painting in water colors. The pupils are not confined to one medium, as the point, for instance, but are taught to manipulate different materials-pencil, Clarke, Isaac Edward. In "Art and Industry," U. S. Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.