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2005 A Critical Examination of Milton Bradley's Contributions to Kindergarten and Art Eduction in the Context of His Time Jennifer Lee Snyder

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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS AND DANCE

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF

MILTON BRADLEY’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO

KINDERGARTEN AND ART EDUCTION IN THE

CONTEXT OF HIS TIME

By

JENNIFER L. SNYDER

A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education

Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2005

The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Jennifer L. Snyder defended on June 27, 2005.

______Tom Anderson Professor Directing Dissertation

______Jeffrey Milligan Outside Committee Member

______Pat Villeneuve Committee Member

______Penny Orr Committee Member

Approved:

______Marcia Rosal, Head, Department of Art Education

______

Sally McRorie, Dean, School of Visual Arts and Dance

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee member.

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For my parents…

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me in this endeavor over the past three years. I am especially thankful for the support of my mother and father, Diane and Bob Snyder, who were both so enthusiastic about me continuing my education. Although my father was not able to finish the journey with me, I know he would be so proud of my accomplishment. To Carolyn Brown Treadon, I extend my deepest appreciation for the help and feedback you provided throughout the dissertation process. To the rest of my family and friends, I express my sincere gratitude. I am also extremely thankful for the help and support of my committee. I would especially like to thank Dr. Tom Anderson for guiding me through the dissertation process. His help has been invaluable to me and he was always very giving of his time and knowledge. Dr. Victoria Maria MacDonald, Dr. Pat Villenueve and Dr. Penny Orr all provided me with valuable insight and helped me focus my vision. I am also indebted to Dr. Jeffrey Milligan who graciously stepped in as my outside committee member when I was already three quarters of the way through the process. Thank you all.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ix

ABSTRACT xi

1. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY 1

Focus of the Study 1

Guiding Questions 2

Supporting Questions 3

Rationale for the Study 3

Research Methodology 4

The Importance of a Question or Theme: Thin Spots or 6 Anomalies Primary and Secondary Sources 6 Using Primary Sources 7 External and Internal Criticism 7 Researcher Bias 8

Format of the Study 9

Processes and Segments of the Study 10 Obtaining Sources 11 Researcher Bias, Scope and Limitations of the Study 14

Definition of Terms 14

2. SETTING THE CONTEXT: AN OVERVIEW OF THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF MILTON BRADLEY’S LIFE 16

The Victorian Era 16

Migration and Immigration 16 Standard Time 17

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Mass Production 17 Housing 18 U.S. Postal Service and Mail Order Catalogs 18 Advertising and Consumerism 19

The Middle Class 20

Education 22

Growth of Interest in Schooling 22 Common School Reforms 22 Moral Education 23 Inside the Classroom 25 Schooling at the End of the Century 25 Progressive Education 26 Manual Training Schools 26 Kindergarten 27 Early Leaders of Progressive Education 27 Francis Wayland Parker 27 John Dewey 28

Art Education 29

Influential Early Drawing Advocates 30 Massachusetts Free Instruction Drawing Act of 1870 30 Industrial Drawing 31 Picture Study 32 Art Texts and Instructional Manuals 32

Leisure 33

Boardgames 34

3. MILTON BRADLEY’S LIFE AND WORK 35

Educational Beginnings 35

Birth of a Business 37

Introduction to the Kindergarten 39

Elizabeth Peabody and the kindergarten movement 40 Froebel and the kindergarten movement 42

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Production of Kindergarten Supplies and Materials 43

Progressive Era Changes in Kindergarten 46 Color Theory and its Place in the Classroom 46 The Standard Colors 47 The Colored Papers 48 The Watercolors 49

Promotion and Advertisement 50

End of an Era 53

4. INTRODUCTION, THEMES AND CONCLUSIONS, AND 55 IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Interpretation of Chapters 2 and 3 55

Bradley in Relation to the Victorian Era 55

Immigration and migration 55 The middle class 56

Bradley in Relation to Common Schools 57

Bradley in Relation to Moral Education 58

Bradley in Relation to Progressive Education 59

Bradley in Relation to Kindergarten 60

Progressive changes in kindergarten 62

Bradley in Relation to Art Education 63

Kindergarten and art education 64 Color theory 65

Bradley in Relation to Business 66

Themes and Conclusions 68

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Bradley’s Social Circumstances 68 Influences on Bradley’s Educational Philosophy 69 Bradley’s Connection to Kindergarten and Art 70 Education Bradley’s Influence on Art Education and Color 71 Theory Color theory 72

Conclusions 73

Areas for Further Study 75 APPENDIX A: Letters Pertaining to Obtaining Information for this Study 78

APPENDIX B: Milton Bradley’s Educational Records from the Lowell 86 Historical Society and Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University

APPENDIX C: Color Definitions and Classifications based on Milton 109 Bradley’s Color Theory System

References 113 Biographical Sketch 118

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Milton Bradley. Shea, J.J. (1973). The Milton Bradley story. New York: The Newcomen Society. xii.

Figure 2. Sketch of Viceroy’s Railroad Car. Shea, J.J. (1960). Its all in the game. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 38.

Figure 3. Bradley’s Lincoln Print. Shea, J.J. (1973). The Milton Bradley story. New York: The Newcomen Society. 38.

Figure 4. The Checkered Game of Life. Shea, J.J. (1960). Its all in the game. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 39.

Figure 5. Paradise of Childhood. Collection of the author. 40.

Figure 6. Elizabeth Peabody. Shea, J.J. (1960). Its all in the game. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 40.

Figure 7. Second Gift. Milton Bradley catalog, 1913. 42.

Figure 8/9. Milton Bradley Company Paper Cutters. Milton Bradley Company (Ed.). (1917). The Little Acorn and the Great Oak. Springfield, MA: Milton Bradley Company. 44.

Figure 10. Bradley Color Wheel. Shea, J.J. (1960). Its all in the game. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 47.

Figure 11. Milton Bradley Company Crayons. Collection of the author. 49.

Figure 12. Bradley Watercolor Set. Milton Bradley catalog, 1910. 49.

Figure 13. Milton Bradley Catalog, 1910. Collection of the author. 50.

Figure 14. Milton Bradley Company Ads. Shea, J.J. (1960). Its all in the game. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 51.

ix Figure 15. Milton Bradley Company Ad. Shea, J.J. (1960). Its all in the game. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 51.

Figure 16. Big Ben Puzzle, Milton Bradley Company. Shea, J.J. (1973). The Milton Bradley story. New York: The Newcomen Society. 53.

Figure 17. Milton Bradley Company facilities, East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Shea, J.J. (1973). The Milton Bradley story. New York: The Newcomen Society. 54.

Figure 18. Milton Bradley Company Educational Games. Shea, J.J. (1973). The Milton Bradley story. New York: The Newcomen Society. 54.

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ABSTRACT

This historical study examines the life of Milton Bradley in the context of his time. The primary question being asked in this study is: What contributions did Milton Bradley make to education during his lifetime, what, if any, affect did that have on art education, and how was that influenced by the circumstances of his life? Factors that influenced Milton Bradley include: the Victorian era, common schooling, moral education, progressive education, kindergarten, art education and business. Bradley’s connection to both kindergarten and art education are explored in depth, and his contributions to both are examined. The information in this study is presented using the contextual approach to art history advocated by Tom Anderson and Melody Milbrandt (2005). Anderson and Milbrandt’s contextual approach incorporates the use of social setting, mood, economic conditions, and other circumstances to interpret and evaluate the work in question. For the purposes of this study, Anderson and Milbrandt’s contextual approach has been adapted to historical inquiry. Milton Bradley straddled the Victorian and Progressive era and was a product of his times. Findings indicate that while Milton Bradley held an important role in the kindergarten movement, his role in the field of art education is of a secondary nature. Milton Bradley helped facilitate the entrance of art education into the public schools with his production of art supplies and materials intended for the kindergarten classroom. Bradley’s materials were designed for kindergarten first, and art education second, so ultimately, his contributions to art education were secondary in nature to his interest in the kindergarten

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Figure 1. Milton Bradley, The Milton Bradley Story, James J. Shea, 1973

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY

In Meditation XVII, John Donne states, “No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.” His point, that no one exists in a vacuum, is an important one. The people, places and experiences we encounter help shape us, making us who we are. We are, in many ways, products of our time. We are influenced by the people around us, our educational experiences, the places and communities in which we live, the circumstances in which we find ourselves. When you meet a person who embodies a particular set of moral values and who seems representative of a particular time and place you remember them, sometimes for years afterward. If you are studying a person who lived in the past, who embodies the ideals of their age, you wonder what experiences they had that caused them to behave in a certain way. My interest in Milton Bradley stems from that curiosity.

Focus of the Study

The focus of this study is the role Milton Bradley played in general education and in art education in the schools of his time and beyond, examined in the context of his time and place in society. The contextualist strategy employed here may provide new insights into the role Bradley played in education and art education. This study also uses a social constructivist theory as its theoretical foundation. Milbrandt (2004) observed that constructivist learning theory places an emphasis on the active social participation of the learner with the environment and that constructivists view knowledge as constructed by the learner in a particular context, not as pre-existent or given from an expert or authority. Constructivist theory is based on the ideas of Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner and others who believe that meaning is constructed by humans and organized within a particular context. Dewey (1938) believed in immersing students in real-world experiences to stimulate learning and establish a connection between the students and the world around them. Dewey termed these students active learners and based his work at the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago on his ideas. Bigge and Shermis (1999) observed that for Piaget, the key processes in his developmental theory are assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation occurs when a child filters or modifies the input he or she is receiving from the environment. Accomodation consists of the modification or change in a child’s understanding in order to accommodate new data or information. Piaget’s

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theories stem from the idea that children’s cognition is always adjusting to receive new information and learning to deal with relations among classes of things. Milbrandt (2004) noted that Vygotsky thought that learning and truth were socially constructed rather than objectively observed, so that the point of view of the group involved could change the learning experience of that group. Vygotsky’s key idea hinges on his idea of the Zone of Proximal Development. The Zone of Proximal Development, according to Vygotsky (1934) is the discrepancy between a child’s actual mental age and the level a that child may reach, with assistance, in solving problems. Imel (2000) wrote that since constructivist learning theory maintains that learning is a process of constructing meaning from experience, contextual learning is then rooted in a constructivist approach to teaching and learning. Imel observed that the meaning of what individuals learn is coupled with their life experiences and contexts. This involves the idea of social cognition or the idea that learning involves interactions with others in the learners environment and that those interactions play a major role in influencing what is learned. For the purpose of this study, a social constructivist approach is paired with a contextual focus. Milton Bradley is examined in the context of his time and elements of his life that influenced his decisions are the focus of this paper. The idea that learning is anchored in the context of real-life situations and problems is evident in the choices Bradley made concerning his personal business decisions and his interest in kindergarten and art education. The people and situations that impacted Bradley form the cornerstone of his personal philosophy; as such he is an example of the key idea of social constructivist theory, that people learn from their experiences and interactions with others. With that thought in mind the main question of this study then becomes: what motivated Bradley to produce supplies and materials for general education, kindergarten, and art? The context of Bradley’s life will be set by examining the social and educational factors that affected him. The proposition here is that Milton Bradley was a man of his time, that time being the Victorian Era. The role of increased industrialization, a new focus on public schooling and an increase in leisure time all played a part in defining who Milton Bradley was. In that context, what effect, if any, did those times, and Bradley, in particular, have on the budding field of art education? How these factors determined the course of Bradley’s life, and the decisions he made regarding his business and educational goals, are the ultimate focus of this study.

Guiding Question

The primary question to be asked in this study is: What contributions did Milton Bradley make to education and to art education, and how was that influenced by the circumstances of his life?

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Supporting Questions

The component parts or subordinate problems that relate to the primary question are: 1. How did his social circumstances influence Milton Bradley’s point of view? th 2. What educational theories were prevalent at the turn of the 20 century and how did they influence Milton Bradley? 3. Who, in particular, was influential in Milton Bradley’s shaping of his educational philosophy? 4. How did Milton Bradley become interested in kindergarten? How did that interest affect both general and art education? 5. What were Milton Bradley’s theories on education and color theory, and have they had a lasting influence on art education?

Rationale for the Study

Milton Bradley exists today primarily as a trademark on board games; the man who originally created those games has been virtually forgotten. Bradley’s interest in early childhood education is not widely known; it comes as a surprise to many people. It came as a surprise to me. The inspiration for this study was a beginning historiography class taken at the start of my doctoral program. This course provided the initial interest in conducting a study of Milton Bradley. The professor teaching the course was describing her research interest area, early female kindergarten pioneers, and was showing some slides of different materials used in their classrooms. During the presentation, one slide in particular caught my attention. The slide showed the second of Fröebel’s gifts and occupations; a small wooden box which contained a wooden sphere, cube and cylinder. Stamped on the end of the box was the name Milton Bradley Company. The stamp proved intriguing and I began to investigate. I wondered how a company noted for its production of board games came to be involved in the production of kindergarten teaching aids. The answers I found led to further research about the company and in turn, its founder, Milton Bradley. Why was a game maker producing art supplies and educational materials? Under what circumstances did the production of such supplies begin? It became clear as the research was conducted that while Milton Bradley’s contributions to the entertainment industry and general education were well documented, his contribution to art education was not. This lack of documentation has led me to believe that I had found what Stankiewicz (1997) calls a “thin spot” in the history of art education. When Milton Bradley died in 1911, he was remembered fondly by A. L. Webber (1911) at the annual National Education Association conference in San Francisco, California. Webber (1911) observed that: The measure of a man is his achievements. What he has tried and what he has done, are the blocks with which his monument is builded in the field of posterity. To think, to plan, to accomplish things that are great and good—not for his own

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reward, but that some part of humanity may find life better and sweeter—these are the qualities that mark man’s greatness, that make his name honored and his memory cherished. Qualities such as these characterized the whole career of Milton Bradley, whose death, Memorial Day of this year, removed a revered and widely known member of this association. (p. 488) Bradley’s obituaries spoke glowingly of the man who helped pioneer the modern board game, helped supply early kindergarten classrooms and teachers, and gave of his time, money and energy to his adopted hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. Bradley’s acclaim as in inventor, particularly in the area of kindergarten materials, earned him the nickname “Edison of the Kindergarten” (Springfield Homestead, May 31,1911). His generosity helped build a new high school building in Springfield, furnished all the supplies to the kindergartens in town, and helped fund the local art society. Well known in his day, today, Milton Bradley is primarily a footnote in educational history. Most educational textbooks do not make mention of Bradley at all; if they do mention him, it is usually as a supporter of the kindergarten movement. As an inventor and provider of kindergarten supplies and materials for teachers, Bradley’s role in art education has been largely overlooked. The supplies and materials Bradley provided allowed art teachers for the first time to supply materials to their classrooms that they had not made themselves. How that support influenced other areas of education has not been widely discussed in educational literature. Although Bradley’s personal thoughts and motivations are not accessible to researchers today, through a thorough survey of his writings and his personal and his business decisions, an overall impression of the man emerges. By expanding the research to include the greater context: what was going on in Bradley’s community, society, business, and education, an even clearer picture of Milton Bradley becomes known. The idea that Milton Bradley was a man of his time will be borne out by the choices he made given the context of that time. Art education history is a work-in-progress. The role of those figures, such as Bradley, who have expanded the field of art education while not being active participants, has long been overlooked. This contextual narrative of game maker Milton Bradley, whose personal, lifelong interest in art and education had an impact on the teachers of his time, may serve to fill one of those gaps, and serve to help us understand in some way where we are now. Conversely, whether or not Milton Bradley had a lasting influence on art education may be at issue here. A way to determine his significance to education and in particular, to art education, may be to re-examine his contributions in the context of his life as a man of his times.

Research Methodology

This is an historical study. But what is historical inquiry? Stankiewicz (1997) observed that:

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Sound historical inquiry requires thorough, painstaking, compilation of facts, critical reading of both primary and secondary sources, careful note taking, and establishment of chronologies documenting who did what where and when. Well- written historical accounts also require attention to why, development of a narrative interpretation of facts that makes them meaningful and explains their significance to readers who are distant from the events recorded. (p. 56) Korzenik (1986) wrote that the reason for historical inquiry should guide and inform our choice. In her words, “the motives need to be conscious and explicit before we start” (p. 37). Once the question has been formed, then the work of research must be undertaken. This undertaking often involves the use of a particular research methodology. When the question the researcher is trying to answer involves events that occurred in the past, then the methodology used would be one of historical investigation/inquiry. Anderson and Milbrandt (2005) have observed that the separation of art history from art criticism is often impossible in real life situations. The reason for this difficulty, according to the authors, stems from the overlapping qualities of both history and criticism. The social context in which a piece of artwork is made is often a critically important aspect of criticism, as it is in history. The contextual approach advocated by Anderson and Milbrandt (2005) advocates a “critical investigation of social setting, mood, economic conditions, and other circumstances in which the work was produced in order to interpret and evaluate the work” (p. 120). Such an investigation often entails the use of more than just an art education historical perspective, drawing on other disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and economics. Such interests also drive this historical study. The following sections will outline the information that guides the methodology of this study and will show how historical research will be used in light of the driving research interest. Erikson (1984) noted that in her observation of the field of history there have emerged four distinct styles of historical investigation: realistic, formal, expressive and pragmatic. This study uses the realistic approach to present as fully as possible, given the information gathered, an accurate picture of Milton Bradley’s life. Erickson observed that the realistic historian uses methods that are suggested as the facts are uncovered, often acting as a historical detective discovering clues that suggest the way an event actually occurred. She observed, “The realistic historian perceives circumstances of the past, for the most part, as particular events, unique, unlike any other,” (p. 121). Realistic history, in Erikson’s opinion, can be judged on the basis of how well it brings the subject to life. Realistic history, with its emphasis on discovering facts that can be documented lends itself well to a contextual approach, as the context in which a person lived can have a dramatic effect on the decisions they make. For the purpose of this study, I am using a realistic approach to history, with an emphasis on the discovery of previous and new sources of information, to reinterpret the information currently available about Milton Bradley to present the most accurate interpretation of his life to date. This study does not attempt to filter that information through any particular lens, such as Neo-Marxist or Feminist theory, although the possibilities for reinterpretation of the materials through those lens could prove important for areas of further research.

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The Importance of a Question or Theme: Thin Spots or Anomalies

The nuts and bolts of historical inquiry according to Fraenkel and Wallen (2002) involve defining the problem to be investigated, locating sources relevant to the inquiry, summarizing the information obtained from historical sources, evaluating that information and interpreting the results. Each aspect involved in historical research is dependent on the others. In order to make historical inquiry relevant to the field of study there has to be a “so-what?” question. Why is this particular question worth investigating? What aspect of this inquiry will make it worth doing? Researchers have at various times described this process as “filling an empty spot” in art education’s past (Korzenik, 1984), “looking for thin places in the written history of art education and odd pieces that do not fit” (Stankiewicz, 1997), or working “from a perceived anomaly” (Efland, 1995).

Primary and Secondary Sources

Once these “thin spots” have been identified, the researcher must then begin to locate the sources he or she will need to proceed with the historical inquiry. These sources are categorized as primary and secondary sources. Primary sources come in a variety of forms that were intended to serve a variety of functions at the time of their creation. Furay and Salevouris (2000) observed that primary sources are the “records of contemporaries who participated in, witnessed, or commented on the events you are studying” (p. 144). Brundage (2002) divides these sources into two categories: 1) manuscript materials such as letters, diaries, and memoranda, usually intended as private, internal documents; and 2) materials intended from their creation to be made public— newspaper articles, congressional debates, autobiographies, reports of the United States Census (p. 17). While primary sources are generally considered to be more reliable than secondary sources it is still important to realize that actual people created these documents, and as such they are open to interpretation. Brundage (2002) notes: A skeptical approach is also in order when considering materials like the published letters and diaries of public figures. …We must consider the author’s motives, ignorance, or capacity for self-deception. Moreover, published source materials are frequently only a selection, and sometimes quite a small one, of the total body of the person’s writings. We must therefore take into account the built- in bias of the selecting or editing process. (p. 18) Furay and Salevouris (2000) call this bias the “teasing gap,” a reference to the gap that separates a lived event from its subsequent narration. In the area of published accounts such as newspapers, journal articles or conference proceedings it is important to remember that the authors of these works were trying to put forth their own opinions about their subject and as such should not be accepted blindly by the researcher as ‘truth’. Furay and Salevouris (2000) note that newspapers are considered primary sources for the period in which they were published, but that they share some of the characteristics of secondary sources because they were often written by people who did not participate in the actual events. The authors of such documents often observed the events in question, allowing them to write their articles

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from the viewpoint of a participant. It is in these circumstances that questions of internal and external validity become important. Secondary sources are classified by Stankiewicz (1997) as those sources written about an historical event after the fact. She identifies four ways to use secondary sources in historical research: “1) they may provide contextual information on the place or period so that each historian does not have to start from a blank canvas; 2) they are mines of information for other sources, both secondary and primary; 3) they may be used to suggest hypotheses or potential interpretations; and 4) sometimes a secondary source will include a direct quotation from an original source that cannot be found” (p. 65). Secondary sources are often used as a beginning point for researchers who want a general source of background knowledge and are often used in conjunction with primary sources to produce a well-rounded discussion of a particular research problem.

Using Primary Sources

McDowell (2002) states that the choice of a research topic can present the researcher with the prospect of either an abundance of source material or the task of compensating for fragmentary evidence. If the evidence is fragmentary, as is the case with this study, McDowell (2002) notes that careful judgment must guide any inferences based on limited historical evidence, particularly when the information cannot be easily corroborated. The information that would be most helpful to the researcher, the details of everyday life, is often that which is left out of historical documents. Often only a small part of the existing evidence will be relevant to a particular investigation. Furay and Salevouris (2000) call this process of detection “separating the wheat from the chaff” (p. 105). For the purpose of this study, an in-depth look at Milton Bradley, the behaviors and ideals he exhibited will be examined in light of his time and place in society. How did Bradley’s educational experiences, family, religion and community shape him? How did those influences affect his company and business decisions? Did the expanding role of industrialization, the increase in leisure time and activities, and the Victorian Age in New England contribute to his choices concerning business and education and if so, how? The information used in this study comes from a variety of sources. Primary sources include: newspaper clippings, journals and writings made by Milton Bradley. The context in which Milton Bradley lived will be described in chapter two and consists primarily of secondary sources. Secondary sources include: journal articles and books. Chapter 3 looks at Milton Bradley’s life, his routines, his business, and his interests, relying primarily on Milton Bradley’s writings. Chapter 4 makes use of both primary and secondary sources. My construction of those sources into a meaningful narrative using the information provided in chapters two and three will be used to develop an interpretation which attempts to answer the driving question of this research. Together, these chapters will form a picture of Milton Bradley, set in the context of his time.

External and Internal Criticism

When using primary source material it is vitally important to verify the truth of the information obtained. Furay and Salevouris (2000) write that the historian always has

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two goals for any primary source material: (1) to establish if the sources are authentic and (2) to establish their meaning and believability. The first goal is accomplished through external criticism, the second through internal criticism. External criticism is used to identify the authenticity of sources and requires examining whether a primary source is the kind of document it appears to be, that is, is the document genuine? Authenticity is established by researching the context in which the document was produced. Does the information contained in a particular document agree with other published accounts? Knowledge of the period in question is necessary to establish if the material fits with other published accounts of the event in question. Tied closely to the subject of external criticism is the idea of provenance. Brunton and Robinson (1987) define the principle of provenance as the place of origin of the records: i.e. the organization, office or person that created, received or accumulated and used the records in the conduct of business or personal life. If the intent is to prove the provenance of a piece of artwork, then the ownership of that artwork must be determined from the current owner to the original painter. If there are gaps in the ownership details, then the provenance cannot be fully established, leading to speculation about the authenticity of the work. Provenance is important because it provides the researcher with a further means to assess the genuineness of a particular document or artifact. Internal criticism, or credibility, is defined by Stankiewicz (1997) as the “believability of a source, the author’s meaning, the truthfulness of the testimony and the competence of the witness” (p. 66). Internal criticism is only determined once the researcher has determined the external validity. From there, the accuracy of the contents of the document can be established. Furay and Salevouris (2000) state that the most important skill needed to establish internal criticism is a healthy skepticism. They note: We have an innate tendency to believe anything if it is written down, and the older the document or more ornate the script, the more we tend to believe it. Therefore, it is important to remind ourselves that our venerable ancestors could lie, shade the truth, or make a mistake, just as we can. (p. 147) Anderson and Milbrandt (2005) concur, stating, “In the end, though, the most important tools of the art historian are his or her own intuition, sensibility, ability to nose out the truth, and integrity and skill in reporting, analyzing and interpreting feelings” (p. 121). To help determine the authenticity of a document Furay and Salevouris (2000) have established a number of questions designed to guide the researcher in establishing internal validity. They include: 1) What exactly does the document mean; 2) How well situated was the author to observe or record the events in question; 3) When, how and to whom was the report made; 4) Is there a bias that must be accounted for; 5) What specialized information is needed to interpret the source; 6) Do the reported actions seem probable in the light of informed common sense; and 7) Is there corroborating testimony (Foray and Salevouris, 2000, pp. 147). Answering questions such as these should help the researcher determine the genuineness and reliability of the material.

Researcher Bias

One of the potential threats to credibility in historical research is called researcher bias. Researcher bias, as noted by Johnson (1997), tends to result from selective

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observation and selective recording of information, and also from allowing one’s personal views and perspectives to affect how data are interpreted and how the research is conducted. To help reduce researcher bias, it is necessary for the researcher to engage in some critical self-reflection about his or her potential biases and predispositions. This reflection is necessary if the researcher hopes to control their biases. Anderson and Milbrandt (2005) note, “Because art historians develop meanings based on intellectual speculation about historical evidence, any claim to scientific neutrality is questionable. So that they will not be claiming omniscience, many art historians announce their point of view, assumptions, and agenda” (p. 122). The form this takes for many qualitative researchers is a section in their research papers entitled Researcher Bias. In that section, they include personal background, how that background may affect their research and how they, as the researcher, will attempt to address the potential problems. I include such a section in this study.

Format of the Study

Using the methods for determining genuineness and authenticity of sources already discussed as a starting point for conducting this research, the basic format of the study will be adapted from Anderson’s contextual/historical art criticism method (Anderson, 1993, Anderson, 1997, Anderson & Milbrandt, 2005), which divides the inquiry process into four distinct parts: observation and initial response, description, interpretation, and evaluation. Anderson (1997) described the four processes as “1) an initial, intuitive reaction; 2) description, of obvious thematic and formal qualities, the relationships between forms and figures, intended emotional impact, and the contextual qualities outside the work itself which affect its meaning; 3) interpretation of meaning; and 4) evaluation, or making a final interpretation and judgment of the work based on all that has come before” (p.21). In order for Anderson’s art criticism process to be used for this study, the process must be adapted. Anderson (1997) noted that description, the second step in the process, includes examining the work, beginning with the obvious and proceeding to the subtle. Part of this beginning description is the description of those contextual qualities of the work that help make it meaningful and expressive. The contextual focus centers on the circumstances, intentions and functions of the work. For the purposes of this study, the basic elements of description remain the same. Focusing on Milton Bradley and his life, the description portion of this study will discuss Bradley’s place in society, his work and its functions and for what purpose he made the decisions which affected his life. The description portion of the study will also set the greater social context in which Milton Bradley operated. The Victorian era, the rise of a leisure class, industrialization, educational and religious themes prevalent during Bradley’s life will be explored. This social context, along with the description of Bradley’s life will allow for the interpretation and eventual evaluation of the facts to help determine if Milton Bradley’s contributions to art education lasted beyond his lifetime. This historical examination of Milton Bradley will take the form of an act of criticism. As such, I will gather information about the topic in question based on my

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initial understanding of that topic. In this case, the kindergarten materials manufactured by the Milton Bradley Company that I saw during a presentation on kindergarten. My initial response was that this area of art education history as a “thin spot” (Korzenik, 1984) that needed further exploration. Based on the information gathered during the subsequent investigation, I will interpret and evaluate the information found for relevance to the driving question, namely, did Milton Bradley make a lasting contribution to art education. To accomplish the above task, I must take the role of the critic. Eisner (1998) defined the task of the critic as transforming the qualities of a painting, play, novel, poem, class or school, or act of teaching into a form that illuminates, interprets, and appraises the qualities that have been experienced. Eisner (1998) goes on to say: since there is no literal linguistic equivalent for qualities per se, the task cannot be simple translation. …Every act of criticism is a reconstruction. The reconstruction takes the form of an argued narrative, supported by evidence that is never incontestable; there will always be alternative interpretations of the “same” play, as the history of criticism so eloquently attests. Further, even the qualities described in any critical account are not necessarily either all that could have been described or those that other critics might have described. …Selection is always at work in both the perception and critical portrayal of what has been seen. (p. 86) As a critic, I must interpret the information from the description stage of the study to determine its meaning. Eisner (1998) observed that: educational critics are interested not only in making vivid what they have experienced, but in explaining its meaning; this goal frequently requires putting what has been described in a context in which its antecedent factor can be identified. It also means illuminating the potential consequences of practices observed and providing reasons that account for what has been seen. (p. 95) Anderson (1997) noted, “interpretation is our best guess at what the work is all about, based on the evidence collected. That evidence should include forms and composition, technique, aesthetic/emotional impact and contextual information” (p. 22). The process of interpretation detailed in Chapter 4 will be a natural development of the detailed description provided in Chapters 2 and 3 and will lend itself handily to the evaluation process. In order to assure that the interpretation made is a correct one it is important to gather as much evidence as possible. The credibility of the interpretation will be dependent on whether or not it can be justified in light of the evidence presented. That interpretation will form the heart of this study and will provide the basis for the evaluation of the validity of the guiding question.

Processes and Segments of the Study

Chapter 1 will include the introduction to the study, the guiding and supporting questions and the format of the study. The methodology and a discussion of historical inquiry will be included in the format of the study. Chapter 2 will provide a contextual background against which the events of Milton Bradley’s life will be assessed. In this chapter, I include sections on the Victorian Era, industrialization, schooling, art education

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and leisure. Chapter 3 will provide information about Milton Bradley and his achievements in the areas of business and education. This chapter takes the form of a biographical sketch of Milton Bradley, detailing the major events of his life. Chapter 4, the final chapter of this study, will provide an arena in which to analyze and evaluate the information presented in Chapters 2 and 3. This evaluation of Milton Bradley, in light of this contextual information in Chapter 2, will provide the means to make an assessment as to whether Bradley’s contribution to art education was a lasting one or not. The study will conclude with areas for further study and research.

Obtaining Sources

An initial search through art education literature was conducted to determine what information was available concerning Milton Bradley. The result was a very limited amount of information. Most educational textbooks do not make mention of Bradley at all; if they do mention him, it is usually as a supporter of the kindergarten movement. In most art education texts his name does not appear, unlike his contemporary and business rival, Louis Prang. Unlike Prang, who made his name in art education through the publication of art education textbooks, Milton Bradley made his name through games and educational supplies, but both were interested in education and its practical business applications. Bradley’s educational supplies are usually mentioned as an addendum in books and articles concerning kindergarten. More often, Bradley is mentioned as being the publisher of the first kindergarten manual published in the United States, The Paradise of Childhood, by Edward Wiebe, 1868. Since there is a general lack of information available about Milton Bradley in traditional art education and general education texts, the researcher had to find alternate ways to obtain the needed information. A Google search (http://www.google.com) of the name Milton Bradley yielded a number of websites dedicated to the baseball player and a few dedicated to the game maker. One source, in particular, proved interesting. The website (http://www.prbm.com) for the Philadelphia Rare Books and Manuscripts Company listed a Milton Bradley Company catalog from 1913. This original catalog, which I purchased, has proved extremely helpful in determining exactly what types of kindergarten supplies and materials were produced by the Milton Bradley Company. A general search of the materials offered by the Strozier Library did not yield any results, so the search was widened to include other major national libraries. This search eventually led to the Library of Congress catalog. The search of the Library of Congress catalog revealed five books written by Bradley himself, on the subject of color theory. These books, which I obtained through Interlibrary Loan, provided a fascinating look at both Bradley’s writing style, as well as his educational interests. A search of the website Dissertation Abstracts, (http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/gateway), revealed a dissertation written in 1975 by Clifton R. Oakes entitled Milton Bradley: An Historical Study of His Educational Endeavors in the Context of the Kindergarten Movement in America. This dissertation proved to be a wonderful resource for discovering primary sources related to Milton Bradley. Citations concerning Bradley’s obituaries, newspaper articles about Bradley and his company and period texts about Springfield and its prominent citizens proved helpful in establishing Bradley’s lifelong commitment to his community, the arts and

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education. I performed a Google search (http://www.google.com) for Mr. Oakes and found him living in California. I called Mr. Oakes and we spoke at length about his dissertation and the information he obtained from Milton Bradley’s granddaughter. Unfortunately, when Mr. Oakes retired from his position at Sacramento State University three years ago he disposed of all his dissertation materials, so I was unable to see in person the materials and sources he had gathered during his research. Two sources noted in the dissertation, however, have proved to be the most intriguing, both helpful and frustrating. The first is a book written about Milton Bradley called Its All in the Game, written by James J. Shea (1960), a former president of the Milton Bradley Company. This book is a nonfiction account of Milton Bradley and his life. A copy of this book, which has been out-of-print since the early 1970’s, was obtained through a rare book dealer. The primary source of information in this book seems to be a series of diaries collected by Mr. Shea and written by Bradley himself. This correlates to an appendix found in the dissertation by Oakes, which includes excerpts from one of Bradley’s diaries from 1901. Oakes listed the address of a Mrs. John Walker, Milton Bradley’s granddaughter, who was at that time residing in Somer, Connecticut, as being the person in possession of the diaries. A Google search of Mrs. John Walker revealed the same address listed in the dissertation so I drafted a letter requesting information about the 1901 diary and any other diaries possibly owned by Mrs. Walker. Two written requests went unanswered and a phone inquiry is currently pending. Because Shea’s (1960) book indicated the author owned a vast collection of Bradley memorabilia, a search for Mr. Shea was begun. It was relatively simple to establish that Mr. Shea died in the early 1970’s. Although an obituary was not located, Mr. Shea’s book indicated his son James J. Shea Jr. was also a former president of the Milton Bradley Company. A Google search for James J. Shea Jr. indicated he was a board member of an organization called the Braille Institute in Santa Barbara, California. A phone call to the Braille Institute resulted in a letter being forwarded to Mr. Shea at his home address. The letter asked for any information regarding the status of his father’s collection. I received a reply from Mr. Shea indicating that all materials pertaining to Mr. Bradley had been turned over to the Milton Bradley Company at the time of his father’s death. Mr. Shea also recommended I contact Mr. Wilson, general manager of the Milton Bradley Company, concerning the diaries. Contacting Mr. Wilson resulted in a dead-end. The email sent to Mr. Wilson was very promptly replied to by his assistant, Mark Morris. Unfortunately, Mr. Morris indicated that what little information that remained in the Milton Bradley Company Archives about Milton Bradley, personally, was in a section of the company which was not open to the public. Therefore, the search continues for the elusive Mrs. John Walker or one of her descendents. Currently I am continuing the search for Bradley’s 1 descendants using the most recent census released, and websites such as Ancestry.com. Another strategy, a visit to the Connecticut Valley Historical Society and subsequent phone calls to Fran Gagnon, a board member for the historical society indicated that the policies of the Hasbro Corporation, parent company of the Milton Bradley Company, had long been an irritation to the Historical Society. When the Milton

1 Appendix A contains all of the correspondence I have sent and received concerning the search for information pertaining to Milton Bradley.

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Bradley Company was purchased by the Hasbro Corporation in 1984, the historical society had apparently tried to obtain the Bradley’s personal papers and were met with the same response as I received, which was a very polite, but firm, no. The Historical Society did yield a number of sources that have proved helpful in this investigation, however. Artifacts such as catalogs, newsletters, dance invitations and memos helped clarify some of the day-to-day operations of the Bradley company, as well as providing some valuable insight into the company and the community at the beginning of the twentieth century. Other than photocopies of Bradley’s obituaries, books published by the Milton Bradley Company, and some contemporary newspaper articles about Bradley, the most intriguing find at the historical society was a small book published by the Milton Bradley Company (1910) for their fiftieth anniversary entitled Milton Bradley: A Successful Man. The book has proved to be an invaluable source of information concerning the attitudes of Bradley’s contemporaries both toward him and his contributions to education. The book also includes several chapters written by Bradley himself, detailing his recollections about his role in the field of education and about his personal educational experiences. The information provided in that book led to further questions concerning Bradley’s educational background. Shea’s (1960) book indicated that Bradley attended both Lowell High School, in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the Lawrence Scientific School, now a part of Harvard University. Surviving records located in the Harvard University Archives corroborate the information about the Lawrence Scientific School, as well as providing some additional information about Bradley’s schooling. The School Board of Lowell, Massachusetts, has records of their students from the 1840’s onward, available through the Lowell Historical Society, in the form of school reports. A trip to the Lowell Historical Society in March 2005 yielded School Reports from 1847,1848, and 1849. These reports offered a fascinating look into the goals of the school board and the problems they faced through lack of funding and space issues. In addition, the reports indicated the courses taught at Lowell High School and in some cases the teachers who taught each course. The numbers of students attending each school, the number of days of attendance per student and the overall graduation rates were also in the school reports. Artifacts, including copies of Milton Bradley’s books Color in the Schoolroom (1890), Color in the Kindergarten (1893), Elementary Color (1895), and Water Colors in the Schoolroom (1900), and Milton Bradley Company catalogs from 1910 and 1913 have also helped define the role Bradley and his company played in education. These sources have provided a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the advertising used to sell their products, as well as revealing what products the company thought were important for the classroom teacher at that time. The copies of Bradley’s books on color theory were made from the originals housed in the Library of Congress, and the catalogs were obtained from a rare book dealer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one in Wisconsin. Additional contextual information about a wide range of topics including the Victorian era, industrialization, education, leisure and play was obtained using resources in the Florida State University’s Strozier Library and the internet.

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Researcher Bias, Scope, and Limitations of the Study

In this section, I will include information about my personal background, how that background may affect my research and how I, as the researcher, will attempt to address the potential problems. My personal background is that of student, teacher and graduate student. As a student, I am interested in history, as a teacher, I am interested in art education and as a graduate student in how the two tie together. I approach this study primarily from the perspective of an art educator. I found my topic early in my doctoral program and have stuck with it for over two years. As my own interest in the Milton Bradley has remained firmly intact, I would hope that others will find the topic as interesting as I have. This study does not attempt to delve too deeply into Bradley’s contemporaries or business rivals except as they relate directly to Bradley, since the study is primarily a biographical narrative of the man in the context of his own life. The information presented in this study is what I have managed to gather over two years of research. I am quite positive that there are sources I have not found, but the information I have been able to gather has lead me to draw some conclusions about Milton Bradley, his company and their contributions to art education. The conclusions and evaluations made in Chapter 4 are mine, couched in the information presented in Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Because I am working within the confines of the information I have gathered, the conclusions made are not as strong as they would be given more information. I have no doubt that continued research made by myself and hopefully others will lead to new conclusions beyond the scope of this study, but at this time, the information presented here is the most well-rounded and in-depth picture of Milton Bradley I can make in relation to the questions I am asking.

Definition of Terms

Art Education—In the context of the Victorian era, this is a catchphrase for a variety of art systems being taught in the nineteenth century. These systems included industrial drawing, manual training, and picture study. Industrial Drawing— A system of drawing that utilized lines, shapes and geometric forms, historic ornament and botanical forms. Perspective, light and shade were introduced in high school and color was used sparingly. Students were expected to follow the instructor’s step-by-step instructions. The emphasis of any industrial drawing program was the training of students in the fundamentals of industrial design (Wygant, 1993). Industrial Revolution—the rapid industrial growth that began in England during the middle of the eighteenth century and then spread over the next 50 years to many other countries, including the United States. The revolution depended on devices such as the steam engine which were invented at a rapidly increasing rate during the period. The Industrial Revolution brought on a rapid concentration of people

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in cities and changed the nature of work for many people (The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 2002). Kindergartener—Early kindergarten teachers were often referred to as kindergarteners, in reference to their interest in the theories and practices of Fröebel. These teachers were often young women who attended the first kindergarten training programs run by Elizabeth Peabody. Manual Training—a form of vocational training intended to prepare workers for mills and factories. The original intent of manual training was to develop hand-eye coordination, but the scope soon narrowed. Manual training is closely related to industrial/vocational education (Amburgy, 1990). Picture Study—Picture study, according to Wygant (1993), was closely aligned with the development of aesthetic education. Aesthetic education included the study of art history, with an emphasis on the Greeks. Aesthetic education stressed the moralistic aspects of art through the study of photographic reproductions. This study of art through pictures became known as picture study. Progressive Education- Cremin (1964) noted that the progressive education movement had four broad goals: to broaden the program and function of the school to include concern for health, vocation and the quality of family and community life; to apply in the classroom the pedagogical principles derived from new scientific research in psychology and the social sciences; to tailor instruction to different kinds and classes of children; and to foster the idea that culture could be democratized without being vulgarized, and that everyone could share in the benefits of the new sciences and in the pursuit of the arts (p. 19). Victorian Era—The time period in American history beginning with the end of the Civil War in 1876 and ending with the beginning of World War I in 1915. This period was marked by rapid social change in the areas of technology, social institutions, immigration, migration, and leisure. Additionally, the role of industrialization, the increased role of consumerism/materialism and the rise of the middle class marked the Victorian Era in America (Schlereth, 1991).

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CHAPTER 2: SETTING THE CONTEXT: AN OVERVIEW OF THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF MILTON BRADLEY’S LIFE

This chapter is devoted to developing the context in which Milton Bradley grew up and prospered as a businessman and entrepreneur. The environment in which Bradley was raised and the vast changes that occurred during his lifetime were to have long lasting effects on both Bradley and his business. Topics relevant to Bradley’s life, in relation to the question being asked in this study, will be discussed in this chapter. Those topics include the Victorian Era, transportation, standardization of time, mail-order catalogs, the middle class, education, religion, leisure and play. Each topic in some way influenced Milton Bradley and helped shape his ideas concerning life and business.

The Victorian Era

Schlereth (1991), in his book Victorian America, provides an overview of the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era, the author noted, which lasted roughly from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the First World War in the United States, was a period marked by rapid changes in almost every aspect of daily life. Migration and immigration were two areas of everyday life that changed drastically during the Victorian era. Other areas of change included transportation, housing, rapid industrialization, the invention of the telegraph, phonograph and telephone, the creation of a new middle class, the rise of non-manual labor jobs in industry and the ways in which people entertained themselves. Objects of everyday life taken for granted in today’s society, objects such as indoor plumbing, electric lights, grocery stores, the modern post office, and standard time did not exist prior to the Victorian era. These inventions were often a result of changing and expanding technology. The Industrial Revolution turned the United States from a primarily agrarian society into a modern industrial nation. Modern society as we know it was largely formed during these years.

Migration and Immigration

The population of the United States during this period was marked by massive upheaval. People from the east moved west, from the south moved north, they moved from rural settings to urban settings, and then from urban to suburban. Schlereth (1991) noted that the one of the main reasons for this shift in population was increased

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urbanization and work opportunities in larger cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Boston and New York. Immigration also increased during the nineteenth-century. Schlereth (1991) wrote that at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition the U.S. Department of Labor showed a diagram which noted the arrival of immigrants from just before the Civil War until 1907. The chart showed that prior to the Civil War the largest number of immigrants (427,833) arrived in 1854. In 1882 the number of new immigrants increased to 788,992 and by 1907 the number reached 1,285,349 new immigrants. Many of these new immigrants were from eastern and southern Europe, mainly Italy, Greece, Slovakia, Poland, Russia, Austria, Hungary, China, Japan, and the Philippines. Milton Bradley and his family were representative of the families migrating throughout the United States; Bradley’s father moved the family several times during Milton’s childhood to secure better jobs and thereby more money for his family (Shea, 1960).

Standard Time

Schlereth (1991) noted that prior to the Industrial Revolution the creation of a standard time was unnecessary. People measured time by the rising and setting of the sun, in the harvesting of crops and the pages of the almanac. Most towns used the sun at noon to set their town clock and often these clocks varied from town to town. Town halls, churches and factory whistles were all popular means of setting the time, even if they were often at odds with one another. This popular, if incorrect, ritual ended with the introduction of Standard Railway Time. Schlereth (1991) noted that on Sunday, November 18, 1883, at noon, Standard Railway Time went into effect with the drop of the Western Union’s New York time ball. Standard Railway Time replaced local time with five time zones: Intercolonial, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Each zone had the same time within its borders, thereby standardizing time across the country. While not everyone liked the new time zones, and in fact Standard Railway Time was challenged before state Supreme Courts at least fifteen times, Standard Railway Time become federal law with the passing of the Standard Time Act of 1918. Standard time signaled the larger changes going on in the United States as increased industrialization largely replaced agrarian concerns. Cross (1990) noted that the standardization of time allowed employers to precisely measure time and to intensify the pace of work. The clock set the standard for when work began and ended.

Mass Production

Mass production of materials allowed industry to flourish in the nineteenth century. Prior to Henry Ford’s creation of the assembly line in 1913 there were several advances in mass production technology. Schlereth (1991) wrote about advances in the manufacture of firearms (interchangeability of parts), in tool-and-die companies (precision jigs and gauges), in grain milling and iron foundrying (handling of materials by conveyor belts), in can making (special or single-purpose machinery), in steel production (time-and-motion efficiency studies), in meat packing (slaughterhouse disassembly lines) and in bicycle manufacturing (sheet-metal stamping and electric-

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resistance welding) as precursors to Ford’s chain-driven assembly line. All of these advances paved the way for modern industry. Saving time on each step allowed goods to be produced at lower cost and with more efficiency while increasing the intensity of the work (Cross, 1990). The Milton Bradley Company would take advantage of these innovations in mass production with the manufacture of the art supplies and materials they marketed to consumers (Shea, 1960).

Housing

Housing changed as well during the Victorian era. Martin (1993) noted that many Americans changed the way they lived during the second half of the nineteenth-century. Three new types of homes appeared during this era: the apartment, the sod house and the bungalow. The apartment house, often termed tenements in large cities, housed multiple families. Streetcars and commuter railroads helped to spur this expansion in housing as people moved further from the city center to the suburban areas around major cities. Larkin (1989) noted that housing was less equally distributed than it is today, the majority of household changes occurring among the middle and upper classes. Schlereth (1991) observed that indoor plumbing was introduced several years before there was any means to remove the waste. Most cities implemented their first sewer systems in the 1880’s. With the introduction of indoor plumbing, the workload for the women and children of the era decreased, as did the number of diseases prevalent in the cities. Another area in housing that changed during this period, according to Schlereth (1991) was in the area of cooking with the introduction of stoves and kitchen ranges in the 1840’s. Central heating did not become available to most homeowners until the 1890’s with the invention of the cast iron radiator. Around this same time, homeowners began experimenting with new fuel and electric sources of light. Gas, petroleum, kerosene and electric power offered homeowners a variety of options for lighting their homes. While gas proved a cleaner option than kerosene, ultimately most homeowners chose electric light options. One reason for that was the development by Thomas Edison of the incandescent bulb and the creation of his delivery system (generators, fixtures, lamp sockets, wiring and meters). By 1920, over thirty four percent of homes across the nation were wired for electricity.

U.S. Postal Service and Mail Order Catalogs

One of the biggest factors in the phenomenal success of mail order catalogs was the United States Post Office. Schlereth (1991) and Gustaitis (1993) both noted that several initiatives made by the post office during the late 1800’s including bulk mail rates, postal money orders, rural free delivery (RFD), and parcel post, helped companies such as Sears and Montgomery Ward mail their goods quickly and easily. Of these initiatives, Schlereth (1991), observed that the most significant was the introduction of the RFD system in 1896 by Postmaster General John A. Wanamaker. Rural delivery made it easy for consumers to purchase mail order items. The consumer merely noted their rural route number on the mail order envelope and their mail carrier purchased the money order for them and mailed the completed order to the store. Parcel post,

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introduced by the post office in 1913, made it possible for almost any rural American to order goods from a mail order catalog. Gustaitis (1993) noted that the majority of the nation was still rural at the end of the nineteenth century, and that the majority of these people had to rely on the general store and the country peddler to purchase goods and services. Martin (1993) saw the rise of mail-order catalogs and the addition of national brands to country stores as a way for rural households to join what she calls the “consumer revolution” (p. 150). Gustaitis (1993) observed that mail order catalogs, first introduced by Richard Sears, offered consumers the opportunity to purchase goods and services they might never have had access to otherwise. Sears, Roebuck and Company, Richard Sears’ company, and Montgomery Ward were two of the first stores to offer their goods through a catalog. Schlereth (1991) observed that by 1910 approximately ten million Americans shopped by mail. Gustaitis (1993) noted, “at its zenith, the book [Sears Big Book] contained fifteen hundred pages, weighed six pounds and reached twenty million people” (p.37). Sears catalogs offered over ten thousand items during their heyday. Illustrations and descriptions of all the products in the catalogs helped consumers who could not inspect the goods in person. Satisfaction in the products was of the utmost importance, so both Sears and Ward offered immediate cash refunds if the goods ordered were not what the consumer wanted. The Sears policy stated, “We guarantee that any article purchased from us will satisfy you perfectly...that it represents full value for the price you pay. If for any reason whatever you are dissatisfied with any article…we expect you to return it to us at our expense” (p. 38). Gustaitis (1993) observed that Sears himself noted, “The Big Catalog is your right arm to reach out and touch the whole world. Workmen, designers, and inventors of all nations may be summoned to your service. In this Book you have a modern convenience to be classed with electric power, the telephone and the telegraph” (p. 37). The popularity and prosperity of businesses that used mail-order catalogs paved the way for other business, including the Milton Bradley Company, to copy their methods for reaching consumers.

Advertising and Consumerism

Advertising, like most fields during the Victorian Era, underwent major changes throughout the nineteenth century. Schlereth (1991) noted that early advertising agents, called brokers, sold space in newspapers to individual businesses. These early advertisements were like the classified sections of the modern newspaper, often small type with no pictures. That practice changed with the advent of large advertising agencies such as N.W. Ayer and Son and Lord & Thomas. No longer the boring advertisements they began as, Schlereth (1991) noted that typical ads of the nineteenth century took two forms: the plain talk ad and the jingles and trade character ad style. The plain talk ad stressed direct and factual copy and the importance of content in selling. The jingles and trade character style ad attempted to raise the consumer’s curiosity and appealed to the average consumer’s short attention span. Additional forms of advertisements common at the end of the nineteenth century included the reason why advertisement and what was called impressionistic copy and atmosphere advertising.

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The large increase in the numbers of ads seen by the typical consumer correlates to the vast expansion in the number of newspapers and other print mediums at the end of the nineteenth century. Horowitz (1985) observed that advertising became the key to the movement of mass produced goods throughout the population. The increase in advertisements changed the way consumers purchased and used goods. Schlereth (1991) noted that: In less than half a century, corporate giants like Gold Medal and Pillsbury flour virtually eliminated small-town flour mills. National-brand advertising altered country-store merchandising, promoting greater price competition. Along with other new innovations in corporate advertising, it inverted traditional methods of selling goods. Instead of going first to a wholesaler who then conveyed his goods to the retailer, many manufacturers of national brands now increasingly appealed directly to consumers, relying upon advertising to create a demand for their products. (p. 162) As a result of this increase in advertising, according to Schlereth (1991), American consumer habits changed during the period of 1876-1915. Middle class and working class families had more money and more time to purchase goods. Additionally, goods being mass-produced during this period were increasingly less expensive. As the average earnings per week rose during this period, prices for goods and services decreased. The result of this was the wide consumption of goods by consumers. Martin (1993) noted that as more and more people began making use of the manufactured household goods being produced during this time, the demand for such products increased. One of the earliest products that entered the home, actually becoming popular in the pre-Industrial period, was equipment for dining. These new dining objects, including cutlery and napkins, required new furniture such as dining tables and chairs. Increased interest in entertainment in the home, such as cards, Martin (1993) noted, also led to consumer interest in specialized furniture such as card tables and nighttime lighting. Along with an interest in entertainment came a new attention to personal appearance, leading to a proliferation of new products for the hair and body and furniture to facilitate these new grooming ideals. Additional new products introduced during this period including plastics such as celluloid, bakelite and cellophane helped reduce the cost of everyday products. New forms of entertainment such as the amusement park, vaudeville and spectator sports helped foster the idea that fun and function could be purchased. The Milton Bradley Company would tap into this increased interest in entertainment when it began producing games and amusements for home use. The advertising used in the marketing of their products would help the company sell the products they produced more efficiently.

The Middle Class

Archer and Blau (1993) observed that the formation of the middle class was largely dependent on the transformation of class and occupational structure that came from rapid changes in industrial-capitalism, urbanization, immigration and geographic mobility. The composition of the middle class, according to the authors, appears to

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depend on the historical period under consideration. The beginning of the nineteenth century found that the middle class was comprised primarily of artisans as the switch from manual to non-manual labor began. The mid-nineteenth century, or early industrial period found the middle class to be peopled mostly with small capitalists. The latter decades of the nineteenth century, with its emphasis on industrialization and large corporations, found the middle class made up mostly of white-collar employees. Archer and Blau (1993) noted that historical evidence suggested that although artisans were instrumental in the development of the technology needed for mass production, job opportunities for artisans dwindled throughout the nineteenth century. Small capitalists, on the other hand, tended to expand their businesses during this period and therefore ascended into middle class standing. Industrialization expanded opportunities for ownership of retail shops and businesses which increased the rate of upward mobility, thereby helping to create a middle class social network within commercial districts. Archer and Blau (1993) observed that “entrepreneurship also emerged in the late nineteenth century as the central theme of middle-class ideology of success” (p. 10). The biggest and most visible change in the occupations of the middle class during this period was the shift from manual to non-manual labor. Clerical and managerial work became staple middle class occupations that signaled a definite disassociation from the working class. Schlereth (1991) wrote about the growth of the middle class as based on the federal census statistics from 1870 to 1920. He noted that in 1860 the Bureau of the Census found about 750,000 people were engaged in what was termed “professional service” and other “commercial” positions. By 1890 the number of people employed in similar positions had risen to 2,160,000, by 1910 that number was 4,420,000. The people employed in these positions, in addition to farmers and small entrepreneurs, included salaried professionals, managers, sales people, and office workers. Most of these new middle class additions lived in the cities. Archer and Blau (1993) noted that the formation of the middle class had less to do with economic conditions and more to do with lifestyle choices. They note, “the emergence of the middle class was rooted in the transformation of work under industrial- capitalism and shifts in occupational composition over the course of the nineteenth century. Middle class identity was formed through related processes of institution building, the development of an increasingly homogeneous middle-class culture, and the wide diffusion of middle-class lifestyles and cultural codes in cities” (p. 7). Middle class families in the nineteenth century, they argue, focused on values, domestic ideology, and gender roles. One of the reasons for the dissemination of middle class values and cultural codes was the greater geographic mobility among middle class families versus working class families. Another reason was the relative geographic and residential stability of the middle class. The result of this stability was the idea among working class families that the attainment of middle class status would increase their own stability. The expectation of mobility by members of the working class, the authors note, if not for themselves then for their children, was in fact somewhat realistic during the latter portion of the nineteenth century. Kasson (1990) noted that many working class members of society gained acceptance in the middle class through the practice of correct manners, the control of emotions and the rituals of polite behavior. The attainment of that middle class veneer allowed many rural families and immigrants to become members in good standing.

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Education was another contributing factor in the explosive growth of the middle class during the nineteenth century. Milton Bradley is a prime example of a man who rose above his humble beginnings to become a solid middle class citizen (Shea, 1960).

Education

The nineteenth century saw the beginning of the public or common school system that continues to this day. Kaestle (1983) described education in the early 1800’s as one of custom, stating, “America had schools, but, except in large cities, America did not have school systems” (p.62). Most communities had some sort of elementary level schooling by the 1830’s, although legislation requiring such schooling was not in place at that time. Uniformity, according to Kaestle (1983) was provided by the strong Protestant content of the curriculum, by the popularity of certain textbooks and by the traditions prevalent in the communities themselves. Educators during this period stressed three goals that what would become the hallmark of public schooling: intelligent citizenship, industrious habits and upright behavior. Moral education, steeped heavily in the Protestant tradition, would develop directly from these goals. Milton Bradley, who attended school during the late 1840’s and early 1850’s, would have been a product of this system (Lowell Historical Society).

Growth of Interest in Schooling

Kaestle (1983) credits the growth of the capitalist economy of the United States as being a major spur to the education system. Trade and finance expanded the use of long- distance communication, which precipitated an increased use and reliance on money and credit. This reliance created centers of enterprise, which in turn served as centers of learning. Increased commerce also created a greater need for knowledge of the written word and basic arithmetic. The more widespread the printed word became, through the publication of greater and greater numbers of books, newspapers and periodicals, the greater became the need for schooling. This phenomenon was especially prevalent in the Northeast, where commerce and the economy were rapidly expanding during this period.

Common School Reforms

The common school reform movement stemmed from a desire among educational advocates the increase the amount of schooling every child received, to increase state involvement in education, to increase uniformity between schools, and to present a more public purpose for schooling (Kaestle, 1983). There was great concern among educators about student attendance in the public schools. Kaestle (1983) notes that by the mid- nineteenth century about half of all children under twenty attended school at least half- time in Massachusetts and New York. The portion of students that did not attend school were often the urban poor; immigrant children who had to work to help support their families. Kaestle (1984) observed that by the 1840’s both religious and ethnic diversity had greatly increased, especially in the big cities. Immigration and the increased amount

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of religious division among the people of the United States helped the common school movement gain acceptance. Kaestle (1984) stated, “Expansive capitalism and accompanying urbanization carried the threat of disruption and social problems. Many reformers saw common schooling as a source of both discipline and opportunity, a way to enhance stability and fairness simultaneously” (p. 102). Kaestle (1983) noted another area in which school reformers were active was in discouraging parents from sending their very young children to school. The idea of infant schools was not new, but in the mid-nineteenth century it came to be enforced more readily. Small children were not seen to benefit from public schooling; in fact, it was seen to be detrimental. Small children were sent home to their mothers, clearing the way for the more curricular-driven school. The beginning of the kindergarten movement would bring small children back to public school, but three and four year olds were thereafter sent to infant or nursery schools. While increasing attendance was an important goal of educational reformers, so was an increased state presence in public schooling. This increased presence was implemented in many ways. Kaestle (1983) noted that school systems were created at this time, state supervision regulations were put into place, and the change from private to public control of the schools was implemented. The first superintendents of schools were appointed and legislation was introduced to explain and define their roles within the new school systems. The goals of these superintendents were basically the same in every state, to act as a cheerleader for the public school system and to advocate the enrollment of all children in public schooling versus private schooling. The goals of the common school system: moral training, discipline, patriotism, mutual understanding, formal equality, and cultural assimilation were presented to the public (Kaestle, 1983). The result of these educational reformers was lasting. Increased legislation regarding schools and the creation of state-wide school systems helped to create a more uniform educational system. High schools were introduced in the mid-nineteenth century in the north and the number of children attending these schools increased every year. Increased spending and school taxes helped update existing facilities and school supplies. The form and function of public schooling was now in place (Kaestle, 1983), and would affect Milton Bradley’s life and business as new and innovative teaching strategies and materials were introduced into classrooms around the country.

Moral Education

One of the most important reasons for the necessity of moral education in the public school system was the changing role of school and home life. Home life, McClellan (1999) observed, changed dramatically during the nineteenth century. Children no longer stayed in the parental home until adulthood. Many young adults ventured out into the world at a much earlier age, making moral training, once a task that extended into early adulthood, limited to childhood itself. McClellan (1999) noted that, “nineteenth-century Americans made moral education the special responsibility of two institutions especially adaptable to the task of offering intensive training to the very nd young—the family and the school” (p. 18). The 22 Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Lowell, MA (1847) observed:

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If they could be successfully appealed to only through the instrumentality of the rod, it would then be the teacher’s disgrace, and his alone. If, on the other hand, they could be controlled by those high moral considerations which should influence rational human beings, it would redound to the teacher’s honor. But the influence of parents upon their children, begins earlier, reaches deeper, and extends farther, than the teacher’s can. (p. 31) With the rise of a public school system, the idea of moral education came to the forefront of educational debate. Schools, both Sunday and daily, according to McClellan (1999), were expected to extend and reinforce the moral education taught in the home. Moral education was seen as a way to preserve harmony among the many different segments of society. Kaestle (1984) made a similar observation when he noted that the increase of immigration and diversified religious practice led educators to support the idea of a pan-Protestant approach to moral education in the public schools. Horace Mann, a leading education advocate of the day, was a leading advocate of this approach, which was soon widely accepted among educators. Mann (1848) said, “the naked capacity to read and write is not more education than a tool is a workman…Moral education is a primal necessity” (Cremin, 1983). Moral education was taught in a variety of ways, not always religious. Kaestle (1984) noted that religious, political and economic ideas during the nineteenth-century were overlapping and mutually reinforcing. Each area, Kaestle observed, provided maxims used in common school textbooks, sermons, domestic manuals and other forms of social commentary. Each area generated a variety of social beliefs, which in turn generated various ethical lessons about human nature and social relations. Kaestle (1983) noted that moral education was intended primarily to produce obedient children, reduce crime and discourage vice. This was achieved through a curriculum that placed a strong emphasis on character, discipline, virtue and good habits. The general common school curriculum placed as high a value on moral education as on reading, writing, and arithmetic. McClellan (1999) noted that moral lessons suffused nineteenth-century textbooks. Stories in readers, spellers and arithmetic books helped to promote the types of behavior that nineteenth-century children were expected to emulate. Textbooks, according to Stearns (1885), taught “love of country, love of God, duty to parents, the necessity to develop habits of thrift, honesty, and hard work in order to accumulate property, the certainty of progress and the perfection of the United States” (p. 89). The most commonly used textbooks during this period were the McGuffey Readers and the Webster Spellers. McClellan (1999) noted that the moral themes and values prevalent in the textbooks of the nineteenth-century had been familiar for generations and were not new ideas. The focus changed during this time, however, as more and more children received a majority of their moral education in the public schools. Americans of the day, according to McClellan (1999), believed that “the key to the good of society lay less in the structures of government or in political beliefs than in the morality of common citizens” (p. 27). It was in such an atmosphere that Milton Bradley received his early moral training and education. He grew up with these values, and advocated and fostered them as an adult.

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Inside the Classroom

The role of the student and the teacher was well defined in most public school classrooms during the nineteenth century. Finkelstein (1989) asserted that what teachers did most often in classrooms of this period was talk. Students listened to their teachers, recited passages from textbooks, and worked with classmates and at their desks on assignments. Teachers expected students to be quiet and well behaved. Uniformity among students and classroom assignments was encouraged. Memorization, instruction, drill and recitation were the most common learning tools used by students and teachers during this the early to mid-nineteenth century.

Schooling at the End of the Century

Kliebard (1995) observed that education was in a state of flux throughout the nineteenth century. The monitorial or Lancaster system, with its rigid adherence to a call and response from the students and strict discipline, which was so popular in the early 1800’s was losing popularity. Kliebard (1995) described the changing conditions in education as a decline in the reliance of the face-to-face community and increasing social awareness. Schools were no longer the logical link in a unified community; rather they were what Kliebard calls a “mediating institution between the family and the social order, the family and the community, and the family and industrial society” (p. 1). By the late 1800’s, schooling was still in a state of flux, but it was clear that schooling had replaced some part of what was the family’s role concerning initiation into society. The most obvious change that occurred during this time was the shift from a teacher-driven school to a curriculum-driven school. Cuban (1984) noted that by the 1890’s, more than half a century had passed since the beginning of the common school movement and the look of classrooms had also changed. Schools were separated into grade levels and were in session for nine months per year. Rows of desks were bolted to the floor; students faced the teacher’s desk and the blackboard. Courses of study were in place for each grade; homework and report cards were commonly seen in the schools. Each teacher had his or her own room. Teachers, themselves, were expected to have higher training than high school. The look and feel of the classroom by the 1890’s was very similar to today’s classrooms. Finklestein (1989) observed: By the end of the nineteenth century, schools were no longer dots on the landscape of education or childhood. They had become shelters, formidable structures of persuasions through which every child passed on the road to adulthood. Not total institutions like families…schools became mediating structures: way stations between the small world of family, church and neighborhood, and the large world of government, nation, and marketplace. (p. 24)

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Progressive Education

Progressive education first entered the common school system in the late 1800’s. Cremin (1964) observed that by the 1890’s educational reformers had identified many areas in which public or common schooling could be improved. These problems, for the first time, were seen as being truly national in scope. Progressive reformers hoped to make public schooling more universal with a broader appeal to the general public. Cremin (1964) noted that the progressive education movement had four broad goals: “to broaden the program and function of the school to include concern for health, vocation and the quality of family and community life; to apply in the classroom the pedagogical principles derived from new scientific research in psychology and the social sciences; to tailor instruction to different kinds and classes of children; and to foster the idea that culture could be democratized without being vulgarized, and that everyone could share in the benefits of the new sciences and in the pursuit of the arts,” (p. 19).

Manual training schools

Manual training schools were seen as a solution to the problem of how to introduce meaningful shop training into technical education. Efland (1990) noted that manual training was first proposed in the 1870’s, making it part of the early progressive movement. Manual training, according to Efland, emphasized the virtues of craftsmanship and shared many of the goals of art educators. Cremin (1964) observed that Victor Della Vos, director of the Moscow Imperial Technical School, was one of the first educators to align the work of mathematics, physics, and engineering with on-the-job training through the use of school workshops built for that purpose. In Della Vos’s opinion, mechanical arts were on par with the fine arts, both needing practical training to achieve competency. This idea, when introduced in the United States, translated into the first technical training school affiliated with universities and the beginnings of industrial education in the public schools. Geiger (2000) noted that by the 1850’s three different types of scientific/technical education had emerged from the idea of manual training: “schools of science” attached to some of the foremost colleges and universities; colleges of agriculture; and “polytechnics” devoted to engineering and the mechanic arts (p. 155). Scientific schools such as the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University organized distinct two-year courses in chemistry and engineering and prepared students for postgraduate study in languages, philosophy, and science. Agricultural colleges, often called land grant colleges, were begun during this period and often taught courses in agricultural chemistry and offered a combination of academic courses and manual labor training for the farm. Polytechnics such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to Geiger

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(2000), represented the first true engineering schools. Founded in 1861 by William Barton Rogers, MIT was conceived as way to bring science to the industrial classes through the use of a museum, instructions for regular students, and a night school for workers. Manual training, with its emphasis on practical application of scientific method would enter the public school system primarily through manual training courses in the high schools. Schools, according to Cremin (1961) were assuming the classical functions of the apprenticeship. Manual training was well on its way to becoming industrial education. The passage of the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which provided federal aid for vocational secondary education was in many ways the culmination of the work that began in the late nineteenth century with the beginnings of the progressive education movement. Milton Bradley, who attended the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, would be among the many to benefit from the practical training in mechanical arts.

Kindergarten

The kindergarten movement, with its emphasis of a “child-centered” approach, was part of the larger Progressive Education movement. Frederic Fröebel, founder of the kindergarten, was an important influence on many progressive educators. Chung and Walsh (2000) observed that Fröebel was one of the first educators to suggest that young children required special schooling to match their developmental level. The first English speaking kindergarten, was founded by Elizabeth Peabody in 1860. Peabody was influenced by the transcendental philosophy of her mentor Bronson Alcott. Chung and Walsh (2000) noted that Peabody viewed children’s nature as perfect and innocent and saw moral education in the kindergarten classroom as a way to protect that innocence. Kindergarten expanded its influence in the public school system throughout the 1880’s. Chung and Walsh (2000) noted that kindergarten teachers were pressed to conform to the curriculum of the primary grades. By the early 1900’s, kindergarten had undergone a revolution of sorts. The kindergarten of Fröebel introduced by Elizabeth Peabody had changed to a more Americanized version that was based on the scientific ideas of Hall, Dewey and Thorndike. The kindergarten curriculum now centered on the scientific knowledge of children’s natural development. Kindergarten and progressive education complemented each other in their mutual focus on the child as the center of the curriculum. During the late 1800’s, kindergartens were often introduced to the general public through the settlement houses of the period. These settlement houses were common in poor, urban areas. One of the most famous settlement houses, Hull House in Chicago, founded by Jane Addams in 1889, offered both a kindergarten and a nursery school for its residents and the larger neighborhood (Cremin, 1964).

Early leaders of progressive education: Francis Wayland Parker and John Dewey

Francis Wayland Parker. Francis Wayland Parker was the influential educator and child-study advocate John Dewey referred to as the “father of progressive education” (Cremin, 1964). Cremin (1964) noted that Parker was an educator in Manchester, New

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Hampshire, principal of the Dayton, Ohio Normal School, school superintendent of the Quincy, Massachusetts school system, supervisor of the Boston school system and principal of the Cook County Normal School in Chicago, Illinois. Parker spent two years studying the schools of Prussia, Switzerland, and Holland, where he learned about Pestalozzi and Fröebel, both of whom emphasized sensory, material-based learning. Korzenik (1984) noted that Parker’s educational philosophy centered around the idea that children only learn what is meaningful to them in their daily lives and that meaning is rooted in experience. Parker’s method stressed attention to the objects of childhood and the expression of understanding that can come from that attention. A large portion of Parker’s teaching method used what he termed “modes of expression.” Those modes of expression were gesture, voice, speech, music, making, modeling, painting, drawing and writing. This focus on the arts was later a central theme of progressive education.

John Dewey. Efland (1990) noted that the philosophy of John Dewey had a revolutionary and lasting impact on art education. Dewey had an early and lasting role in progressive education through his publications, his laboratory school and his work at Teachers College, Columbia. Chung and Walsh (2000) observed that Dewey’s assertion that children should be able to help determine their training to some extent was indicative of the child-centered progressive education movement. The result of Dewey’s reflections on education and the role of the child resulted in his idea of the project or activity centered curriculum. This curriculum idea was based on children’s life experiences according to their interests or needs. The project-centered curriculum was a hallmark of progressive education and was really developed in Dewey’s Laboratory School, opened in January 1896 (Cremin, 1964). Cremin (1964) noted that Dewey’s stated purpose for the Laboratory School was, “to discover in administration, selection of subject-matter, methods of learning, teaching, and discipline, how a school could become a cooperative community while developing in individuals their own capacities and satisfying their own needs” (p. 136). The focus of the Laboratory School was to encourage purposeful activity, that is, learning through doing. This idea is a cornerstone of the progressive education movement. Cremin (1964) wrote that learning occurred through the use of themed activities, languages, mathematics, fine and industrial arts, science, history, music, and geography. All the subjects studied at the Laboratory School progressed with the idea that learning has a social context which cannot be ignored. Efland (1990) noted that neither Parker nor Dewey believed that subjects should not be taught in isolation. Activities taking place in the classroom were grounded in the realities of children’s lives, with a premium placed on real world experiences and learning experiences. Art and music were seen as a way to make the experiences in the classroom more worthwhile. The progressive education movement would build on the ideas of these early reformers and refine them throughout the early twentieth century. The effect that the progressive movement would have on education in general and kindergarten in particular can be seen in the increased amount of work done in the fine and industrial art areas and in the positioning of the child at the center of the curriculum.

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Art Education

Art education entered the public schools for purely practical reasons. Efland (1990) noted that vocal music and drawing were seen as a way to elevate moral standards. Horace Mann (1841) noted, “Drawing may well go hand in hand with music; so may the cultivation of libraries and the cultivation of a taste for reading, etc. Every pure taste implanted in the youthful mind becomes a barrier to resist the allurements of sensuality” (p. 186). Drawing instruction became the first type of art education to enter the schools and was approached by many educators in a purely academic manner. Wygant (1993) has written that during this period, drawing was seen as a representational skill developed through the practice of exercises. Two of the earliest art educators were William Bentley Fowle and Rembrant Peale. Fowle is generally credited with introducing art education into the public schools (Wygant, 1993). Ironically, Fowle conducted a monitorial school in Boston in 1821 and was not a drawing instructor. Fowle based his teaching methods on those of Pestalozzi. The Pestalozzi method used exercises in drawings, the division of straight lines, construction of two and three-dimensional forms, classical architecture, arithmetic and geometry. The Pestalozzi method used exercises in drawings, the division of straight lines, construction of two and three-dimensional forms, classical architecture, arithmetic and geometry. Efland (1990) described the principles of Pestalozzi’s system of drawing as: “1. To bring all things essentially related to each other together, 2. To subordinate all unessential things, 3. To arrange all objects according to their likenesses, 4. To strengthen sense impressions of important objects by allowing them to be experienced through different senses, 5. To arrange knowledge in graduated steps so that differences in new ideas shall be small and almost imperceptible, and 6. To make the simple perfect before going on to the complex” (p. 78). In How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, Pestalozzi (1801/1898) observed that: The usual course of our art education is to begin with inaccurate observation and crooked structures; them to pull down and build up again crookedly ten times over, until at last and late, the feeling of proportion has matured. Then we come, at last, to that with which we should have begun, measurement. (p. 186) Peale, on the other hand, was a trained artist (Wygant, 1993). He wrote a drawing text in 1834 that was widely used in the public schools. The type of drawing advocated by the Peale method was representational drawing. Representational drawing, as used in the Peale text, began with the drawing of horizontal and vertical lines and continued through diagonal and then curved lines. The Peale text differed from Fowle’s lessons in that Peale progressed then onto simple forms, geometric shapes and landscapes. Between 1840 and 1844, Peale taught in the Philadelphia public schools system as a volunteer. Efland (1990) noted that drawing instruction during this period was limited to outline drawing. Exercises involving shading were not generally taught; the focus of student work was accuracy and neatness. There was little to no emphasis on personal creativity or original creativity in these systems. Art instruction was seen as a way of developing the minds of children and was not considered for its own sake.

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Influential Early Drawing Advocates

Wygant (1993) outlined the profound influence two other educators had on the beginnings of art education. Both were early superintendents of schools and as such had great effect on their state’s curriculum. The first, Horace Mann, was the superintendent of the Massachusetts’s school system. The second, Henry Barnard, was the superintendent of the Rhode Island schools. Mann traveled to Prussia to observe educational methods in their public school system (Efland, 1990). While in Prussia, Mann was impressed with the way educators there used drawing as a type of language, as an aid to teaching writing and as a means of appreciating beauty. Upon his return to Massachusetts, Mann implemented drawing lessons at the state’s normal schools. Saunders (1961) observed that Horace Mann was the first person to make any real attempt to incorporate art into the school curriculum via his publication of Peter Schmid’s system of drawing instruction in 1844 and 1845. Efland (1990) noted that Mann was a strong advocate for drawing instruction in the schools. Barnard advocated a similar stance on drawing instruction in both Connecticut and Rhode Island. As editors for educational journals in their respective states, both of these men had a positive influence on the beginnings of art education in their states.

Massachusetts Free Instruction in Drawing Act of 1870

The Massachusetts Free Instruction in Drawing Act of 1870 is often cited, according to Smith (1996), as the official start of art education in the American school system. The act was a direct result of a petition signed by some of Boston’s most influential business leaders. The petition was quoted in an article by Bolin (1986) as follows: To the Honorable General Court of the State of Massachusetts, Your petitioners respectfully represent that every branch of manufacturers in which the citizens of Massachusetts are engaged, requires in the details of the process connected with it, some knowledge of drawing and other arts of design on the part of 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 disadvantages 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 draughtsmen in our shops are thus trained abroad. In England, within the last ten 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 sixteen 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.

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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 five thousand inhabitants. And your petitioners will ever pray. Jacob Bigelow John Amory Lowell J. Thos. Stevenson E.B. Bigelow William A. Burke Francis C. Lowell James Lawrence John H. Clifford Edw. E. Hale Wm. Gray Theodore Lyman F.H. Peabody Jordan, Marsh & Co. A.A. Lawrence & Co. (p. 74) The result of the petition was the passing of the act requiring towns of more than 5000 to have a drawing program in the public schools. This was to have a great affect on Milton Bradley’s company through the marketing of art supplies and materials for the classroom.

Industrial Drawing

The industrial revolution changed the way art instruction took place in schools. American manufactures, attempting to compete with European counterparts, pressed educators for a more comprehensive drawing curriculum geared to the needs of business. Efland (1990) observed that, “ the introduction of drawing was an attempt to enable the populace to capitalize upon the advantages of the Industrial Revolution, much as Europe had done generations before” (p. 93). Wygant (1993) noted that industrial drawing was sharply delineated from fine art drawing. Walter Smith, State Instructor of Drawing for Massachusetts, discussed his definition of industrial drawing in a series of lectures he gave at the Lowell Institute in 1872. Smith described industrial drawing as an “important element in the trades and manufactures” and distanced industrial drawing from “the more ornamental or professional branches of art” (Efland, 1990, p. 101). Pictorial drawing, in the industrial drawing curriculum, was completely eliminated. Children learning under the industrial drawing system were exposed to lines, shapes and geometric forms in the elementary grade. Students were expected to follow the instructors’ step-by-step instructions. Children in the upper grades progressed from simple shapes to historic ornament and botanical forms. Perspective, light and shade were introduced in high school and color was used sparingly. The emphasis of any industrial drawing program was the training of students in the fundamentals of industrial design. Industrial drawing was taught primarily to working class children as a prelude to work. Classroom teachers were trained to teach the fundamentals of industrial drawing to their students starting in the 1870’s.

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Picture Study

Although industrial drawing was highly touted at the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, its influence on the public school curriculum waned throughout the 1880’s. A new drawing curriculum, called picture study, was taking the place of industrial drawing in many public schools. Efland (1990) noted that the movement was started as a way to decorate schoolrooms with reproductions of artworks and as a way to promote artistic culture. Picture study, according to Wygant (1993), was closely aligned with the development of aesthetic education. William T. Harris, the U.S. commissioner of education, was a strong supporter of aesthetic education. Aesthetic education included the study of art history, with an emphasis on the Greeks. It stressed the moralistic aspects of art through the study of photographic reproductions. This study of art through pictures became known as picture study. Picture study changed the way art was taught in the public schools. While industrial drawing emphasized the learning of a set of skills, picture study allowed students to represent objects in a more individualized way. Children were encouraged to express themselves more in picture study than at any other time in school art history. Amburgy (1990) observed “like others who promoted schoolroom decoration and picture study around the turn of the century, they [educators] believed the value of art lay in its moral influence on people’s lives” (p. 105). Efland (1990) also noted that, “American art educators of that period were anxious to connect art study with the acquisition of American virtues, especially for the children of immigrants” (p. 146). Picture study also encouraged the use of different media. The Fröebelian system used in kindergarten classrooms was especially suited to this type of study. Early school supply businesses such as those run by Milton Bradley and Louis Prang, brought the supplies and materials needed to stock this new study available to educators across the country.

Art Texts and Instruction Manuals

As more and more states added drawing instructors the need for drawing instruction materials became more evident. Stankiewicz (1986) wrote that the drawing manuals printed between 1820 and 1860 were written by American artists and featured primarily landscapes. These manuals were intended for home use and were geared toward artists and offered simple rules of drawing. Texts intended for use in public schools included William N. Bartholomew’s series, which was required in the Boston grammar schools in 1870 and the drawing texts of Walter Smith. Smith’s American Textbooks of Art Education featured drawing instruction more akin to industrial drawing than to the traditional art texts written by artists. Additional texts were written by the Prang Educational Company. Wygant (1993) noted that school drawing usually began with lines and then progressed to geometrical shapes, common objects and basic geometric forms. Some workbooks had children copy sketches of landscapes and the use of “historic ornament” (architectural forms) was prevalent after the mid-1800’s. Drawings during this period were often flat, shading was not encouraged and color was nonexistent. Color would not

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be introduced into the drawing curriculum until after the Civil War. The Milton Bradley Company published a large number of books by educators on a wide variety of subjects including: clay modeling, knife work, paper and scissors, mother stories, raffia and reed weaving, and color (Milton Bradley Company advertisement).

Leisure

Advances in technology and industry also affected the way in which people used their leisure time. Cross (1990) noted that the emerging middle class tended to view work as a barrier against sloth and indulgence. This view incorporated the prevailing Puritan ideal of leisure with an instructional quality. Daniels (1995) noted that, “Puritans believed that the ideal leisure activity was both productive and pleasurable,” (p. xiv). Most Puritan families banned dice, cards and smoking as time wasters. Leisure, according to most Puritans included moderate exercise and singing. The rise of choral singing groups in the nineteenth century was due in part to that Puritan tradition. The traditions of the Puritan family were still felt heavily in early nineteenth century New England. Paradoxically, Cross (1990) noted, middle class entrepreneurs during the nineteenth century produced more new forms of leisure than any previous century. Industrialization changed the way in which leisure was measured. The time clock and the factory helped enforce the separation between work-time and family-time (Cross, 1990). Family-time became more associated with leisure and separated from the work environment. This division of work and family-time also influenced the role of women in the home. Cross (1990) noted that, “women became the focal point for new domestic leisure built around “togetherness” and gentility rather than the traditional and often rough community pleasures of peasant society,” (p. 63). Family leisure became in many ways the dominion of women. Many women attempted to shape their children’s playtime through the use of educational toys and games during this period. Cross (1990) noted that games like checkers and chess were advocated for their ability to engage the mind. Children played games that reinforced Protestant moral themes, such as Pilgrim’s Progress and The Mansion of Happiness. Books read by children during this time also reinforced the moral themes of the time. Publishers capitalized on this trend by publishing books and magazines specifically for children. Adults of the period showed an increased interest in recreational activities such as music, vaudeville, theatre and dance in the latter portions of the nineteenth century (Kraus, 1984). Commercial amusements including dance halls, bowling alleys and amusement parks offered a diversion from work for the average person. Cross (1990) noted that as wealth and technology increased, so did a taste for novelty. New games and amusements became popular as the century wore on and businessmen such as Milton Bradley, George Parker and the McLoughlin brothers capitalized on that interest.

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Boardgames

Andrews (1972) observed that, “the board game, which means exactly what it says, as game played on a board, while a peculiarly American pastime, is as old as the written history of man” (p. 64). Among the first boardgames discovered were backgammon and chess, but boardgames are present in almost every country throughout the centuries. In the nineteenth century, the boardgames created reflected the larger society and as Andrews (1972) noted, both their hopes and prejudices. The morality of the times dictated the tenor and scope of boardgames; most often boardgames were expected to have some instructional value. Ball (1976) noted that instructional games usually educate and entertain. The purposes, he notes, are not mutually exclusive. Most games offer a combination of both instruction and entertainment. Games such as The Mansion of Happiness, the first boardgame created in the United States by Anne Abbot in 1843, and The Checkered Game of Life, created by Milton Bradley in 1860 emphasized a strongly moral theme. Both games used an eight- sided wooden top called a teetotum instead of dice; dice being strongly associated with cards, and thereby, sin (Andrews, 1972, “Games New Yorkers Play,”1985). Andrews (1972) explained, “games for the whole family were acceptable as long as they taught moral or ethical lessons…family play became almost an extension of the children’s Biblical instruction—for an aversion to what seemed like mindless fun persisted” (p. 66). As the nineteenth century ended, however, there was a change in the boardgames being produced and marketed in the United States. Many American gamemakers were creating games that reflected the more relaxed, carefree society of the 1890’s. Boardgames celebrating banking, automobiles, sports and national celebrities were all created in the late 1800’s and were wildly popular. Daniels (1995) concurred, noting that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, games emphasizing money were popular. New games, such as Mah Jongg, became instant fads throughout the country (“Games New Yorkers Play,” 1985). Manufacturers, noted Andrews (1972), such as George Parker, sold thousands of Mah Jongg sets before the craze wound down. Boardgames were and still are the backbone of the game industry. The Milton Bradley Company, like many other game manufacturers of the day, made several fortunes marketing boardgames to the general public. New editions of older games such as The Game of Life and Monopoly still exist today and are enjoyed by a new generation of players.

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CHAPTER 3: MILTON BRADLEY’S LIFE AND WORK

This chapter explores the life and work of Milton Bradley. Beginning with his education, including his public school and college experiences and continuing through the end of his professional life, this chapter details the professional and personal business decisions of the entrepreneur. Included in this chapter are sections dealing with the birth of his business, his introduction to the kindergarten, his meeting with Elizabeth Peabody, the beginning of his trade in kindergarten supplies and materials, and his interest in color theory. The sum of these sections is a representation of Milton Bradley in the context of his life and times. Educational Beginnings

Milton Bradley’s early educational experiences were heavily influenced by his parents, Lewis and Fannie. Shea (1960) recounted one of Bradley’s earliest experiences: He [Milton] was six years old and writhing over the meaningless abstraction of first grade numerals one evening when Lewis Bradley came from the kitchen with six red apples which he placed on the table in front of Milton. Count them, he told his son. Milton could count to six all right; what puzzled him was why four and two should make six, as his teacher had stated. Lewis Bradley removed two apples from the table and told Milton to count the remainder. Then he put back the two apples and told him to count again. Suddenly the abstract mystery was solved for him. A numeral was merely a symbol for things. (p. 27) While the use of manipulatives is nothing new in today’s math lessons, their effect on six-year old Milton Bradley was unforgettable. Shea (1960) noted that the association between the use of manipulatives and learning was to form the cornerstone of Bradley’s educational philosophy. This association would have greater importance when Bradley was introduced to the gifts and occupations of the German educator Frederic Fröebel in the 1860’s. Shea (1960) wrote that the idea that pleasure should accompany learning was also fostered in the Bradley household. Milton and his father played both chess and checkers; games which were based on mental skill, rather than playing cards which required only chance. The unique combination of play and learning would be a recurring theme in the products and materials later produced by the Milton Bradley Company. The Springfield Homestead (1911) noted that Milton Bradley’s family moved often when he was a child. Lewis Bradley, Milton Bradley’s father, moved the family to Mercer, Maine, when Bradley was two and a few years later to Wilton, New Hampshire, where the elder Bradley opened a potato starch mill. When his crops were ruined by

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potato rot in 1845, Lewis Bradley moved the family to Mt. Vernon, Maine, then on to Smithfield, Maine, in 1846 and finally to Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1847. In Lowell, Lewis Bradley secured work in the textile mills. Milton Bradley was at this time eleven years old (“Milton Bradley Dies,” 1911). Milton Bradley entered the Lowell Public School System in 1847 and graduated from Lowell High School when he was fifteen years old (“Death of Milton Bradley,” 1911). Reports from the time note that during his time at Lowell High School Bradley was interested in mathematics, particularly geometry. Bradley also became interested in freehand drawing and general art studies but such instruction was not available at the school (“Milton Bradley Dies,” 1911). rd The 23 Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Lowell, Massachusetts (1848) indicated that the courses Bradley would have taken at Lowell High School included Greek and Latin, reading, spelling, geography, English grammar and parsing, natural philosophy, astronomy, physiology (physical education), useful arts (manual training) and history. 1848, Bradley’s second year in the high school, saw the rd addition of vocal music. The 23 Annual Report (1848) noted that “The committee believe that, in general, the knowledge of music which has been acquired and that the improvement in singing which has been made in our Schools, are quite as great as the amount of instruction would lead us to expect” (p. 11). Students took two, half-hour lessons in music per week, with instructor I.N. Metcalf. Drawing was not included as part of the general high school curriculum during the time Milton Bradley attended Lowell High School. Following his graduation from Lowell High School, Bradley took a job at the office of Oliver Cushing, a local mechanical engineer and patent agent. During his time in Mr. Cushing’s office, Bradley learned the elements of drafting. Bradley’s quick progress in the area of drafting encouraged him to further his education in that area. He decided to enroll in the two-year course in engineering at the Lawrence Scientific School, now part of Harvard University (“Death of Milton Bradley,” 1911). In order to pay for the two-year course Bradley sold stationary supplies to the girls in the mills. Bradley (1910) writes of this period: I established a stationary trade by peddling paper, envelopes, pens, ink, wafers, etc. through the boardinghouses of the corporations. As a certain portion of the corporations paid off each week, I always selected the days when the girls were ‘flush.’ All the mill girls at that time were intelligent Americans, and in some of the larger houses there were 50 girls in a tenement. Usually I would find from 10 to 25 assembled around the dining table, sewing or reading or writing letters. I, in fact, had an established trade which competitors who learned my methods tried in vain to take from me, as the girls would wait for me. (p. 6) Bradley’s stationary business allowed him to raise the funds to enroll in the Lawrence Scientific School in the fall of 1854. In order to save money Bradley roomed at home and traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, daily to attend school. To earn additional money, Bradley taught lessons to mechanics working for the Merrimac Corporation (“Milton Bradley Dies,” 1911). The Catalog of the Officers and Students of Harvard University for the Academical Year 1854-1855 lists Bradley, Milton, as studying engineering, and residing in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Catalog of the Officers and Students for the Academical Year 1855-1856 also lists Milton Bradley as attending the

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school, studying engineering and geology and residing in Lowell. Additionally, the Harvard University List of Students of the Lawrence Scientific School 1847-1894 lists Milton Bradley as a publisher and manufacturer who attended the Lawrence Scientific School from 1854-1856. During his tenure at the Lawrence Scientific School Bradley was enrolled in the engineering program. The course of study, as listed in the 1854 and 1855 catalog, included: Surveying, with the use of instruments, and actual operations in the field; Drawing in all its branches; topographical, outline, shaded, and tinted, including isometric projections; Analytical geometry and differential and integral calculus; The principles of Mechanics, and their application to Machinery and Engineering; Descriptive geometry; the theory of shades, shadows, and perspective; The application of Descriptive Geometry to masonry and stone-cutting, in the construction of groined and cloistered arches, domes, & c; [and] The nature and properties of building materials, and their application to the construction of railroads, canals, bridges etc. (p. 70) The catalog also notes that instruction will be given through lectures and blackboard work, and that a knowledge of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry is required for 2 admission. The skills Bradley acquired at the Scientific School would form the basis of his future business. Not unusually for the time, Bradley never finished his course in engineering. Geiger (2000) observed that less than 1% of the male workforce before the Civil War were college graduates, and that students seeking practical instruction, such as Milton Bradley, attended irregularly and rarely completed degrees. One and a half years into his studies in engineering, in the spring of 1856, Bradley’s parents decided to move to Hartford, Connecticut. Unable to pay for both his studies and his board Milton Bradley accompanied his parents to Hartford (“Milton Bradley Dies,” 1911).

Birth of a Business

When Bradley arrived in Hartford with his family, he quickly discovered there were no jobs available in town for a young man with his skills. In June of 1856, he went to Springfield, Massachusetts in search of work as a draftsman (Springfield Homestead, May 31, 1911). Bradley (1910) recounted his arrival in Springfield: One morning in June I decided I would strike out in search of a job, as I was tired loafing, and could find nothing that suited me in Hartford; so I took the train for Springfield… Seeing the smokestack of the old locomotive works and Wason Car Works on Lyman Street, I followed down that street and entered the locomotive shop. After some search I found Mr. C. W. Kimball, the superintendent…. He looked at me inquiringly and asked my business. “Have you a draftsman?” I asked. “No,” he replied. “Do you want one?” “Yes” “Well, I’m looking for a job.” He scrutinized me sharply, and inquired: “Are you a

2 Copies of Milton Bradley’s records from the Lawrence Scientific School are located in Appendix B.

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draftsman?” “I am,” I answered. “Can you draw a locomotive?” “I never have, but I think I could.” So we went into the drawing room—the worst-looking drawing room I ever saw!… The looks of things made me homesick, but I was bound to have a job…. Mr. Kimball engaged me to come to work the next day at the munificent price of $1.25 per day. (p. 10) Bradley’s job at Bemis & Co. lasted for two years, until the company was sold to the Western railroad (“Death of Milton Bradley,” 1911). The closing of Bemis & Co. in 1858 afforded Bradley the opportunity to open a business doing mechanical drawing and securing patents, the first such office opened in Springfield. The office, located on Main Street, was the first site of the Milton Bradley Company (Milton Bradley Company, 1917). Steck (1992) noted that business was light, but relief came in the form of the Viceroy of Egypt. Bradley was engaged by the Wason Car Works to render a mechanical drawing of a railroad car for the Viceroy and to supervise its construction, reviving both the Car Works and his own little business. Upon completion of the project, Bradley was presented with a framed lithograph of the railroad car. Figure 2. Sketch of Viceroy’s Railroad Car, Its This gift inspired Milton Bradley to All in the Game, James J. Shea, 1960 learn the skill of lithography and purchase a printing press, the first press of its type in western Massachusetts. Lithography, a process that uses a special crayon to draw on a limestone surface, which is then inked and printed, would move the Milton Bradley Company away from patents and toward the world of entertainment (Steck, 1992). Bradley (1910) recounted his first experience with lithography: I went to Providence, where George W. Tapley was engaged in the bookbinding trade and roomed with him where he was boarding. Here I stayed two weeks and served an apprenticeship in the lithographic business under an old Scotchman, by permission of his employers, who wished to sell me a press, and also through the influence of a ten-dollar bill, which I gave to the old man personally. I remember just what I paid him to a dollar. On January 31, 1860, the press was brought to Springfield and set up in the drawing room of the car company. (p. 12) Gagnon (1992) noted that Bradley’s first big project was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, made from a photograph taken by Samuel Bowles following his nomination for president in 1860. Unfortunately, Lincoln decided to grow a

Figure 3. Bradley’s Lincoln Print, The Milton Bradley Story, James J. Shea, 1973 38

beard halfway through his election bid. Bradley was unable to sell the portraits of Lincoln without his beard. While the loss of thousands of Lincoln lithographs almost forced Bradley to close his business, he soon rebounded with an idea for a revolutionary parlor game called the Checkered Game of Life Figure 4. The Checkered Game of Life, Its (Milton Bradley Company, 1917). Steck All in the Game, James J. Shea, 1960 (1992) described the Checkered Game of Life as a lithographed game board with a grid of red and white squares. Wooden counters were moved from one space to another, the moves governed by throwing dice. The red squares were neutral. The white squares carried clear references to good and evil, with labels like truth and honor, or disgrace and crime. The object of the game was to be the first player to reach Happy Old Age and avoid Ruin. This game, the first of many the Milton Bradley Company would produce, reflected Bradley’s own moral and religious beliefs. Shea (1960) noted that by 1861 Milton Bradley had sold more than 45,000 copies of his game. The success Bradley enjoyed with the Checkered Game of Life allowed him to develop additional games for both entertainment and education. One of the first, according to Gagnon (1992) was marketed for Civil War soldiers. Games of Soldiers consisted of miniature versions of several popular games packaged in a small container designed to fit in a knapsack. Additional patriotic games followed including the Civil War Panorama and Patriotic Heroes, or Who’s Traitor? With each success the Milton Bradley Company grew, the result of which was the expansion of the company in 1864. Rechristened Milton Bradley & Company, Bradley, along with two silent partners J.F. Tapley and Clark W. Bryan, continued to produce games which profited the company. This situation would remain unchanged for almost fifteen years. In 1878, J.F. Tapley and Clark Bryan sold their shares to Bradley and his longtime friend George W. Tapley. In 1884 the company was reorganized, the name was changed to Milton Bradley Company, with George Tapley as President and Milton Bradley, Treasurer. The company did not experience another major change until Milton Bradley retired in 1907 (Milton Bradley Company, 1917).

Introduction to the Kindergarten

While sales of the Checkered Game of Life and other games he produced were brisk, Milton Bradley simultaneously began to develop his idea of using toys and games to help children learn (Steck, 1992). Shea (1960) observed that Bradley was always interested in education and that he often promoted his games as both educational and entertaining. Bradley (1910) himself noted that “in the games which we introduced we aimed higher than mere amusement, and very often there were in them elements of

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instruction which made them of considerable educational value in a family of children” (p. 28). Shea (1960) noted that this interest was to be awakened in earnest through Milton Bradley’s acquaintance with his neighbor Edward Wiebe. Wiebe, a German immigrant and music teacher, came to Springfield in 1868. Shortly thereafter, he began his crusade to have Milton Bradley (1868) publish his manuscript on kindergarten, entitled The Paradise of Childhood: A Practical Guide to Kindergarteners. Bradley, however, claimed that he was not a publisher and at first was unwilling to undertake the publication of the book. Figure 5. Paradise of Childhood. Collection of the Author Bradley (1910) wrote: …This neighbor was a German music teacher, named Edward Wiebe. He was a man of intelligence and he had brought with him from his native land, besides his musical education, a voluminous manuscript, which he said was a guide to the kindergarten. He was exceedingly anxious that our firm should publish this book, and take the responsibility of finding a market for it…. But I resisted the professor’s persuasions, and refused to be enthused, believing that the institution would never amount to enough in this country to provide a market for so expensive a publication. (p. 29) That sentiment changed when Bradley met Elizabeth Peabody (Shea, 1961).

Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten movement

Peabody, a kindergarten advocate from Boston, was in Springfield to give one of her kindergarten lectures, which Bradley attended with his father. Bradley (1894) said, “Soon after her return from Germany, where she has spent fifteen months studying kindergarten methods, it was announced that Miss Peabody would speak on the subject of the kindergarten…and I, with many others, went to hear her, out of curiosity to learn just what this new educational word really meant” (p. 39). Bradley (1910) also said of that first introduction: I cannot recall what it was that brought us the favor of her visit…. At any rate she was Figure 6. Elizabeth Peabody, announced to speak on a certain evening at the Its All in the Game, James J. Shea, 1960 Elm Street school house, quite near where I was then living, and I was there, being accompanied by my father, who was associated with me in my business; and to that evening’s awakening I attribute all that I have done for the kindergarten, and all that the kindergarten has ever done for me. As we walked out from the lecture, my father said: “Well, Milton, what do you think of it?” “Why,” I replied “it seems to me that that’s just the way you have brought me up, father.” … Miss Peabody’s talk

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carried conviction to my mind and heart, because there was something within me which sprang out to give her words welcome. The fact is, the teaching was not new. Fröebel’s doctrine is as old as the world. It is something innate in us all, but Fröebel gave it a name, and he is justly called a philosopher. (p. 30) Ronda (1999) noted that in Elizabeth Peabody, Milton Bradley found an educator whose ideas on education, and the value of play, matched his own. Elizabeth Peabody spent her life advocating causes she felt would improve the human condition. Over the course of her lifetime, she was at various times an educator, publisher, bookstore owner, Unitarian, Transcendentalist, and ultimately the champion of the kindergarten. Ronda (1999) observed that Elizabeth Peabody was introduced to the ideas of Fröebel and his kindergarten by her friend Margaret Schurz. Remarking on Schurz’s well-behaved daughter, Peabody was told that she had attended a kindergarten. Peabody was so intrigued by the idea of the kindergarten she opened the first English-speaking kindergarten in Boston in 1860. In 1862, she published Report and New Prospectus, which outlined the day’s activities in a kindergarten. In this booklet, Peabody outlined her belief that the goal of kindergarten should be “organized play” (p. 9). Ronda (1999) noted that Peabody was concerned that the system of kindergarten she and her sister were advocating was not true to Fröebel’s beliefs, so she traveled abroad in 1867 to learn more about the kindergarten system. While in Germany, Peabody made the acquaintance of the Baroness Berth von Marnholtz-Bulow, Fröebel’s patron. She encouraged Peabody to continue her work implementing kindergarten in the United States using Fröebel’s system. Upon her return to Boston in December of 1868, Peabody began advocating what she called the “true kindergarten” which was different from the school she and her sister Mary had been running. While she still believed that organized play was the fundamental purpose of the kindergarten, Peabody reduced the academic content of her kindergarten to one less rigorous. In 1869 she published Plea for Fröebel’s Kindergarten as the First Grade of Primary Art Education, in which she states that Fröebel’s genius was in allowing play as the principle means of education. Peabody (1869) asserted: Fröebel’s Kindergarten is a primary art-school; for it employs the prodigious but originally blind activity and easily trained hand of childhood, from the age of three years, in intelligent production of things within the childish sphere of affection and fancy; giving thereby a harmonious play of heart and mind in actively educating—without straining the brain—even to the point of developing invention, while it keeps the temper sweet and joyous with the pleasure of success… the children produce things and play with each other, from self- forgetful motives of gratitude to parents and affection for their companions, or a gentle sympathy for the unfortunate. (p. 674) Lascarides and Hinitz (2000) noted that to help spread the information she had learned about the kindergarten in Germany, Peabody undertook the publication of the Kindergarten Messenger, wrote and edited books and articles about the kindergarten, toured the country and gave speeches on the education of young children, lectured to kindergarteners in training, corresponded with many leading teachers and tried to get the city of Boston to add kindergarten to its public school system. It was shortly after Peabody returned to Boston in 1868, that she began to deliver a series of lectures about

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the kindergarten to educators around the country and traveled to Springfield to give the talk on the kindergarten Milton Bradley and his father attended.

Fröebel and the Kindergarten movement

The kindergarten, or ‘child’s garden’, was the creation of Frederic Fröebel, who in 1837 established the first kindergarten in Blankenburg, Germany (Woodard, 1979). Fröebel’s system advocated the value of play, self-activity, and social interaction. In The Education of Man (1826), Fröebel encouraged mothers to “cultivate and foster it [play],” and fathers to “protect and guard it” because through play a child reveals the future of his mind (p. 56). Fröebel felt that play was “the highest level of child development.” (p. 83) Lascarides and Hinitz (2000) noted that Fröebel believed that play helped to develop the child’s mind and connected the child to the world. They stressed that Fröebel felt that the whole human being needed to be developed and that that development must come from activities of the individual. That activity needed to be in harmony with the child’s nature. Fröebel termed this activity “self-activity” (p. 96). Fröebel also advocated the use of concrete materials in the teaching of basic concepts for children. Woodard (1979) noted that these materials were divided into three basic categories: gifts, occupations, and mother plays. Gifts were materials designed to be manipulated by the children and included block sets, tablets, crocheted balls, wooden splints, rings, beans, pebbles and Figure 7. Second Gift, shells. Occupations were activities designed to be performed Milton Bradley by the children. These activities included embroidery, catalog, 1913. drawing, paper folding, cutting, interlacing and working with clay. Mother plays were a series of songs, stories and games originally designed for home use, but soon adapted to the kindergarten classroom. Fröebel designed the gifts so the children could create what he termed “forms of life,” “forms of beauty,” and “forms of knowledge.” Woodard (1979) explained that “forms of life” were constructions of various everyday objects, “forms of beauty” were artistic symmetrical designs, and “forms of knowledge” were activities performed to demonstrate mathematical properties. Each gift had a series of suggested forms or patterns, some of the child’s own invention, some on preprinted cards that were separated into the three different categories. Older children in the classroom often helped the younger children create the forms. The occupations were designed to help children express the idea they had explored by using the gifts. Fröebel’s central theme for the kindergarten used play as a means of instruction (Woodard, 1979). Fröebel (1826) said about the kindergarten, “It will be an institution where children instruct and educate themselves and where they develop and integrate all their abilities through play, which is creative self-activity and spontaneous self- instruction” (p. 128). The gifts and occupations Fröebel created formed the basis of his kindergarten instruction.

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When Elizabeth Peabody came to Springfield to lecture on the kindergarten, she noted the importance of the gifts and occupations as integral to Fröebel’s method. Because the gifts were handcrafted and had to be imported from Germany, they were quite expensive. Following Milton Bradley’s (1868) publication of the Paradise of Childhood, there was a growing interest in the use of the gifts in the classroom. The Milton Bradley Company was in an ideal position to produce the gifts and occupations because of the personal relationships Milton Bradley had with both Elizabeth Peabody and Edward Wiebe.

Production of Kindergarten Supplies and Materials

The Paradise of Childhood, written by Edward Wiebe and published by the Milton Bradley Company in 1868, received honorable mention at the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, as the first illustrated guide to the kindergarten ever published in the nd English language (Milton Bradley, preface to the Paradise of Childhood, 2 edition). That fact, coupled with Elizabeth Peabody’s unceasing enthusiasm for the kindergarten, helped Milton Bradley make the decision to start production of kindergarten supplies and materials. Bradley (1910) said: The appearance of this book [Paradise of Childhood] and the work of Miss Peabody soon began to create a limited demand for the kindergarten gifts and other material, and probably there was no place in the country better fitted to begin the manufacturing of such goods than our Springfield factory. Miss Peabody and Professor Wiebe gave their advice freely, and we had the advantage, also, of the models which they had brought from Germany. My own training in mathematics and in mechanical and civil engineering enabled me the more easily to adapt machinery and develop processes of manufacture. Any new tools and machines had to be invented specially for the work, for the articles to be turned out were of such a character that the like of them had never before been seen in an American workshop. (p. 32) Bradley (1894) also said of this period: …Miss Peabody was my faithful guide and critic in every move made in the preparation of the material, and in many subsequent talks she gave me great encouragement to persevere, when there was little or no demand for the material, always assuring me that the good time could not be much longer delayed when the kindergarten would be generally accepted and adopted here in America…. I am very thankful that before her spirit took its flight…she had the joy of realizing that her labor of love had already yielded abundant fruit, with the promise of rapid increase in the future, although this fruition came many years later than she anticipated in the days of which I speak. (p. 40) The expansion of the company into the realm of kindergarten teaching aids proved expensive for the company, since the design of many new machines was necessary for production to begin. A small booklet, The Little Acorn and the Great Oak, published by the Milton Bradley Company in 1917, stated that “as there was no source

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from which the materials demanded by this book [The Paradise of Childhood] could be obtained, Milton Bradley & Company decided to make them. Owing to the limited demand and high manufacturing cost, this part of the business was carried on a financial loss for several years” (p. 4). Bradley (1894) said, “she [Miss Peabody] insisted that in the preparation of the material, everything should be carefully and accurately made, because nothing could be too good for the kindergarten” (p. 40). Patty Smith Hill, an important kindergartener of the day explained, “He [Milton Bradley] was interested in the idealistic philosophy underlying the kindergarten in the early days, and when he went into the manufacture of materials he did so knowing that financially there would be no returns for a long time. In other words, his motives were not in any sense commercial; they were educational” (Bailey, 1932, p. 44). Shea (1960) explained further: I would like to stress that under this method supplementary education material was made available for pupils’ use for the first time. Milton Bradley agreed to manufacture these products in spite of the fact that for years they proved to be a non-profitable part of his business. But because of his great belief in the need for such aids, Mr. Bradley continued to manufacture these items. (p. 11) Hewes (1990) delineated the various supplies produced by the Milton Bradley Company including colored papers, crayons, watercolor paints, sewing and parquetry supplies, tablets, and paper cutters. Paper cutters were, at that time, a new invention. The Milton Bradley Company (1917) noted that, “in 1881 Milton Bradley manufactured, to order, for a New Haven printer, a device for cutting single sheets of paper or cardboard. This proved so popular that other sizes and styles were added, and from these beginnings a valuable and profitable line of card and paper cutters has been developed” (p. 18). By the time the 1913 catalog was published, the company was producing five different paper cutters: the imperial cutter, the crown cutter, the popular, the monarch and the studio cutter. The imperial cutter was advertised as “a new instrument with 18-inch knife, ruled table, and self-lifting spring attachment that keeps the handle at any desired height, ready to use, and prevents accidental falling” (Milton Bradley Company catalog, 1913, p. 80). The Milton Bradley Company, in fact, manufactured everything one would need to stock a kindergarten classroom, right down to the furniture. They also made an effort to eliminate the more poisonous ingredients in their art supplies, a precursor to the non- toxic supplies we use today. Bradley’s Figures 8/9. Milton Bradley Company Paper Cutters, The Little support of both Acorn and the Great Oak, Milton Bradley Company, kindergarten and safe 1917 materials for the teaching of art to students helped the kindergarten movement gain acceptance in general society.

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Henry Turner Bailey (1910), State Supervisor of Drawing for Massachusetts in the late 1800’s, recalled his first meeting with Milton Bradley in 1887, in which he said, I found Milton Bradley so rich in practical knowledge that in my diary I wrote him down as a Solon. I found in him such a fire of enthusiasm that my own seemed cold beside it…. To Milton Bradley more than to any other man is due the success of the kindergarten in the United States, for he spent a fortune in perfecting and distributing the materials required, before the existence of any widespread demand for them. By the excellence of his work and his enthusiasm he helped create the demand. (p. 43) Emilie Poulsson (1911), a kindergartener and editor of Kindergarten Review, observed that: He [Milton Bradley] could speak and write for the cause, but his best expression of his understanding and faith was through his careful manufacture of the Fröebelian playthings. Kindergarteners who had dealings with Mr. Bradley not only found business relations with him pleasant but held him in friendly esteem on account of his kind, genial ways, his originality and humor, and his real belief in the kindergarten. (p. 64) In addition to the kindergarten supplies and materials the company provided, the company began publishing a series of books designed to help the kindergartener teach the various aspects of Fröebel’s vision following the publication of Paradise of Childhood (1868). Between 1860 and 1910, the Milton Bradley Company published over forty-four books concerning different aspects of the kindergarten curriculum (Oakes, 1975). A review of these books, written mostly by kindergarteners themselves, would reveal titles such as Memoir of Friedrich August Fröebel by Henry Barnard (1870), Kindergarten Papers by Angeline Brooks (1894), In the Child’s World by Emilie Poulsson (1897), and Hand Work for Kindergartens and Primary Schools by Jane L. Hoxie (1911). Books such as these helped the kindergarten movement spread throughout the country and represented the same strong moral and philosophical background espoused by Milton Bradley himself. Ella Elder (1911), a kindergartener, has said of her experiences with Milton Bradley: For several years it was my custom to go two or three times a year to the factory of the Milton Bradley Co., either to order supplies or to learn what was new in kindergarten material and literature. On those occasions, if Mr. Bradley was in his office, it was often my good fortune to have a little conversation with him. Always genial, always ready to communicate of his best, I owe to him many illuminating and helpful suggestions. (p. 64) Bradley also purchased, in 1888, a small magazine based in Buffalo, New York, called the Kindergarten News, which was then edited by William Blake, head of Milton Bradley’s publications department (Shea, 1960). The name of the magazine was later changed to Kindergarten Review. Emilie and Laura Poulsson, sisters, authors, and kindergarten teachers, edited the magazine. The magazine was “devoted to educational literature and kindergarten news” (Kindergarten Review, 1905). A partial list of contents from the May 1905, issue shows topics such as: Universal Education in Japan, Work in a Japanese Kindergarten at Hiroshima, and A Kindergarten Creed. These publications, and many more like them, show Bradley’s dedication to both the kindergarten movement and its teachers.

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Progressive era changes in Kindergarten

Cuban (1992) observed that the Fröebelian kindergarten curriculum had a heavy emphasis on teacher direction, a prescribed order of introduction balls and blocks, colored papers and scissors, songs and games, the occupations of drawing, weaving and pea work changed throughout the latter portions of the nineteenth century as school systems placed more and more pressure on kindergarten teachers to align their curriculum with the primary grades. Cuban (1992) noted, “the press toward institutionalization and increased professional status through more training from those who themselves questioned the Fröebelian orthodoxy probably encouraged many teachers to depart from published manuals” (p. 184). The result of these pressures was a realignment of the traditional Fröebelian materials and concepts with the pragmatic and behavioristic approaches recommended by educators and psychologists such as Hall, Thorndike and Dewey. Traditional or conservative kindergarteners, such as Elizabeth Peabody and Susan Blow, who wanted to maintain the original Fröebel curriculum were soon replaced with more progressive or liberal kindergarteners, such as Patty Smith Hill, was saw the merit of using the Fröebelian materials and processes but who wished to adapt those processes to the American setting and the emerging research on child development (Cuban, 1992). Milton Bradley, who was trained by Elizabeth Peabody in the traditional manor, nonetheless, both dealt with and supported the efforts of more liberal kindergarteners through the production of materials designed to fit into with the new curricular changes.

Color Theory and its Place in the Classroom

Since many of the kindergarten occupations called for the use of colored paper, Milton Bradley decided to develop a standard set of colors from which colored paper, watercolors and crayons could be produced. Bradley (1893) observed that: As soon as he began to manufacture kindergarten material, nearly twenty-five years ago, the writer [Bradley] faced the difficulties in the way of clear understanding of color and any attempt to teach the essential facts about it. He found it impossible in buying colored papers from the paper mills or warehouses to match the lots previously purchased with any degree of satisfaction or to insure his customers that any color he furnished them could be duplicated. There were no generally accepted standards of color and every man set up standards to suit himself, if it ever occurred to him that any were necessary. (p. 4) Bradley (1893) observed that in order to both expedite the production of colored paper and create an easily reproducible system of color, he undertook a series of experiments designed to create a set of six standard colors. Bradley decided that his system of color should be based on the color spectrum as discovered by Sir Isaac Newton. Newton designated the spectrum as having seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Bradley felt that indigo was so similar to blue it was not recognized by a majority of people, therefore it should be excluded from his standard colors, leaving the six standard colors seen today.

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The Standard Colors

By setting the six standards as red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, Bradley was distancing himself from the prevailing theory of the day. Sir David Brewster’s color theory stemmed from the belief that the spectrum was made of three overlapping colors: red, yellow and blue (Bradley, 1893). Bradley (1893) himself described the Brewster system by saying, “the whole of this theory is practically embraced in the statement that there are three primary colors, red, yellow and blue; that by the mixtures of these three primaries the secondary colors, orange, green and violet, may be produced, and then again the secondaries may be combined in pairs to form the tertiaries, citrine, russet and olive” (p. 6). Bradley (1893) experimented with Brewster’s theory, commenting, “It is true that in pigments a dull green can be made form the standard blue and yellow, and from a greenish blue, as Prussian blue, and from a greenish yellow a very fair green can be secured, but in neither case does the result approach the standard green, which has been adopted as the best imitation of the spectrum green” (p. 13). Bradley (1893) based his belief that there should be six standard colors, instead of Brewster’s three primary colors and three secondary colors, on the fact that each color has a distinct wavelength, red having the longest wavelength, violet the shortest. Bradley (1910) observed that: With the aid of a small company of scientists and teachers, six definite locations in the solar spectrum have been selected, and unalterably fixed by their wavelength, locations which give the best expression of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. These are called standards, and colored papers are made to imitate them and their hues, tints and shades. By the use of the Maxwell rotating disks every color and combination can be exactly named and recorded in arithmetical terms, and reproduced at pleasure. (p. 33) J. Clerk Maxwell created the Maxwell rotating disk system, used by Milton Bradley to recreate the colors he saw in the spectrum in the late 1800’s (Bradley, 1893). The machine consisted of a rectangular body, attachable to a table, on which was mounted a round disk. A turn crank on the back of the machine could rotate the disk. Bradley (1890) stated, “It is based on the persistence of vision as familiarly seen in the rapid revolving of the lighted end of a stick forming a complete circle of light” (p. 52). Maxwell improved on his basic machine by cutting a slit from the circumference to the center of the disk, thereby allowing two or more disks of different colors to be seen at one time. From this simple machine and a heliostat, an instrument that contained a mirror and clockwork which would throw a beam of light into a darkened room creating a spectrum, Milton Bradley and his assistants, all local art teachers, noted, and reproduced a wide range of colors beyond his six standard colors.

Figure 10. Bradley Color Wheel, Its All in the Game, James J. Shea, 1960 47

The Colored Papers

Identifying which color wavelengths to select as the most ‘true’ color was part of turning the six standard colors into colored papers. Bradley (1910) stated: Having secured the spectrum, the task we have in hand is the comparison of a line of colored papers to see how they will match the spectrum. For example, having a number of red papers, we must determine which of them is the nearest match to the reddest red in the spectrum…. In the case of the red, having first decided by the mutual consent of a large number of competent judges precisely in which part of the spectrum the purest or reddest red is located, we must determine whether any piece of red paper that may enter into the comparison is a more orange red or a more violet red than the spectrum standard. (p. 48) Bradley (1893) also noted the desires of his customers to have brightly colored construction papers when he said: As much dissatisfaction had been expressed with the paper provided for the kindergarten, this scheme of color was first applied to the production of a systematic line of such papers. First the six standards and black and white were made and then two spectrum colors between each two standards, so as to provide eighteen spectrum colors, which are considered sufficient for types of all the pure colors in nature. Lastly two tints and two shades of each were made. (p. 19) An example of the spectrum colors noted by Bradley in the above passage would 3 be red-orange and orange-red between standard colors red and orange. Additionally, Bradley produced a line of papers in what he termed the “broken colors” and another in shades and tints of gray. Bradley (1893) defined a broken color as “a standard color mixed with black and white. In still other words, a broken color is a tint of that color in shadow; or again we may say it is a shade of a tint or a tint of a shade” (p. 22). Bradley himself maintained that nearly all the colors in nature are broken colors. The line of gray papers contained warm grays (grays with a little red or orange in it), cool grays (grays with a little blue or violet in it), neutral grays (gray made from black and white only) and green grays (Bradley, 1893). Bradley (1893) noted that the Milton Bradley Company produced two types of paper for kindergarten classrooms: coated paper and engine colored papers. In coated papers, a white sheet of paper is covered with a coating of colored pigment. The pigment is ‘fixed’ to the paper with white gum or glue so that it will stick and form an even, smooth coating. Engine colored paper, on the other hand, is created by mixing the color with the paper pulp in a tub called the engine. Engine colored papers had the advantage of being colored on both sides, making them ideal for folding exercises. Bailey (1910) recalled: When I first met Milton Bradley he was beginning his experiments in color. It was he who first saw the value of colored papers as a means of training the color sense, and as a means of expression in design, and it was he who spent money freely, who instructed and watched the papermakers day after day, week after week, month after month, until they turned out what he wanted. I recall his dark

2. A further explanation of Milton Bradley’s color definitions and classifications can be found in Appendix C.

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room, with its quivering spectrum of glory, ten feet long; I remember the patient experimenting with the Maxwell disks which resulted in the perfecting of the color wheel; the long discussion which preceded the classification and definition of the five harmonies of color. (p. 44) The idea of color theory so consumed Milton Bradley that between the years 1890 and 1900 he wrote five books on the subject: Color in the School-Room (1890), Color in the Kindergarten (1893), Elementary Color (1895), The Color Primer (1897), and Water Colors in the Schoolroom (1900). In each book, Bradley refined his ideas of color theory and its basic premise that colors should be based on the spectrum and not artists’ pigments. Bradley (1900) clarified this idea when he wrote: The success of the Bradley educational colored papers in the kindergarten and primary school has been remarkable…The Bradley standard watercolors, being made in imitation of the six standard colors of the spectrum, complete the only logical system of color instruction ever devised…. Finding the same number of colors, the same name and the same meaning to all the color terms, they can begin at once to learn how to hand the material found in the color boxes. (p. 15) Figure 11. Milton Bradley Co. Crayons, Shea (1960) reiterated this idea when he said that many Collection of the other manufacturers based their own production of paper, author

crayons and paint on Bradley’s ideas about color theory and that the standard six color assortment, which Bradley introduced, is still the most widely used.

The Watercolors

Shea (1960) noted that Bradley began the manufacture of his watercolors by grinding the pigments with a chemist’s mortar and pestle and mixing them in an ice cream freezer. The room set apart for this purpose was six feet square. Complete samples of Bradley’s watercolor sets were eventually produced by this method and in the beginning were accorded a grudging acceptance by a few educators. Soon, however, orders began to Figure 12. Bradley Watercolor Set, come in, some calling for as many as twelve boxes, Milton Bradley catalog, 1910 which taxed the capacity of the mortar and ice cream freezer to such an extent that a paint grinder was installed and the quarters were enlarged. The popularity of Bradley’s watercolors increased every year after that as more teachers began using his product. The price Bradley charged for his watercolor sets and the way in which they were produced allowed teachers to buy his sets in bulk. Companies such as Windsor & Newton also produced watercolor sets during this period, but they marketed their products more to artists, which Bradley was marketing primarily to teachers.

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Promotion and Advertisement

The manufacture of kindergarten supplies and materials was only one part of Bradley’s business. In order to make the manufacture of such materials economically viable, the Milton Bradley Company made a real effort to promote its products and increase production to meet demand. Shea (1960) noted that as the company improved its promotional activities its profits increased. While the educational department of the company started as a financial loss, it eventually began to turn a profit. An editorial in Popular Educator for January 1889 stated that “a good many primary teachers make a serious mistake in spending almost unlimited time in working out devices for use in the schoolroom which can be bought for a song” (p. 8). Additional ways in which the Milton Bradley Company promoted its products was through its mail order catalog, magazine advertisements, branch offices and agents. Milton Bradley Company catalogs presented to their customers an accurate representation of all of the products offered by the company. Each catalog included the kindergarten materials, school supplies, drawing materials, standard watercolors and color material, and the educational Figure 13. Milton Bradley books published by the company. Catalog, 1910 Illustrations of the majority of the goods in the catalog helped customers know what they were buying, as well as detailed descriptions of all of the products offered. An example of such a description of Fröebel’s first gift, from a 1913 Milton Bradley Company catalog stated: First Gift: consisting of six rubber balls, one and one-half inches in diameter, covered with a worsted netting; one ball each of the six colors—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. A thread of the coverings is attached to each ball by which to suspend it. (p. 5) Postage was calculated based on the geographic region of the purchaser and sent from the nearest agent. One such agent, Thomas Charles, sold goods for the Milton Bradley Company in Chicago, from 1882 until he retired from the day-to-day business of his company the Thomas Charles Company. In 1919, Charles wrote a history of his company’s dealings with the Milton Bradley Company for the Embeco News, the Milton Bradley Company’s employee newsletter. Charles (1919) noted: About the year 1882 Mr. George H. Ireland as representative of Milton Bradley Company came to Chicago for the purpose of soliciting order for the toys and games made by that firm…. When Mr. Ireland offered the agency for kindergarten goods to a friend of mine, this friend refused the agency and told Mr.

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Ireland that I was the very man to take hold of “that little stuff.” … After considerable talk on the subject I agreed that he might send me a small selected lot of kindergarten goods that I might test the market here with them…. I soon sold out the first shipment and ordered a few other goods, but the prospect was anything but encouraging. I wrote to Mr. Bradley that I fear we were making a mistake and thought it best that I should give up the agency to someone else. He wrote me that he hoped I would continue through the year…. But before the end of the year I had received sufficient orders to enable me to continue. (p. 2) Advertisements from the late 1880’s and early 1890’s highlighted the materials being offered by the Milton Bradley Company in a humorous vein (Shea, 1961). An October 1889 advertisement showed a man with a knife slicing off the end of his nose. The title of the ad was “He Cut off his Nose to Spite his Face” and it reads: This man is a Grammar Master of the old school. He does not believe in the “New Methods.” He will not send for our Illustrated Catalog of School Aids and Material, although if he would mention that he reads the “Ads” in the POPULAR EDUCATOR we would mail it to him without charge. Said a prominent teacher the other day: “I never dealt with any other firm as prompt and businesslike in all their methods as Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass., and their material is always excellent.” The majority of teachers use it, and you will surely want some of it this year. Do not attempt to begin school without our Catalog. Send 12 cents for our new Number Builder for desk work in figures. Remember that we shall soon publish a Manual Primary Work in Ungraded Schools. (Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Massachusetts, October 1889)

A later Figure 14. Milton Bradley Co. Ads, advertisement published in Its All in the Game, James J. Shea, 1960 the Springfield Register, May 28, 1909 invited customers to see the Springfield anniversary exhibit of the products of the Milton Bradley Company. The ad invited people to “come and get acquainted with Springfield goods that are known the world over.” Other advertisements for the Milton Bradley Company appeared in the educational journals of the day including Popular Educator, Teachers’ Institute, the Springfield Register and the Western New England Advertiser. Other forms of promotion and advertisement were also Figure 15. Milton Bradley Co. Ad, Its used by the Milton Bradley Company. Thomas Charles (1919) All in the Game, James J. Shea, 1960

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noted: I made exhibits of the Bradley goods at all important educational meetings and thus created a feeling in favor of these goods. I became a member of the Kindergarten Club of Chicago and was on committees from this club to influence legislatures of Indiana, Michigan and Illinois to have them pass laws favoring making kindergarten component parts of the public schools in those states. (p. 3) Bradley himself spoke before the International Kindergarten Union and was a member of that organization. Oakes (1975) noted that Bradley, along with Henry Barnard, editor of the American Journal of Education, were both honorary members of the Connecticut Valley Kindergarten Association. Bradley (1902) noted in his diary on April 23, 1903: Will Tapley and I go to Boston tomorrow to attend the meeting of I.K.U. [International Kindergarten Union] (Oakes, 1975, p. 162). Additionally, Bradley spoke to kindergarten teachers regularly. Bradley (1902) wrote in his diary on April 18, 1902: Trying to formulate something to say on color to Miss Twitchell’s class of kindergarteners tomorrow. On April 21, 1902 he wrote: Miss Twitchell invited Miss Murray and I to give an outline of the Fröebel movement in this country and I gave a few points in the early progress of the work. Miss K. had all kindergartners in city assembled to hear talk (Oakes, 1975, p. 162). Another way in which the Milton Bradley Company promoted its goods was through its response to educators’ requests. Bailey (1932) wrote that in a conversation with Patty Smith Hill, Hill said: He [Milton Bradley] came all the way to Louisville where I was teaching to see some experiments that I was making with color with the children in my kindergarten. At that time he was doing his first experimental work in scales of color, the standard color with two shades and two tints, and finding out that I was working out experiments along these lines, he was deeply interested. (p. 44) Bradley (1902) noted in his diary April 4, “Solon P. Davis, drawing teacher, Hartford, called and we had a very pleasant chat. Showed him around the shop and gave him some samples of paint.” On September 15, Bradley noted, “have written to Eveline Walls, Brush, Colo.… letter in my desk file… Told her we would make her anything she wants if she will be explicit in her statement of what it is….” On October 27, Bradley noted, “have a letter from Miss Helen B. Thompson, Mt. Holyoke College, asking for some thin paper and have sent her the best samples we have to meet her want.” And on December 5, 1902 Bradley writes, “have a letter from Henry Priest, Dean of St. Lawrence University, Cauton, N.Y., asking for samples and prints for colored paper. Have sent a sample book and copied letter written today” (Oakes, 1975, pp. 162-165). These examples from Bradley’s diary showed his willingness to help teachers in any way necessary while still promoting his own goods and services. Lascarides and Hinitz (2000) observed “at the Centennial Exposition (1876), Bradley exhibited the block to his new American audience. He made strong claims that his educational materials did not merely entertain, they also educated. He had recognized that educational supplies were a profitable new aspect of the children’s market. The kindergarten materials at the Centennial Exposition provided an inexpensive way for American parents to sample kindergarten education” (p. 248).

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End of an Era

Milton Bradley retired from active participation in the company’s day-to-day activities in 1907. The company was reorganized in his absence and a new board of directors was elected. George W. Tapley remained president of the company, with his son William taking Bradley’s place as treasurer. The Milton Bradley Company continued to expand, eventually occupying nine buildings and an entire city block in Springfield, Massachusetts (Milton Bradley Company, 1917). The slow departure of Milton Bradley from the company he founded signaled a turn away in some respects from the passionate espousal of kindergarten advocated by Bradley himself. Shea (1960) noted that business continued to be good throughout the early 1900’s, even after Bradley retired, as the company expanded its line of educational products and games. Milton Bradley died in 1911, and is not widely remembered, perhaps because of his companies continued interested in educational supplies and materials after his retirement. In 1914, the Company purchased the buildings they had been renting for over 30 years and continued to enjoy good profits. World War I brought more success to the company in the form of an updated version of Games for Soldiers, the production of a toy machine gun and the Tru-Life Paper Dolls. Prosperity continued for the company through the post-war years, with a strong profit from the school supplies, particularly crayons, but the Great Depression of the 1930’s signaled a downward turn for the company. The state of the production facilities declined and were not updated, as the business was overextended and had a surplus of stock. By the early 1940’s, the Milton Bradley Company was on the brink of bankruptcy. In 1941, James J. Shea, became acting president of the Milton Bradley Company and brokered a series of loans from a number of banks. These loans were designed to help keep the company afloat and out of bankruptcy. A variety of money saving measures were enacted, including: the installation of time clocks, a system of continuous employment, and the sale of all overstock and older games and books. Figure 16. Big Ben Puzzle, The Milton Shea (1960) noted that three events helped pull Bradley story, James J. Shea, the company out of its financial quagmire, the 1973 first was a contract during World War II to produce Thompson Machine Guns, the second was the design and production by Shea and the company of a joint used in the landing gear of certain Air Force planes, the third was the purchase of over a million dollars worth of games by the Coca Cola Company which were distributed to the troops. The final action implemented by Shea to assure the success of the company was the raising of prices on all the materials sold by the company. By 1945, the Company was again showing a profit and the addition of

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Scrabble (1938), Chutes and Ladders (1943), Big Ben Puzzles (1941), Yahtzee (1956), Candy Land (1960), Rack-O (1960) and Concentration (1960) helped profits soar (http://www.hasbro.com). In 1962, the Milton Bradley Company broke ground on a new plant located in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts; the plant is still in use today. The Milton Bradley

Figure 17. Milton Bradley Co. Facilities, East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, The Company Miltoncontinued Bradley to Storymake, James educational J. Shea, 1973 materials through their education division that promoted both education and entertainment through the 1980’s. In 1984, as part of the sale of the company to Hasbro, the educational Figure 18. Milton Bradley Co. Educational Games, The Milton Bradley Story, James J. Shea, division was sold. The Milton Bradley 1973 Company still makes games, puzzles and toys for children. The Hasbro Corporation acquired the Milton Bradley Company, and its subsidiary, Playskool, Inc. in September 1984.

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CHAPTER 4: INTERPRETATION, THEMES AND CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY

This chapter is devoted to interpreting the information presented in Chapters 2 and 3 and evaluating that information in relation to the driving question of this study. Leading to those conclusions, topics discussed in the interpretation section of this chapter include Milton Bradley’s relation to the Victorian era, common schooling, moral education, progressive education, kindergarten, art education and business. The relationship between Bradley and these contextual areas is explored in the evaluation section of this chapter. Conclusions are based on the interpretation of the facts presented and the evaluation of those facts in light of their contextual base and their relevance to art education. The chapter concludes with implications for further study.

Interpretation of Chapters 2 and 3

Bradley in Relation to the Victorian Era

Milton Bradley was born in 1836, before the Civil War, Industrial Revolution, the Victorian Era, common school, progressive education or kindergarten. The majority of modern societal practices had their beginnings in the Victorian era and Milton Bradley was in a prime position to experience all of those changes (Schlereth, 1990). The Industrial Revolution changed the way life was lived in the United States. Life was changing from primarily agrarian pursuits to a more urban, industrial focus. For the first time in history, we see the white-collar worker, the bureaucrat, and the entrepreneur or small business owner predominating. Consumerism and marketing increased as wages increased and people had more spending money. Milton Bradley both participated in and took advantage of the massive changes going on in the United States in the latter half of the 1800s as described below.

Immigration and migration. The population of the United States was in a state of flux during the nineteenth century. Immigrants were moving into the country in record numbers and within the country, a massive migration was taking place as people moved from rural to urban to suburban communities throughout the 1800’s (Schlereth, 1991). Milton Bradley’s family was no exception. The Springfield Homestead (1911) noted that Milton Bradley’s family moved often when he was a child. During Bradley’s childhood his family moved five times, finally settling in Lowell, Massachusetts, where Lewis

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Bradley secured work in the textile mills in 1847 (“Milton Bradley Dies,” 1911). This pattern of migration to secure better jobs and wages by the Bradley family mimicked the general migratory patterns taking place in the United States at the time. While part of the migration taking place was to secure better jobs and wages, another part of that migration was to increase social standing with the view of joining the growing middle class in the United States. Milton Bradley took advantage of the increased money and leisure time that higher paying jobs afforded workers. Following his graduation from high school, Bradley sold stationary to female mill workers in Lowell, Massachusetts. Bradley (1910) writes of this period: I established a stationary trade by peddling paper, envelopes, pens, ink, wafers, etc. through the boardinghouses of the corporations. As a certain portion of the corporations paid off each week, I always selected the days when the girls were ‘flush.’ All the mill girls at that time were intelligent Americans, and in some of the larger houses there were 50 girls in a tenement. (p. 6) The purpose behind the sale of stationary to the mill workers was to allow him to raise the funds to enroll in the Lawrence Scientific School, which he did in the fall of 1854. This anecdote also shows Bradley’s understanding of what people wanted, and helped establish the sale of those products in way that profited both them and himself. In many ways, the sale of those stationary products was Bradley’s first taste of entrepreneurship.

The middle class. Milton Bradley rose above his humble beginnings and entered the middle class primarily as the owner of a small business. Archer and Blau (1993) noted that the mid-nineteenth century, or early industrial period found the middle class peopled mostly with small capitalists, who during this period tended to expand their businesses and therefore ascended into middle class standing. Milton Bradley was no exception. With the success of the Checkered Game of Life in 1860, Bradley was able to expand his business to include an increasing number of games and amusements. Archer and Blau (1993) wrote that, “entrepreneurship also emerged in the late nineteenth century as the central theme of middle class ideology of success” (p. 10). The success of the Milton Bradley Company placed its founder, Milton Bradley, firmly on the side of success and middle class affluence. Much of that success was due to the dissemination of middle class culture throughout the country. One of the reasons for the dissemination of middle class values and cultural codes was the relative geographic and residential stability of the middle class. The result of this stability was the idea among working class families that the attainment of middle class status promoted such stability. Milton Bradley would use the growing interest in middle class culture in the marketing of his games and amusements. Bradley and his company used elements of popular culture, famous people of the era and fads such as croquet and mah jongg that appealed to the general public. The games produced by the company, both then and now, reflect the influence of popular culture and the interests of the middle class.

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Bradley in Relation to the Common Schools

Most communities had some form of elementary level schooling by the 1830’s, although legislation requiring such schooling was not in place at that time. Uniformity, according to Kaestle (1983), was provided by the strong Protestant content of the curriculum, by the popularity of certain textbooks and by the traditions prevalent in the communities themselves. Educators during this period stressed three goals that would become the hallmark of public schooling: intelligent citizenship, industrious habits and upright behavior. The roles of the student and the teacher were well defined in most public school classrooms during the nineteenth century. Students listened to their teachers, recited passages from textbooks, worked with classmates and worked at their desks on assignments. Teachers expected students to be quiet and well behaved. Memorization, instruction, drill and recitation were the most common learning tools used by students and teachers during the early to mid-nineteenth century (Finklestein, 1989). The goals of educational reformers during this period were to increase the number of days children attended school, to increase the state presence in public schooling and to provide more uniformity among schools (Cremin, 1964). The goals of the common school system: moral training, discipline, patriotism, mutual understanding, formal equality, and cultural assimilation were presented to the public for the first time (Kaestle, 1983). Milton Bradley attended school at this time of common school reform. Bradley was eleven years old when he began attending Lowell High School in 1847. The high school had only been open for two years, echoing the general trend of high schools being introduced in the mid-nineteenth century. The course of study Bradley took during his four years at the high school mirrored the interests and morals of the time (Lowell Historical Society). While the subjects Bradley studied during his time in school would have provided him with the means to run a successful business, it is the area of moral education that would have the most profound affect upon the choices Bradley made concerning his business endeavors. Common schooling and the push for a more unified school system had a strong effect on Bradley’s school supply business. Prior to the beginning of the common school movement, school supplies were produced by the teachers who used them. With the implementation of a more uniform school setting, textbooks began to be published for the first time. Bradley would have been exposed to textbooks such as Mr. James A. Russell’s Arithmetic (nd) and Smith’s First Book in Geometry (nd) during his tenure at Lowell High School. In the realm of art education, Walter Smith (1872) authored a series of art teaching textbooks published by the Louis Prang. The beginning of the public school system and its continuing expansion would provide Bradley with a platform to introduce his mass produced educational supplies. Bradley used the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition as a way to introduce American educators to his products. Lascarides and Hinitz (2000) wrote that, “at the Centennial Exposition (1876), Bradley exhibited the block to his new American audience. He made strong claims that his educational materials did not merely entertain, they also educated.

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He had recognized that educational supplies were a profitable new aspect of the children’s market. The kindergarten materials at the Centennial Exposition provided an inexpensive way for American parents to sample kindergarten education” (p. 248).

Bradley in Relation to Moral Education

Moral education was taught in a variety of ways. Though it was not always religious, Kaestle (1984) noted that religious, political and economic ideas during the nineteenth-century were overlapping and mutually reinforcing. Kaestle (1983) observed that moral education was intended primarily to produce obedient children, reduce crime and discourage vice. This was achieved through a curriculum that placed a strong emphasis on character, discipline, virtue and good habits. Milton Bradley grew up in a time of extreme focus on moral attitudes. Moral education suffused the books, newspapers and periodicals of the time. All of these sources strove to create a citizenry that had strong moral and ethical beliefs. Bradley, was influenced by both his family and his schooling. Throughout his life, Bradley was a churchgoer, often noting in his journals his attendance at church (Oakes, 1975). The educational materials and games produced by the Milton Bradley Company had the same strong moral element present in its founder. Bradley (1910) himself noted that “in the games which we introduced we aimed higher than mere amusement, and very often there were in them elements of instruction which made them of considerable educational value in a family of children” (pp.28). The Checkered Game of Life is a good example of the type of game produced by the Milton Bradley Company. Steck (1992) described the Checkered Game of Life as a lithographed game board with a grid of red and white squares. Wooden counters were moved from one space to another, the moves governed by the spin of a teetotum. A teetotum is a spinning top with numbers marked on the top of the disk. The red squares were neutral. The white squares carried clear references to good and evil, with labels like truth and honor, or disgrace and crime. The object of the game was to be the first player to reach Happy Old Age and avoid Ruin. For many years, the Milton Bradley Company refused to produce any game made on cards or involving dice, as these objects were associated with morally questionable behavior. That policy changed with the introduction of game called Authors, which required the player to match a quotation with the person who said it. The Milton Bradley Company did not, however, print a deck of playing cards until well into the mid-twentieth century (Shea, 1960). Cross (1990) noted that games like checkers and chess were advocated for their ability to engage the mind. The traditions of the Puritan family were still felt heavily in early nineteenth century Protestant New England. Like most families with a strong Protestant background, the Bradley family banned dice, cards and smoking as time wasters. Leisure, according to most Protestants, included moderate exercise and singing. The rise of choral singing groups in the nineteenth century was due in part to that early Puritan tradition. Children played games that reinforced Protestant moral themes, such as Pilgrim’s Progress, The Mansion of Happiness and the Checkered Game of Life.

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Bradley in Relation to Progressive Education

Progressive education entered the public school system as an offshoot of the larger progressive era reforms. Cremin (1964) observed that the school during this period took on the role of the meeting place, public forum, recreation house and civic center, as well as the home of all formal and informal education during the progressive era. The school was seen as the most efficient way to introduce large numbers of children to the broad goals of the progressive movement. Manual training was one of the ways in which the scientific ideas of the progressive era were passed on to students. Manual training, with its emphasis on practical application of scientific method would enter the public school system primarily through manual training courses in the high schools. The passage of the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which provided federal aid for vocational secondary education was in many ways the culmination of the work that began in the late nineteenth century with the beginnings of the progressive education movement. Another way in which progressive era reforms changed public schooling was in the area of higher education. Geiger (2000) noted that by the 1850’s three different types of scientific/technical education had emerged from the idea of manual training: “schools of science” attached to some of the foremost colleges and universities; colleges of agriculture; and “polytechnics” devoted to engineering and the mechanic arts (p. 155). The Lawrence Scientific School, one of the “science schools” discussed by Geiger (2000), was part of the Harvard University System. Story (2000) noted that Harvard fit into a network of institutions that defined and perpetuated the mercantile and cultural aristocracy of eastern Massachusetts. Milton Bradley, who attended the Lawrence Scientific School, certainly fit into that mercantile class even though he came from more humble beginnings. Geiger (2000) observed that, “colleges in general offered the prospect of upward social mobility for large numbers of young men from middling circumstances,” (p. 4). Like many young men attending the scientific schools, Bradley had to earn his own money to pay for tuition. In order to save money Bradley roomed at home and traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, everyday to attend school. To earn additional money, Bradley taught lessons to mechanics working for the Merrimac Corporation (“Milton Bradley Dies,” 1911). Geiger (2000) noted that students often mixed periods of education with periods of employment. The Scientific Schools and Polytechnic Colleges of the time served such a clientele and as such developed a flexible program to meet the needs of their students. Many of the students attending such programs attended school irregularly and rarely completed their degrees. Geiger (2000) noted, however, that in a time when less than 1% of the population had a college degree, the completion of a degree was not necessary to obtain employment. Milton Bradley was not an exception to the rule; he attended the engineering program of the Lawrence Scientific School but did not complete his course of education. When Bradley’s family moved from Lowell, Massachusetts, to Hartford, Connecticut, it signaled the end of his formal education. Bradley (1910) himself noted, “One morning in June I decided I would strike out in search of a job, as I was tired loafing, and could find nothing that suited me in Hartford; so I took the train for Springfield… The looks of things made me homesick, but I was bound to have a job” (p. 10). The lessons Bradley

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learned at the Lawrence Scientific School formed the basis on which he first obtained work with the Wason Car Works and later built a business in the manufacture of toys, games and educational supplies and materials. Bradley (1910) noted: My own training in mathematics and in mechanical and civil engineering enable me the more easily to adapt machinery and develop processes of manufacture. Any new tools and machines had to be invented specially for the work, for the articles to be turned out were of such a character that the like of them had never before been seen in an American workshop. (p. 32) Without this training it is doubtful Bradley’s business ventures would have been successful.

Bradley in Relation to Kindergarten

The kindergarten movement, with its emphasis on a “child-centered” approached, was part of the larger Progressive Education movement. Frederic Fröebel, founder of the kindergarten, was an important influence on many progressive educators. Chung and Walsh (2000) observed that Fröebel was one of the first educators to suggest that young children required special schooling to match their developmental level. Fröebel’s idea of organized play would have a lasting effect on education through an increased use of manipulatives as learning tools and in the view that the child is the focus of the curriculum. The first English speaking kindergarten was founded by Elizabeth Peabody in 1860. Peabody was influenced by the transcendental philosophy of her mentor Bronson Alcott. The Transcendental movement, with its themes of creation as fundamentally spiritual, universal truth and the idea that such truth exists in all people appealed to Peabody and she incorporated those ideas into her teaching methods in the kindergarten. Chung and Walsh (2000) noted that Peabody viewed children’s nature as perfect and innocent and to be protected by moral education in the kindergarten classroom. Milton Bradley became acquainted with the kindergarten through his neighbor Edward Wiebe. Wiebe was a music teacher and recent German emigrant who had brought with him from Germany a manuscript he wrote on kindergarten methods entitled the Paradise of Childhood: A Practical Guide to the Kindergarten. Bradley may not have published the manuscript had he not met Elizabeth Peabody when she came to Springfield to speak on the matter of kindergarten. Peabody, who had opened the first English-speaking kindergarten in the United States in 1860, had just returned from a tour of kindergartens in Germany. It was during this period that Milton Bradley met Elizabeth Peabody, a meeting that changed the course of his business. Bradley (1910) said of that first introduction: I cannot recall what it was that brought us the favor of her visit…. At any rate she was announced to speak on a certain evening at the Elm Street school house, quite near where I was then living, and I was there, being accompanied by my father, who was associated with me in my business; and to that evening’s awakening I attribute all that I have done for the kindergarten, and all that the kindergarten has ever done for me. (p. 30) Kindergarten practices began to change during the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Spodek (1981) asserted that although kindergarten

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maintained such Fröebelian practices as circle time and the use of finger plays, kindergartens became more reflective of children’s lives at home and in the community and the methods used reflected changing views on the way children learn and develop. This change is indicative of the greater changes going on in general education during the beginning of progressive education. By the end of the 1930’s kindergartens in the United States were organized around experiences with the social sciences, physical sciences, the creative arts, and the subjects of reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic (Spodek, 1981). These ‘progressive’ kindergartens echoed the philosophy of John Dewey and helped bridge the gap between the kindergartens of Peabody’s day and contemporary kindergartens. The Milton Bradley Company changed as a result of Bradley’s association with Elizabeth Peabody and Edward Wiebe. Bradley opened an educational division with the intention of marketing the gifts and occupations mentioned in the Paradise of Childhood. It is an example of Bradley’s strong moral beliefs and his educational training that he committed his company to the production of teaching materials. The expansion of the company into the realm of kindergarten teaching aids proved expensive for the company, since the design of many new machines was necessary for production to begin. A small booklet, The Little Acorn and the Great Oak, published by the Milton Bradley Company in 1917, stated that “as there was no source from which the materials demanded by this book [The Paradise of Childhood] could be obtained, Milton Bradley & Company decided to make them. Owing to the limited demand and high manufacturing cost, this part of the business was carried on a financial loss for several years” (p. 4). Bradley (1910) himself said of this period: The appearance of this book [Paradise of Childhood] and the work of Miss Peabody soon began to create a limited demand for the kindergarten gifts and other material, and probably there was no place in the country better fitted to begin the manufacturing of such goods than our Springfield factory. Miss Peabody and Professor Wiebe gave their advice freely, and we had the advantage, also, of the models which they had brought from Germany. My own training in mathematics and in mechanical and civil engineering enabled me the more easily to adapt machinery and develop processes of manufacture. Any new tools and machines had to be invented specially for the work, for the articles to be turned out were of such a character that the like of them had never before been seen in an American workshop. (p. 32) In fact, Peabody not only gave her advice freely, but criticized the materials being produced if she felt they were inferior to carry the weight of the association with Fröebel (Bradley, 1894). This ultimate belief in the rightness of Fröebel’s system may have come from her Unitarian upbringing. Ronda (1999) observed that Unitarians believe that God is revealed in the intricacies of the natural world and that the power of human beings is in their moral sense. Education, then, acts as the balancing of that moral sense with the more mechanical, non-rational drives. Milton Bradley was heavily influenced by the beliefs of Elizabeth Peabody. That influence was in part fostered by their mutual strong moral compass and belief in education.

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Emilie Poulsson (1911), a kindergarten teacher and editor of Kindergarten Review, observed that: He [Milton Bradley] could speak and write for the cause, but his best expression of his understanding and faith was through his careful manufacture of the Fröebelian playthings. Kindergarteners who had dealings with Mr. Bradley not only found business relations with him pleasant but held him in friendly esteem on account of his kind, genial ways, his originality and humor, and his real belief in the kindergarten. (p. 64) Additionally, the Milton Bradley Company published both the Kindergarten Review, a magazine devoted to the teaching of kindergarten, and a number of books on the subject of kindergarten. Bradley’s belief in the kindergarten system extended to the teaching of his own daughters, the first kindergarten students in Springfield. Bradley himself acted as the first kindergarten teacher, along with his wife and his father (www.hasbro.com). Additionally, probably as a result of his own experiment with teaching his daughters, the Milton Bradley Company also supplied all of the art supplies and materials needed in the classroom of the free kindergartens in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bradley noted in the preface to the twenty-fifth edition of the Paradise of Childhood (1896) The experimental stages of the kindergarten are now passed so far as the proof is necessary to determine the value to the world of the general truths set forth by Fröebel. It now remains for the friends of the work to devise the best means for fully carrying those principles to the masses. They must put forth every effort to rightly direct those who are to determine the nature of the education which is to be provided for the children of the coming generation (p. 6)

Progressive changes in kindergarten. Cuban (1992) observed that the occupations of drawing, weaving and pea work changed throughout the latter portions of the nineteenth century as school systems placed more and more pressure on kindergarten teachers to align their curriculum with the primary grades. The result of these pressures was a realignment of the traditional Fröebelian materials and concepts with the pragmatic and behavioristic approaches recommended by educators and psychologists such as Hall, Thorndike and Dewey in the late 1800’s. Traditional or conservative kindergarteners, such as Elizabeth Peabody and Susan Blow, who wanted to maintain the original Fröebel curriculum, were soon replaced with more progressive or liberal kindergarteners, such as Patty Smith Hill. Hill saw the merit of using the Fröebelian materials and processes but who wished to adapt those processes to the American setting and the emerging research on child development (Cuban, 1992). Although Milton Bradley would have been considered a conservative kindergartener, due to his training by Elizabeth Peabody and Edward Wiebe, he continued to manufacture to order the many and varied playthings requested by more progressive teachers around the country. Bradley himself noted in the preface to the twenty-fifth edition of the Paradise of Childhood (1896): The editor is, of course, aware that some leading kindergarten training teachers object to the use of all “guide books’ by either the pupils or teachers of the system. He believes, however, that they still have their place in the educational

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world, although they may not be as essential as they were twenty-five years ago. (p. 6) Bradley spoke at both the National Education Association meetings and the International Kindergarten Union meetings on the subject of kindergarten. Bradley did not choose sides in the kindergarten debate, but supported the work of both liberal and conservative kindergarteners through the continued production of kindergarten supplies to their specifications throughout his lifetime.

Bradley in Relation to Art Education

Drawing instruction became the first type of art education to enter the schools and was approached by many educators in a purely academic manner. William Bentley Fowle, credited with being the first art instructor in the Boston public schools, began teaching in a monitorial school in 1821 (Wygant, 1993). Not trained as a drawing instructor, Fowle used the drawing methods created by Pestalozzi in his classroom. The Pestalozzi method used exercises in drawings, the division of straight lines, construction of two and three-dimensional forms, classical architecture, arithmetic and geometry. In How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, Pestalozzi (1801/1898) observed that: The usual course of our art education is to begin with inaccurate observation and crooked structures; them to pull down and build up again crookedly ten times over, until at last and late, the feeling of proportion has matured. Then we come, at last, to that with which we should have begun, measurement. (p. 186) Rembrant Peale, another early drawing instructor, used a drawing method similar to Fowle’s method. Efland (1990) noted that drawing instruction during this period was limited to outline drawing. Exercises involving shading were not generally taught; the focus of student work was accuracy and neatness. There was little to no emphasis on personal creativity or original creativity in these systems. Art instruction was seen as a way of developing the minds of children and was not considered for its own sake. The Massachusetts Free Instruction in Drawing Act of 1870 is often cited, according to Smith (1996), as the official start of art education in the American school system. The act was a direct result of a petition signed by some of Boston’s most influential business leaders. The result of the petition was the passing of the act requiring towns of more than 5000 to have a drawing program in the public schools. Although the act ultimately only applied to towns of 10,000 or more (Efland, 1990), it signaled the beginning of the industrial drawing movement. Walter Smith, State Instructor of Drawing for Massachusetts described industrial drawing as an “important element in the trades and manufactures” and distanced industrial drawing from “the more ornamental or professional branches of art” (Efland, 1990, p. 101). The purpose of industrial drawing was sharply delineated from fine art drawing. Industrial drawing systems used lines, shapes and geometric forms in the elementary grade and often drew upon the drawing system advocated by Pestalozzi. The emphasis of any industrial drawing program was the training of students in the fundamentals of industrial design. Milton Bradley was an early advocate of manual training and industrial education. He was an active influence in the establishment of the first manual training school in Springfield, Massachusetts (Milton Bradley catalog, 1910).

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Additionally, Bradley published a number of books on the subject of industrial drawing and manual training including Industrial-Social Education; by W.A. Baldwin (1903) which is described in the 1910 Milton Bradley Company catalog as, “a book full of the spirit of the new education. It is sure to appeal to all progressive teachers, superintendents of schools, and all persons who are interested in social settlement work and vacation schools” (p. 89). Woodwork in the Common School, by Frederick A. Hinckley (nd), was described as, “a manual for teachers, bridging the chasm between the kindergarten and the advanced manual training schools” (p. 90). These books, along with many others, were marketed in the Milton Bradley Company catalogs, which made them available to teachers all over the country.

Kindergarten and art education. When Fröebel published his philosophical treatise The Education of Man (1826), he outlined his goals for the kindergarten. One of the major ideas stressed in the book is the “principle of activity.” Efland (1990) noted that, “For Fröebel, then, the essential feature of mind is activity. The mind is not something that must exist before it can put forth activities. Rather, it is the process of activities,” (p 121). These activities in the Fröebelian kindergarten system took the form of “gifts and occupations.” The gifts and occupations were designed by Fröebel to enable the child to find unity in the diversity of forms and patterns of things. Bradley observed in his Editors Notes to the twenty-fifth edition of the Paradise of Childhood (1896) that, “Fröebel in his Gifts of the Kindergarten, does not present anything perfectly new. All his means of occupation are the result of careful observation of the playful child. But he has united them in one corresponding whole; he has invented a method…” (p. 242). Examples of occupations include perforating, sewing on cards, paper cutting and mounting, braiding, slat weaving, paper folding, pea work and clay modeling. Both the latter gifts and the occupations have clear associations with art education; an association that was made clear to the National Education Association by kindergarten advocate Mary Dana Hicks in 1891 (Efland, 1990). Bradley concurred with her sentiment in the Editors Notes to the 1896 edition of the Paradise of Childhood when he said, “…no argument is now necessary to convince progressive teachers that clay modeling should have a prominent place in primary instruction…modeling in clay is valuable educationally because it enables us to comprehend and reproduce ideas of form” (p. 271). Milton Bradley, through his association with Elizabeth Peabody and Edward Wiebe, was instrumental in the commercial distribution of the gifts and occupations. Efland (1990) observed that: Bradley’s commercial catalogs of educational materials were organized in terms of the gifts. The product specified for each gift was generally presented in Fröebel’s original form, followed by new products replacing the original that were often described as “improvements.” The fact that Bradley produced a varied line of products that deviated from Fröebel’s original versions suggests that he had a stable market…. Bradley’s company more than likely realized a profit from the sale of the gifts and occupations, since it continued to sell them for many years after Bradley’s death. (p.128)

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Bradley noted in the preface to the twenty-fifth edition of the Paradise of Childhood (1896) that: To that single evening talk [given by Elizabeth Peabody], given in a school-house near his home, the editor attributes whatever he has done in the name of kindergarten in the last twenty-five years, and as an immediate result he yielded to Mr. Wiebe’s entreaties to publish the manuscript…and also began making the kindergarten material. (p. 5) Beginning with the Paradise of Childhood (1868) and continuing through the early 1900’s, the Milton Bradley Company produced over forty-four books dedicated in some way to teaching Fröebel’s kindergarten curriculum. A review of these books, written mostly by kindergarteners themselves, would reveal titles such as Knife Work in the School Room by George Kilbon (1891), Clay Modeling in the School Room: A Manual of Instruction in Clay Modeling for the Kindergarten and School based on the Curved Solids by Nora Smith (1893), Paper and Scissors in the Schoolroom by Emily Weaver (1893), Story Telling with Scissors by M. Helen Beckwith (1899), Love and Law in Child Training: A Book for Mothers by Emilie Poulsson (1899) and Industrial-Social Education by W.A. Baldwin (1903). The Milton Bradley Company also published a professional periodical for kindergarten teachers entitled Kindergarten News, later changed to Kindergarten Review.

Color theory. Bradley (1893) wrote in Color in the Kindergarten: Fröebel made no mistake when he included color as a part of the first material used in his system of elementary education. The realm of color is universal; it is the first thing that attracts the child, winning his eye before he pays any attention to form. A bright color is noticed almost as soon as a peculiar noise. (p. 3) In the last ten years that Milton Bradley actively worked for his company, he published five books on color theory. In those books, Bradley advocated a color system based on the theory postulated by Sir Isaac Newton and furthered by J. Clarke Maxwell (Shea, 1960). Bradley (1893) stated, “Just why Newton saw and named seven colors instead of six, introducing indigo between blue and violet, is not altogether clear…it is now maintained by all who have given the subject careful thought that the six colors furnish a convenient and sufficient number of standards for all practical purposes,” (pp. 5-6). Bradley produced his six standard colors in order to develop a standard set of colors from which colored paper, watercolors and crayons could be produced. Bradley (1893) himself noted, “very little color enters into the Kindergarten Gifts, except the First. But in the Occupations color has an important place, being represented in the papers, sticks, thread, silk, worsted, beads, etc.,” (p. 3). The color standards set by Milton Bradley during his color experiments would be used in the production of paper, watercolor, and crayons for the Milton Bradley Company. Hewes (1990) noted that the Milton Bradley Company, in fact, manufactured everything one would need to stock a kindergarten classroom, right down to the furniture. An example of one of these manufactured items was the first paper cutter. The Milton Bradley Company (1917) noted that, “in 1881 Milton Bradley manufactured, to order, for a New Haven printer, a device for cutting single sheets of paper or cardboard. This proved so popular that other sizes and styles were added, and from these beginnings a valuable and profitable line of card and paper cutters has been developed” (p. 18).

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The Milton Bradley Company also made an effort to eliminate the more poisonous ingredients in their art supplies, a precursor to the non-toxic supplies we use today. Since Bradley seemed concerned with the welfare of children throughout his lifetime, it is not surprising to note the effort he made to reduce the toxicity of his products. Bradley’s support of both kindergarten and safe materials for the teaching of art to students helped the kindergarten movement gain acceptance in general society. Bradley also described in his 1902 diary his efforts to help teacher’s requests for materials manufactured by the company. Bradley (1902) noted: On September 15, Bradley noted, “have written to Eveline Walls, Brush, Colo.… letter in my desk file… Told her we would make her anything she wants if she will be explicit in her statement of what it is….” On October 27, Bradley noted, “have a letter from Miss Helen B. Thompson, Mr. Holyoke College, asking for some thin paper and have sent her the best samples we have to meet her want.” And on December 5, 1902 Bradley writes, “have a letter from Henry Priest, Dean of St. Lawrence University, Cauton, N.Y., asking for samples and prints for colored paper. Have sent a sample book and copied letter written today. (Oakes, 1975, pp. 162) The above examples illustrate that Milton Bradley had an innate ability to recognize important educational ideas that reflected good moral values. Milton Bradley was, as a manufacturer and publisher, primarily a facilitator of others social and moral ideas, as is evidenced by his publication of kindergarten materials and books on the subject of kindergarten and art education. He introduced his own ideas in his role as editor of the many books published by his company, in the materials produced by his company and in the writing of many books on the subject of color theory.

Bradley in Relation to Business

The way in which business was conducted changed rapidly during the Victorian era due to advances in time, mass production, the U.S. post office, advertising and promotion (Schlereth, 1991). Cross (1990) noted that the standardization of time allowed employers to precisely measure time and to intensify the pace of work. Standardization also affected the work and leisure habits of factory workers. Industrialization changed the way in which leisure was measured (Cross, 1990). Standardization of time also affected mass production. Saving time on the production of each part allowed goods to be produced at lower cost and with more efficiency, thereby allowing manufacturers of such goods to produce large numbers of products for sale. The Milton Bradley Company was in an ideal position to benefit from these labor saving advances in technology. Bradley, with his training in engineering, invented the machinery necessary to produce the kindergarten materials advocated by Peabody and Wiebe. Concerning the first production of kindergarten supplies and materials for the company, Bradley noted that both Peabody and Wiebe offered their advice. Bradley created the machines necessary to produce the kindergarten gifts and occupations based on a set of models purchased by Peabody during her visit to Germany. The creation of those machines allowed Bradley to produce the materials at little cost, enabling him to sell them at lower prices than other, ultimately turning his educational division into a huge moneymaker for the company, although it did not start

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out that way. Bradley’s decision to make kindergarten supplies and materials stemmed from his strong belief in the moral and educational value of the kindergarten (Shea, 1960). While the creation of specialized machinery allowed the products of the Milton Bradley Company to be produced more cost and time efficiently, innovations in the U.S. post office would have a more direct impact on the sales of the company. The post office introduced several initiatives in the late 1800’s including bulk mail rates, postal money orders, rural free delivery (RFD), and parcel post (Gustaitis, 1993). In the case of the Milton Bradley Company, postage was calculated based on the geographic region of the purchaser and sent from the nearest agent. The Milton Bradley Company did the majority of its business through mail order catalogs, a not uncommon practice at the time. Milton Bradley Company catalogs presented to their customers an accurate representation of all of the products offered by the company. Each catalog included the kindergarten materials, school supplies, drawing materials, standard watercolors and color material, and the educational books published by the company. Without the use of mail-order catalogs and advertising, the Milton Bradley Company would not have been able to sell their products to teachers all around the country. Horowitz (1985) observed that advertising became the key to the movement of mass produced goods throughout the population. The increase in advertisements seen during this period helped change the way consumers purchased and used goods. As a result of this increase in advertising, American consumer habits changed during the period of 1876-1915 (Schlereth, 1991). The result of this was the wide consumption of goods by consumers. Martin (1993) noted that as more and more people began making use of the manufactured household goods being produced during this time, the demand for such products increased. The Milton Bradley Company took advantage of the increasing role of advertisements on sales in a variety of ways. Through the use of advertisements extolling the virtues of Milton Bradley Company products, the company made the public aware of the goods and services they offered. Company catalogs were available free of charge to any interested customer through magazines such as Popular Educator and the Kindergarten Review (Shea, 1960). Customers were invited through advertisements to view the Springfield manufacturing facility, and in fact, many educators did come to Springfield to talk in person with Milton Bradley. Bradley (1902) noted in his diary April 4, “Solon P. Davis, drawing teacher, Hartford called and we had a very pleasant chat. Showed him around the shop and gave him some samples of paint” (Oakes, 1975). Additionally, the Milton Bradley Company sent company representatives the meetings of the National Education Association and the International Kindergarten Union, as well as the Centennial Exposition. Hewes (1990) observed that, “one way educators and school supply companies introduced new ideas and products was through exhibits at the annual meetings of the National Education Association, which included the kindergarten advocates in its membership” (p. 3). Hewes also noted that during the late nineteenth century the exhibits at such conventions and expositions were often more influential than advertisements because of the sheer number of educators, over 5,000 for the 1884 meeting, attending the conventions. Lascarides and Hinitz (2000) observed “at the Centennial Exposition (1876), Bradley exhibited the block to his new American audience. He made strong claims that

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his educational materials did not merely entertain, they also educated. He had recognized that educational supplies were a profitable new aspect of the children’s market. The kindergarten materials at the Centennial Exposition provided an inexpensive way for American parents to sample kindergarten education” (p. 248). Milton Bradley agent Thomas Charles (1919) noted: I made exhibits of the Bradley goods at all important educational meetings and thus created a feeling in favor of these goods. I became a member of the Kindergarten Club of Chicago and was on committees from this club to influence legislatures of Indiana, Michigan and Illinois to have them pass laws favoring making kindergarten component parts of the public schools in those states. (p. 3) Bradley himself spoke before the International Kindergarten Union and was a member of that organization. Oakes (1975) noted that Bradley, along with Henry Barnard, editor of the American Journal of Education, were both honorary members of the Connecticut Valley Kindergarten Association. Bradley (1902) noted in his diary on April 23, 1903: Will Tapley and I go to Boston tomorrow to attend the meeting of I.K.U. [International Kindergarten Union] (Oakes, 1975, p. 162). Milton Bradley made every effort to accommodate the wishes of teachers while still promoting his goods and services.

Themes and Conclusions

The guiding question for this study is: What contributions did Milton Bradley make to education and to art education, and how was that influenced by the circumstances of his life? The supporting questions are: 1. How did his social circumstances influence Milton Bradley’s point of view? 2. What educational theories th were prevalent at the end of the 20 century and how did they influence Milton Bradley? 3. Who, in particular, was influential in Milton Bradley’s shaping of his educational philosophy? 4. How did Milton Bradley become interested in kindergarten? How did that interest affect both general and art education? 5. What were Milton Bradley’s theories on education and color theory, and have they had a lasting influence on art education? In conducting this research, the answers to the supporting questions have in many ways revealed themselves. What has been discovered, however, is the fact that many of those answers overlap, as each aspect of Bradley’s life also overlapped the others. Neat, clean cut categories are almost always impossible to delineate when dealing with a person’s life, and the life of Milton Bradley is no exception. This section will help establish two main points: 1) Milton Bradley was a man of his times, and those times bridged from the Victorian era to the early Progressive era and 2) Bradley’s connection to contemporary art education. By first addressing the five supporting questions, the guiding question of this study is answered.

Bradley’s Social Circumstances

How did Milton Bradley’s social circumstances influence his point of view? While Milton Bradley was schooled during the beginning of the common school

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movement, the majority of his business dealings were set in the early years of the progressive education movement. Yet, his upbringing strongly influenced his outlook on education. His association of education and play can be seen in the choices he made in both the production of boardgames, supplies, and materials that had an educative element. Bradley noted in the Editors Notes to the twenty-fifth edition of the Paradise of Childhood (1896): In playing, every part should be used, otherwise the material is wasted. The child should early learn that nothing is isolated and unconnected, nothing without its purpose and its appointed use… In the whole world of nature nothing develops without activity, consequently play or the exercising of the child’s activity is the first means of development of the human mind, the means by which the child is to become acquainted with the outer world and his own powers of body and mind. (p. 104, 273) The strong moral foundation Bradley received from his parents and his schooling, as well as the mores of the predominant society, can be seen in his avoidance of games that used anything morally questionable. Rather, he chose to produce games with a strong moral message.

Influences on Bradley’s Educational Philosophy

Who, in particular, was influential in Milton Bradley’s shaping of his educational th philosophy? What educational theories were prevalent at the turn of the 20 century and how did they influence Milton Bradley? Milton Bradley was schooled in the common school era and his educational ideals reflected the moral philosophy of the day. That philosophy focused on the idea that a strong moral foundation would help produce students who would become good citizens of the United States. Bradley’s strong moral compass, fostered in both his home and his schooling, and his belief that play could have an educational component meshed nicely with the philosophies of Pestalozzi and Fröebel, who he was introduced to through his acquaintance with Elizabeth Peabody and Edward Wiebe. Elizabeth Peabody in particular, was instrumental in helping Bradley shape his own educational philosophy. Peabody’s strong interest in kindergarten, with its focus on art and activity-based instruction, would spur Bradley to produce Fröebel’s gifts and occupations. Her idea that kindergarten was “organized play” was very similar to Bradley’s own ideas concerning the value of play in educational endeavors. His ideas were also heavily influenced by his parents, who encouraged him to learn through educational games such as chess and through the use of manipulatives in the area of mathematics. Bradley (1896) noted in the Paradise of Childhood that, “By means of the directed games the surplus energy of the child may be guided, the basis for study laid, and the foundation principles in chemistry, physics, geometry, construction and design furnished, thus utilizing his activities for educational purpose,” (p. 273). What is remarkable to note, however, is that although Bradley is what would be termed a conservative kindergartener, one schooled in Fröebel’s kindergarten philosophy, he was willing to both listen to more liberal/progressive kindergarteners and adapt the gifts and occupations to the American audience. Bradley (1896) observed, “the games

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should reflect the prevailing thought of the day or week or season of the year…let the games be spontaneous, merely allow and guide the play spirit, keeping the child unconscious by making the thing he does prominent and not the child,” (p. 274). The ability to adapt to changing movements in both education, from common schooling to progressive education, and leisure allowed the Milton Bradley Company to prosper throughout Bradley’s lifetime.

Bradley’s Connection to Kindergarten and Art Education

How did Milton Bradley become interested in kindergarten? How did that interest affect both general and art education? Milton Bradley’s contributions to art education are in many ways tangential to his interest in kindergarten. Bradley’s interest in kindergarten itself is a connection to art education. Korzenik (2004) noted: Their [Peabody and Mann] efforts led to the widespread adoption of Fröebel’s kindergarten “system” for young children. Although not an art system per se, its emphasis on the use of tangible objects, known as “gifts” and “occupations,” to enhance the child’s understanding of the conceptual served as one of the first justifications for bringing art instruction to public schools. Art was said to cultivate children’s innate ability to observe, reason, express, and understand the interconnectedness of all things. (p. 11) As the manufacturer of kindergarten supplies and materials, Milton Bradley was instrumental in helping spread the kindergarten system. Through the production of the gifts and occupations, Bradley made available for the first time the means to easily reproduce Fröebel’s kindergarten system. Working with kindergarteners and the kindergarten system seemed to be an act of love on the part of Milton Bradley. Bradley truly believed in the kindergarten system and in its innate ability to educate the young. Bradley (1896) noted in Paradise of Childhood, “through the gifts the formative and expressed powers of the child are exercised, his judgment and reason are developed and he gains a love of all that is beautiful and harmonious,” (p. 106). Bradley was equally convinced in the value of the drawing system advocated by Fröebel, although he noted the changing focus of art education. Bradley (1896) noted: Adopt as much of it [Fröebel’s drawing method] as seems to be of value and then go on with the more modern methods which have been proved to be desirable, during the last twenty-five years of progress in art and industrial education…the kindergarten child should have free access at proper times to the blackboard, or be furnished with chap paper and pencil for illustrating in his own way the stories which are told to him…the kindergarten may be the means for developing many an artist as well as an artisan who would otherwise never show any talent in these directions. (Paradise of Childhood, Editors Notes, pp. 205) The link between Pestalozzi, Fröebel and art education is still seen in today’s classrooms. Tarr (1989) observed that: Fröebel’s art has never disappeared from the school. It has moved out of the art class into other curricular areas. It has retained its place as a means of integrating art into other curriculum areas. It exists in the outline forms which abound on the mimeographed sheets to color that children receive in primary reading classes and in arithmetic; and in the precut pumpkins to color, paint or collage, and the folded

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Easter baskets which typify holiday activities in the school. It flourishes in educational games and crafts such as parquetry blocks and paper weaving, based on Fröebel’s gifts and occupations…. Fröebel’s art permeates the school and spills into the world of the infant and young child through adult-guided play and coloring books supplied with paint and drawing sets. (p. 120) As a manufacturer of Fröebel’s gifts and occupations, Milton Bradley is part of the continuum of art education, although his role is primarily tangential. The secondary nature of Bradley’s contributions to art education stem from the fact that kindergarten was the motivating factor in his production of colored papers, paints, paper cutters and other art supplies. Although those products were a benefit to art educators, the primary purpose of the products was to outfit a kindergarten classroom.

Bradley’s Influence on Art Education and Color Theory

What were Milton Bradley’s theories on education and color theory, and have they had a lasting influence on art education? Bradley’s connection to the continuum of art education can be seen in a variety of ways. Many of the standard practices seen today in the field of art education had their beginnings in the nineteenth century. Art teachers today order the art supplies for their classrooms through either art supply catalogs or via art supply company websites. The practice of ordering from mail-order catalogs was pioneered in the nineteenth century. The Milton Bradley Company marketed its products primarily through their catalogs. Milton Bradley manufactured items that he believed had an educational benefit. He took suggestions from educators in order to produce products that they would purchase and that would be beneficial in the classroom. The Milton Bradley Company advertised their product and innovations in both art and education magazines, just as art supply companies do today. The Milton Bradley Company also promoted their products at the conventions of the National Education Association and the International Kindergarten Association. We see that practice still in evidence today at modern conventions of the National Art Education Association. At these conventions, the Milton Bradley Company would show their latest innovations, give out samples of their products and hand out copies of their catalogs to interested educators. This is not so different from what we see today in the vendors’ hall at the national convention. The Milton Bradley Company also produced a number of books for teachers. While these books were not curricular books per se, they certainly contained a number of lesson ideas for teachers to use with their students. Books about color, knife-work, clay, paper weaving and parquetry were published by Milton Bradley as a reference for teachers. These books were often written by educators and focused on practical suggestions for using a particular medium. While the media-based approach was not invented by Milton Bradley, he certainly fostered it by publishing books focusing on the use of media. Books are being published for that same purpose today, and while the topics of interest may have changed with the times, the idea behind their publication, that of being a resource for educators, is the same. In the production of colored papers, watercolors and crayons we can see the strongest link to contemporary art education practices as those products are still being produced today. The Milton Bradley Company was one of the first companies, however,

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to try to reduce the toxicity of their products, a forerunner to the non-toxic art supplies we see today. In addition, Milton Bradley’s interest in color theory has ramifications for today’s art educators.

Color theory. In order to establish where Milton Bradley’s color theory fits, it is necessary to review color theory from Newton forward. Sir Isaac Newton was the first person to explain the rainbow. Ball (2002) noted that in 1665 Newton split a sunbeam into a spectrum by passing it through a prism. Newton determined that the spectrum had seven distinct colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Ball (2002) noted that later color theorists, including Milton Bradley, generally replaced indigo and violet with just a single hue, either purple or violet. In 1855, J. Clerk Maxwell observed that the frequency of vibrations passing through empty space increases from the red to the violet end of the spectrum, thus determining the perceived color of light. Maxwell showed that three kinds of light— orange-red, blue-violet, and green can generate almost any color. Maxwell stressed that color is not about light alone (Ball, 2002). Milton Bradley’s (1900) color theories built on those of Newton and Maxwell. Bradley used the prism developed by Newton to identify what he felt were the ‘truest’ versions of the six spectrum colors in pigment. From those ‘true’ versions of the spectrum colors Bradley developed what he called his ‘standard colors.’ The importance of the setting of the six standard colors should not be overlooked. Prior to setting his standard colors, Bradley was at the mercy of his suppliers when it came to colored papers. Bradley observed that the colors were not the same from lot to lot. He developed his standard colors to alleviate that problem. Bradley marketed his standard colors in all of his products, from paper, to crayons, to watercolor sets. Other companies used the idea of standard colors; in fact, you still see standard colors today in the watercolor sets of companies such as Crayola, even if those standards are not the exact colors used by Bradley. The color theory advocated by Newton, Maxwell and Bradley was used primarily in the scientific production of art supplies and materials. The color theory taught in most classrooms was created by American artist Albert Munsell in 1905. The Munsell system was in direct competition with Bradley’s system. Bradley’s system was marketed primarily for grammar school and kindergarten teachers who were interested in incorporating color in their classrooms, while Munsell’s system was marketed for traditional art teachers. Since Bradley and Munsell developed their color theory systems there have been a variety of other color theory systems developed. The Swedish Natural Color System developed by Tryggve Johansson, Sven Hesselgren and Anders Hård in the 1960’s and the Quiller color wheel developed by Steven Quiller in the 1980’s, like every color wheel developed since, owe a debt of gratitude to Newton, who first bent his spectrum colors into a circle, marrying the red to violet so that the progression of colors would be continuous (Bell, 2004, www.korins.com/m/ml/, 2005). All the color theory systems developed throughout the years have both strong and weak points. Milton Bradley’s color theory is one of many logical systems of color theory that failed to make the transition to modern day practice. His idea of color

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standards, however, lives on in the paints produced by other companies and in the idea of using standard colors in the sale of paint and other color materials.

Conclusions

Milton Bradley deserves a place in the continuum of kindergarten and to a lesser extent art education theory and practice. In attempting to determine what contributions Milton Bradley made to education during his lifetime and what, if any, affect that had on art education it was first necessary to establish the circumstances in which he lived. Milton Bradley straddled the Victorian and Progressive eras and was a product of his times. He was schooled in the Victorian era in the time of common schools and as such was imbued with a strong moral foundation. But his business was conducted primarily in the early progressive era, with its focus on a more child-centered curriculum, and it was in this arena that he met with his greatest success. Kindergarten, an offshoot of the progressive era, struck a chord in Milton Bradley, and became a consuming passion for him for many years. Bradley’s passion for the kindergarten initially proved unprofitable and unpractical. His later success in the area of kindergarten was only possible because of his achievement as a game maker. Milton Bradley was a practical man, schooled in engineering and interested in drawing. He found a way to indulge his ideas for new machinery and materials that would be a benefit to fledgling kindergartens around the country. Bradley’s focus as an inventor and engineer was on the production of materials and processes necessary to establish a successful kindergarten classroom. Because of this, he helped usher in a progressive education movement that had a focus on fine art through his production of papers, paints, crayons and the other materials needed to stock a kindergarten classroom. Due to the experiential, media-based focus of Fröebel’s kindergarten system, and Bradley’s faithful reproduction of his gifts and occupations, he should be seen as an important, but secondary figure in the world of art education. The secondary nature of his contributions stems from the fact that the materials he created were designed for the kindergarten first, and art education second. Bradley helped make educational materials both affordable and readily available to educators. In his willingness to work with teachers, Bradley helped produce new art supplies and materials, such as the paper cutter, which would ultimately become an art room staple. Additionally, Bradley reproduced materials suggested by educators around the country and those designed by Fröebel himself. Bradley did make improvements to some of the ideas suggested to him and often marketed several versions of the same product in his catalogs, but this tends to support the idea that kindergarten was his first priority, and the comfort level of kindergarten teachers was paramount. It is only in the area of color theory that we see the imagination and creativity of Milton Bradley himself. Bradley helped produce a set of six standard colors still seen in paper, crayons, and watercolor sets today. Bradley (1896) observed that: When Fröebel prepared his material for the kindergarten, color was for the first time introduced into a system of elementary instruction disconnected from drawing and painting, and it is worthy to note that the only system by which

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colors can now be intelligently designated without actual samples was originated and developed in response to the demands of the kindergarteners of America for better material…the fact that there is so much color material used in the kindergarten insures constant attention on the part of the children. (Paradise of Childhood, Editors Notes, pp. 221,223) The use of color in the kindergarten is still in evidence today, and in fact, any primary school in the nation is usually rainbow of different colors. The idea that this was not always the case is almost unbelievable, but the introduction of the kindergarten into the American public education system signaled the first time that color became widely available for students. In the marketing of his supplies, Bradley again displayed the imagination that made him a successful businessman. The Milton Bradley Company was one of the first companies to begin a tradition of marketing their products through mail-order catalogs, a tradition that has carried down to art supply companies today. While today’s companies take advantage of innovations such as the internet to market their goods, the mail-order catalog, with its long history, is still a staple in the art supply market. Bradley foreshadowed the vendors halls seen today at major educational conferences by either attending conventions himself or sending a subordinate. The marketing of innovations at conventions and conferences helped the Milton Bradley Company make educators around the country aware of their products. Art supply companies still use this practice today, handing out free samples to educators and attempting to interest teachers in new products. Bradley differed in one respect however, and that was his willingness to create a product for a teacher if they simply requested it of him. If the product proved useful, Bradley would then market it in his catalogs. While teachers still make suggestions to companies today regarding products of interest the direct contact possible with Milton Bradley during his time is not often seen. Teachers were encouraged to stop by the Springfield, Massachusetts plant, and in fact many did, to visit with Bradley and discuss innovations in educational supplies and materials. Bradley was also an innovator in his production of art materials with less toxic ingredients. Bradley helped foster an interest in producing art materials with non-toxic ingredients. Today the Arts and Creative Materials Institute designates materials as CP (certified product) or AP (approved product), meaning that they are non-toxic and can be used with students. These certification are based on the specifications of the Federal Hazardous Substance Act, which requires schools to use all non-toxic products with students under twelve years old. The use of non-toxic products that Milton Bradley helped usher in is now required by law in the public school system. As both an educator and inventor, Milton Bradley helped usher in a set of practices in art education that are still seen today. Milton Bradley was truly representative of his time, a moral man with his eye on the future. And while his contributions to art education are secondary to his contributions to the kindergarten, Milton Bradley should be remembered as a man who helped facilitate the entrance of art into the public school curriculum through his production of art supplies and materials intended for the kindergarten classroom. Ultimately, Milton Bradley was a practical businessman with a good moral compass and the ability to recognize important educational ideas that reflected good moral values.

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This idea was reinforced when I came across a small card tucked into Bradley’s file at the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. The small card, undated and anonymous, read, Carefully examine every detail of your business. Be prompt in everything. Take time to consider and then decide quickly. Dare to go forward. Bear trouble patiently. Be brave in the struggle of life. Maintain your integrity as a sacred thing. Never tell business lies. Make no useless acquaintances. Never appear something more than you are not. Pay your debts promptly. Learn how to risk your money at the right moment. Shun strong liquor. Employ your time well. Do not reckon upon chance. Be polite to everybody. Never be discouraged. Then work hard and you will succeed. (Milton Bradley Company, nd) In this one item, the core beliefs of Milton Bradley become clear. The strong moral tone of the card suggests that the beliefs of Milton Bradley were passed on to the employees of the Milton Bradley Company. The choices made by the Milton Bradley Company bear out this idea. I am convinced that the contributions Milton Bradley made to the areas of kindergarten and art education were based on that strong moral code. Bradley’s place in the chronology of kindergarten and the beginnings of art education should be well documented and unfortunately, it is not. This seems to be because Bradley’s focus was primarily on kindergarten philosophy rather than art education, unlike his contemporary Louis Prang, who worked directly with art education. This study has attempted to address that lack of documentation by presenting what is known about Milton Bradley, his primary interest in kindergarten, and the effect that had on art education. This has entailed a very traditional approach to historical inquiry, what Erikson (1994) refers to a realistic history. What has been presented in this study are the facts that I have been able to ascertain given the limited amount of information. The evidence collected and the conclusions made in this study will be, hopefully, reinforced and made stronger as more information is discovered.

Areas for Further Study

Since the focus of this paper has been on a very traditional application of historical inquiry, the application of a variety of other approaches can and will be undertaken in the future. The research conducted on Milton Bradley has lead to a number of additional questions. This study focused on Milton Bradley’s contributions to art education in the context of his time. The information presented in this study has been what I could gather from a number of other sources, both primary and secondary. The information available about Milton Bradley comes from a variety of scattered sources, some of which focus on his business dealings, others with his interest in kindergarten. Much of what has been done in this study is to present what has been found about Milton Bradley in a more complete way as to highlight his involvement in both general education, art education, and business. Through the use of a contextualist approach with its underlying social constructivist theory, the information in this study has attempted to place Milton Bradley

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in his social context and then present the people and circumstances in his life that helped shape his personal choices regarding business and education. Bradley’s own life is an example of the social constructivist learning theory, as the information gathered in this study has shown. Learning through experience is a recurring theme seen in many areas of Bradley’s life. My own voice is not as clear in this presentation format, as the focus is meant to be primarily informative, focusing on information about Milton Bradley, as befits traditional historical inquiry. This opens up a whole range of additional research that can help further our understanding of Bradley. Both his positive and negative contributions to education and business need to explored further and with a greater emphasis on my own point of view. This emphasis could be explored in a variety of ways which are detailed below. Continued research into the existence of Bradley’s letters and diaries could be extremely helpful in determining his intent regarding the production of some of his games and educational materials. Dr. Clifton Oakes proved the existence of the diaries when he was able to make contact with Milton Bradley’s granddaughter in 1975. Inquiries made by this researcher over the course of the study went unanswered, but additional study may reveal the current location of the diaries. The acquisition of the diaries would be extremely useful in ascertaining Bradley’s motives regarding the production of art supplies and materials. Additionally, having Bradley’s own words could help further clarify his intentions regarding his business decisions. Obtaining access to the Hasbro Corporation Archives may prove helpful in conducting further research into the life of Milton Bradley. Although access to the archives has been denied to researchers, including myself, an appeal to the president of the Hasbro Corporation may prove beneficial in conducting additional research. Access to the archives may ultimately prove not beneficial, but since the scope of the collection owned by the archives is not known, it is impossible to judge at this point. A recent conversation with Diana Korzenik (NAEA conference, 2005) has revealed some strategies that might prove useful in approaching the archivist at the Hasbro Corporation. Further research could be conducted into the financial affairs of the Milton Bradley Company. This research could prove helpful in determining the buying and selling practices of the Company. Additionally, obtaining the financial information from the Company could help determine the market value of their products and the actual cost of production. Several sources noted that Milton Bradley ran the educational division of his company at a loss for many years after its inception. Viewing the Company’s financial records could help determine the accuracy of those statements. Given that Bradley was primarily a businessman, it could be extremely telling to know the scope of his educational division. Further research into some of Bradley’s business competitors could help establish a timeline concerning the production of boardgames and educational materials. This information would be helpful in establishing a more complete contextual picture of the late nineteenth century and Milton Bradley’s place within that time. Conceptually, several issues could be explored including the connection between ideas and materials, how materials facilitate or inhibit ideas and creativity, and the potential bridging between general education, art and kindergarten through materials. The important role of manufactured objects and items in constructing curriculum could

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lead to a whole new line of research focusing on the positive and negative aspects of both. Bradley was a pioneer in the commodification of art education through the production of his supplies and materials and the positive and negative aspects of that commodification need to be explored further. These issues could form the basis for a tremendous amount of further research which could shed light not only on Milton Bradley, but on the beginning of the field of art education and its place in the public schools. Contemporary art education practices could benefit by continued exploration of the past and a more thorough understanding of its place in the continuum of public schooling in the United States.

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APPENDIX A Letters Pertaining to Obtaining Information for this Study

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The following letter was sent to Mrs. John F. Walker, Milton Bradley’s granddaughter, concerning Mr. Bradley’s personal diaries.

Mr. and Mrs. John F. Walker 33 Haas Rd. 1845 Bellevue Way #131 Tallahassee, FL 32304 [email protected]

Somer, Connecticut 06071

July 6, 2004

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Walker,

My name is Jennifer Snyder. I am currently a PhD student at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. I am writing to you because I believe you may be able to help me with my dissertation. My research question concerns Milton Bradley and his contributions to the field of art education through his interest in kindergarten and his production of art supplies and materials. In conducting my research I have come across a dissertation written by Mr. Clifton Oakes, in 1975, concerning Milton Bradley’s contributions to general education. In the appendix there are excerpts from Milton Bradley’s diary. A footnote at the end of the appendix indicates that the diary was at that time in the possession of Mrs. John F. Walker of Somers, Connecticut. I am hoping that in contacting you I have found the right family. It is my wish, with your permission, to use the diary to enhance my research and increase my knowledge of Milton Bradley and his motivations concerning kindergarten and art education. If you are still in possession of the diary I would very much like to be able to look at and review it. If you are not in possession of the diary at this time if you could point me in the right direction I would be grateful. I hope to be in contact with you soon concerning the diary. I will be in Connecticut at the end of July and would love to be able to talk with you in person at that time. Please expect a phone call from me next concerning this matter. You may also contact me directly at (850) 576-2544 or email me at [email protected]. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me concerning the status of Mr. Bradley’s diary.

Sincerely yours,

Jennifer L. Snyder

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The following letter was sent to Mr. James Shea Jr., former president of the Milton Bradley Company, concerning his father’s collection of Milton Bradley memorabilia.

April 30, 2004

Dear Mr. Shea,

My name is Jennifer Snyder. I am currently a PhD student at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. I am writing to you because I believe you may be able to help me locate some information that would greatly help me with my dissertation. My research question concerns Milton Bradley and his contributions to the field of art education through his interest in kindergarten and his production of art supplies and materials. In conducting my research I have come across a book written by your father, Mr. James Shea Sr. called It’s All in the Game, detailing the life of Milton Bradley. The information on the back of the dust jacket indicates that at one time your father owned a large collection of Bradley memorabilia, including diaries and personal correspondence. If you are still in possession of these materials I would very much like to be able to look at and review them. If you are not in possession of these materials at this time I would be grateful if you could tell me where these materials are currently located, if you know. It is my wish, with your permission, to use these materials to enhance my research and increase my knowledge of Milton Bradley and his motivations concerning kindergarten and art education. I hope to be in contact with you soon concerning the Bradley materials. You may contact me directly at (850) 576-2544 or email me at [email protected]. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me concerning the status of Mr. Bradley’s diaries.

Sincerely yours,

Jennifer L. Snyder

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I received the following response from Mr. Shea concerning his father’s Milton Bradley memorabilia collection.

From: [email protected] Show full message header To: [email protected] Printer-Friendly Version Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 15:15:24 EDT Subject: (no subject) Dear Ms. Snyder - Regarding your letter of April 30, unfortunately I do not have any Milton Bradley

memorabilia nor did my father. These materials were turned over the Milton Bradley Library in

East Longmeadow, MA. You might contact David Wilson, General Manager of Milton Bradley Games

who may be able to help you.

Sincerely - James J. Shea, Jr.

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The following is a response I received to an email I sent to Mr. David Wilson, General Manager of Milton Bradley Games, concerning Mr. Bradley’s personal diaries and correspondence.

From: "Morris, Mark" Show full message header To: "'[email protected]'" Printer-Friendly Version Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 11:31:19 -0400 Subject: Milton Bradley Information Dear Ms. Snyder:

Thank you for your interest in the history of Milton Bradley. Mr. Wilson has asked me to look into your request for historic materials.

You reference the dust jacket from "It's All in the Game" which suggests that Mr. Shea collected diaries and records of Milton Bradley. While he certainly did that at the time he wrote the book, what exists in our archives is only a limited amount of material. We do not have the sizable collection that you may have inferred from the dust jacket. Furthermore, our archives are stored in an area with no public access.

Your best bet might be to contact the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, located in Springfield, MA. (Phone: 413-263-6800). There are several historians who live in the Springfield area who have written about the life and times of Milton Bradley. The Museum staff can assist you in locating them.

Another source that may be able to help you is the American Game Collector's Association. While their focus is on early board games, several members of the group are historians who may be able to offer some further insight to Mr. Bradley.

We wish you success on your dissertation. Hopefully the sources above will be able to assist you.

Sincerely,

Mark Morris Public Relations Director Hasbro Games 443 Shaker Road East Longmeadow, MA 01028

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The following information was submitted via email to the Lowell Historical Society website concerning Milton Bradley’s school records from Lowell High School.

Sunday August 30, 2004

Hello. My name is Jennifer Snyder. I am a PhD student in the Art Education department at Florida State University. I am trying to research Milton Bradley's early educational experiences as part of my dissertation and I know he graduated from Lowell High School in 1852. Do any school records exist from Lowell High School circa 1848-1852? Verification that he actually attended Lowell High School and a listing of courses offered at that time would be particularly helpful, but any help you could give me in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Jennifer Snyder

I received the following replies from the Janine Whitcomb, the research assistant at the Lowell Historical Society.

From: Janine Whitcomb To: [email protected] Date: Tues, 31 Aug 2004 15:11:45 -0400 Subject: Re: Milton Bradley

I will check our school collection to see what we might have, but I think it would be best for you to go directly to the Lowell School Department, or call Lowell High School itself. I’m not sure how well they kept their records, or how easily accessible they are, but they should have the information you need. If I find anything though, I will definitely write back. Wish me luck,

Janine

From: Janine Whitcomb To: [email protected] Date: Tues, 31 Aug 2004 Subject: Re: Milton Bradley

Hi

I did some research and couldn’t find anything on Milton Bradley. I was hoping the graduates were listed in the newspaper, which they ordinarily were and are still today. We don’t have the newspaper of that year. Perhaps the Pollard Memorial Library would.

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Again, you would need to be in touch with the school department, and possibly try the library. Best wishes, Sincerely,

Janine

I sent the following request to the Lowell High School website comment system.

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 5:21 AM To: Cormier, June Subject: Comment from LPS Web Site (Home)

This is an automated email from the LPS web site.

A comment was submitted on 10/22/2004.

News heading: Student Records. Content: My name is Jennifer Snyder, I am a current doctoral student at Florida State University. My dissertation topic is Milton Bradley and his contributions to art education. Milton Bradley attended Lowell High School between starting around 1845/46/47. I would like to know if you maintain records from that period, and if you do, where they would be located. I am specifically interested in the types of courses Milton Bradley would have taken while attending Lowell High School. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Jennifer Snyder Submitted by: [email protected]

I received the following response to my inquiry.

Good afternoon, Thank you for your email inquiry. I forwarded you request for information to Lowell High School for their review and response.

Thank you, June Superintendent's Secretary Lowell Public Schools 155 Merrimack Street Lowell, MA Tel: 978-937-7614 Fax: 978-446-7436

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I sent the following inquiry to the archivist at the Harvard University Archives.

At 02:14 PM 6/21/2004 -0400, you wrote:

To: Jennifer Snyder Email Address: [email protected] Telephone: 850-576-2544 Address: 1845 Bellevue Way #131 Tallahassee, FL 32304

Question: I would like a copy of the Lawrence Scientific School preliminary drafts of catalog, 1847-1848, call number UZV 1347 hd. I would also like any information pertaining to Milton Bradley in the records of the Lawrence Scientific School 1846-1907. I believe Bradley attended the school beginning sometime around 1852-1854 to complete the course in drawing. Any information you have concerning the courses offered at that time, or anything specifically related to Mr. Bradley’s enrollment in the school would be greatly appreciated. My dissertation topic at Florida State University concerns Milton Bradley and his contributions to art education, so any information you have would be helpful.

Thank you, Jennifer Snyder

I received the following reply from the Harvard University Archives.

From: Archives Reference [email protected] To: [email protected] (Jennifer Snyder) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 08:44:27 -0400 Subject: Re: email request: Administrative Records: Milton Bradley

Dear Ms. Snyder,

Greetings from the Harvard University Archives. Thank you for your inquiry concerning Milton Bradley. A member of our reference staff will check our holdings for relevant material and respond to you as soon as possible. Please note that, due to the volume of requests that we receive, a response may take several weeks.

Sincerely, The Reference Staff Harvard University Archives

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APPENDIX B

Milton Bradley’s Educational Records from the Lowell Historical Society and Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University

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The following notes were taken March 3, 2005 at the Lowell Historical Society, run in part by the city of Lowell, Massachusetts and in part by the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

nd 22 Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Lowell, MA, 1847 • Average age of students: 13-15 yrs. Old • Courses offered: reading, spelling, geography, grammar, arithmetic • In 1847, total number of students who were sent to Lowell High School=110 • 47 schools in Lowell 81 teachers • Arithmetic Books used at Lowell High School: Mr. James S. Russell’s Arithmetic, Frederic A. Adams Arithmetic • Corporal Punishment: “If they could be successfully appealed to only through the instrumentality of the rod, it would then be the teacher’s disgrace, and his alone. If, on the other hand, they could be controlled by those high moral considerations which should influence rational human beings, it would redound to the teacher’s honor. But the influence of parents upon their children, begins earlier, reaches deeper, and extends farther, than the teacher’s can” (p. 31). • Publisher: James Atkinson

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rd 23 Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Lowell, MA, 1848 • Principal, Lowell High School: C.C. Chase • March 23, 1848--$800.00 allocated for Vocal Music at the Grammar/High School Instructors: B.F. Baker, I.N. Metcalf ½ hr. classes, twice a week • “The committee believe that in general, the knowledge of music which has been acquired and that the improvement in singing which has been made in our schools, are quite as great as the amount of instruction would lead us to expect,” (pp. 11-12). • Average class size: Primary school = 50 pupils • Textbooks used: Smith’s First Book in Geography, Willson’s History of the United States, Jarvis’s Physiology • Edward H. Viau—French instructor, each pupil received 2 hours of instruction per week • Subjects offered in the high school: Greek and Latin, reading, spelling, geography, English grammar and parsing, natural philosophy, astronomy, physiology, useful arts, history

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nd 24 Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Lowell, MA, 1849 • Natural science teacher hired th 26 Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Lowell, MA, 1851 • Introduction of sewing—2 hours per week in the Grammar schools “The industrious habits which it [sewing] tends to form, and the consequent high moral influence which exerts upon society at large, may cause its introduction more extensively in all their schools,” (p. 23). • Physical education introduced • Students were required to pass a general competency test to leave Grammar School and attend the high school. Sample questions included: 1. What is the difference between a ratio and a proportion? 2. Draw an outline map of Massachusetts noting the localities and names of its three largest rivers; of it three largest commercial, and three largest manufacturing places. 3. What is the difference between imperfect tense and present perfect tense?

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APPENDIX C Color Definitions and Classifications based on Milton Bradley’s Color Theory System

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Bradley’s Color Nomenclature

Bradley (1893) noted: It is true that a concise and reasonably full dictionary of color terms must be the outcome of long experience in the study of the science of color and its use in our every-day lives, and at the best only suggestions can be made at present. But as there must be a beginning and some terms seem to be fairly well established, the following incomplete list of definitions is offered, always subject to amendment by the majority vote, for whenever such changes indicate advance they should be welcome. (p. 27) Color Definitions

Standard Colors—As used in this system of color nomenclature, the best pigmentary imitation of each of the six spectrum colors red, yellow, green, blue and violet, and black and white. Pigmentary Colors—All colors used and produced in the arts and sciences. This is in distinction from colors seen in nature, as in flowers and the solar spectrum. The term refers not only to pigments in the strictest sense but to all surfaces coated, painted or dyed artificially. Pure Colors—A pure or full color, also called a saturated color, is the most intense form of that color without the admixture of white or black or gray. All spectrum colors are pure, while no pigmentary color is absolutely pure, but the pigmentary color which approaches most nearly to the corresponding color in the spectrum must be selected as the pigmentary type of purity for that color. Hue—The hue of a color is that color mixed with a smaller quantity of another color. An orange hue of red is the standard red mixed with a smaller quantity of orange. With the disks pure hues are secured only by mixing two standards adjacent in the spectrum circuit. Local Color—The term applied to the natural color of an object when seen in ordinary good daylight and at a convenient distance, as a sheet of paper at arms length, a tree at twice its height, etc. Tint—Any pure or full color mixed with white, or reduced by strong light. In the disk combinations a spectrum disk combined with a white disk. Shade—A full color in shadow, i.e., with a low degree of illumination. In disk combinations a disk of a spectrum color combined with a black disk produces by rotation a shade of that color. In pigments the admixture of black does not usually produce a satisfactory a shade of a color as may be secured with some other pigments, and each artist has his own preferences in making shades of the various colors on his palette. Scale—A scale of color is a series of colors consisting of a pure or full color at the center and graduated by a succession of steps to a light tint on the one side and a deep shade on the other. Tone—Each step in a color scale is a tone of that color, and the full color may be called the normal tone or the key tone. In art this word has had such a variety of meaning as to render it very convenient for amateur art critics, together with such

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terms as breadth, atmosphere, quality, values, etc., but in the consideration of color it should have this one, definite meaning. Warm Colors—Red, orange and yellow, and combinations in which they predominate. Cool Colors—Usually considered to be green, blue and violet, and the combinations in which they predominate. But it is, perhaps, questionable whether green and violet may properly be termed either warm or cool. The term cool as applied to colors is quite indefinite, except in a general way, but red, orange and yellow are considered as warm, and blue and green blue as cool. Neutral Gray—Pure black and white mixed by disk rotation, or white in shadow. Black and white pigments mixed do not usually produce a neutral gray, but rather a blue gray. Warm Gray—A neutral gray with the admixture of a small quantity of red, orange or yellow. Cool Gray—A neutral gray with a small quantity of a cool color. Neutral Colors—A term usually applied to gray, white, black, silver and gold; but the term PASSIVE COLORS has been suggested as better, with ACTIVE COLORS for the pronounced colors, such as the spectrum colors and their combinations. This suggestion is made because the word neutral should be confined to black and white and their combinations, while the term passive can be used more broadly. The term neutral has also sometimes been improperly applied to all grays and very broken colors. Broken Colors—Often improperly called broken tints. For simplicity a tint is described as a pure color mixed with white, and a shade as the color mixed with black; the corresponding broken color is the same color mixed with both black and white or neutral gray. A tint of a color thrown into a shadow or a shade of a color in bright sunlight gives a broken color. For various reasons a very large proportion of the colors in nature are broken. Broken colors are much easier to combine harmoniously than full colors, or even tints and shades. Luminosity—The luminosity of a color is determined by comparing it with a neutral gray. When a color seems to be of the same brightness as a given neutral gray, i.e., not lighter nor darker, then the gray is its measure of luminosity. Potentiality—The ability or strength of a color to effect other colors by combinations with them. For example, white has a greater potentiality than black, yellow greater than red, and violet the least of all spectrum colors. Ray of Light—The finest supposable element of light-impression in the eye. Beam of Light—A number of rays. Quality—This term seems to be used rather indefinitely when applied to color, but perhaps it is not far removed from the term hue or kind of color. Value—This word as applied to art is much abused and one which gives trouble to many. It may be difficult to define this term, although it has a very definite meaning to the artist. It is the one subject which must be carefully considered by the engraver or artist who attempts to interpret nature in black and white. It is the thing that the photographic plate usually fails to give in color subjects. Complementary Colors—As white light is the sum of all color if we take from white light is a given color the remaining color is the complement of the given color. When the eye has been fatigued by looking intently for a few seconds at a red spot on a

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white wall and is then slightly turned to the wall, a faint tint of a bluish green is seen, and this is called the accidental color of the red, which is supposed to be identical with its complementary color. If with the disks we determine a color which with a given color will produce by rotation a neutral gray, we have the complementary color more accurately than by any other means at present known in the use of pigmentary colors. Harmony—Two colors are said to be in harmony or to combine harmoniously if the effect is pleasing when they are in juxtaposition or are used in a composition. Spectrum Circuit—If a pigmentary imitation of the solar spectrum with the addition of violet red at the red end and red violet at the violet end be made, and the two ends joined, we shall have a spectrum circuit. This may be in the form of a circle, an ellipse or an oval. Primary Colors—In the Brewster theory, red, yellow and blue. In the Young-Helmholtz theory red, green and violet are termed primary colors because it is supposed that from these three sensations all color perceptions are experienced. But this theory is questioned by many scientist to-day. Practically every spectrum color is a primary, because each has its own wave length. Secondary Colors—In the Brewster theory orange, green and purple are called secondary because it is claimed that they are produced by the combination of primary colors in pairs. Tertiary Colors—A term used in the Brewster theory to denote three classes of colors called russet, citrine and olive, made by mixing the secondaries in pairs. These are all broken spectrum colors. The orange and purple produce russet; the orange and green form citrine; the green and purple, olive. There seems to be no good reason for perpetuating the indefinite terms secondaries and tertiaries as applied to color. All color definitions are reproduced from Milton Bradley’s (1893) book Color in the Kindergarten, published by the Milton Bradley Company in Springfield, Massachusetts.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Jennifer L. Snyder Professional Experience 2002-Present Florida State University; Tallahassee, Florida Teaching/Research Assistant, Art Education

2000-2002 Brewton Parker College; Hinesville, Georgia Adjunct Instructor, Art Education

2000-2002 Satilla Marsh Elementary School; Brunswick, Georgia Art Teacher, grades K-5

1998-2002 Altama Elementary School; Brunswick, Georgia Art Teacher, grades K-5

1998-1999 Glyndale Elementary School; Brunswick, Georgia Art Teacher, grades K-5

Education

2002-2005 Florida State University; Tallahassee, Florida Doctor of Education, Art Education

1996-1998 University of Georgia; Athens, Georgia Masters of Art Education, Art Education

1992-1996 University of Georgia; Athens, Georgia Bachelor of Fine Art, Fabric Design

1988-1992 Central Gwinnett High School; Lawrenceville, Georgia

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