PREFACE.

AT the National Convention of the Friends of Public Education, held in Philadelphia, on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of October, 1849, and of which Hon. Horace Mann was President, Prof. James Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington City, Hon. Elisha R. Potter, Commissioner of Public Schools of Rhode Island, and Greer B. Duncan, Esq. of New Orleans, were appointed a Committee to report to the next Convention on the subject of School Architecture, including the location, size, ventilation, warming, and furniture of buildings intended for educational purposes. At the second Convention held in Philadelphia, on the 23d, 24th, and 25th of August, 1850, and of which Rev. Dr. Nott, of Union College, was President, the following Report, prepared by Mr. Potter, of Rhode Island, was submitted by Prof. Henry, with some introductory remarks on the general subject of American Architecture. The Report was ordered to be printed with the Proceedings of the Convention.

REPORT.

The subject of School Architecture has not, till within a comparatively recent period, received that attention from the public generally, or from practical educators in particular, which its important bearings, direct and indirect, on the health, manners, morals, and intellectual progress of children, and on the health and success of the teacher, both in government and instruction, demand. The earliest publication on the subject in this country, which has met the notice of the Committee, may be found in the School Magazine, No. 1, published as an Appendage to the Journal of Education, in April, 1829. In 1830, Mr. W. J. Adams, of New York, delivered a lecture before the American Institute of Instruction, "on School houses and School Apparatus," which was published in the first volume of the transactions of that association. Stimulated by that lecture, the Directors of the Institute in the following year offered a premium of twenty dollars for the best " Essay on the Construction of School-houses." The premium was awarded by a committee of the Institute to the Essay by Dr. William A. Alcott, of Hartford, Conn., now residing in West Newton, Mass. This "Prize Essay" was published in the second annual volume of lectures before the Institute, as well as in a pamphlet, and was widely circulated and read all over the country. In 1933, the Essex County Teachers' Association published a Report on School-houses" prepared by Rev. G. B. Perry, which is a searching and vigorous exposure of the evils resulting from the defective construction and arrange

ment of School-houses. From this time the subject began to attract public attention, and improvements were made in the construction and furniture of school-rooms, especially in large cities and villages.

In 1838, Hon. Horace Mann submitted a "Report on School-houses," as supplementary to his First Annual Report as Secretary of the Board of Education in Massachusetts, in which the whole subject, and especially that of ventilation, is discussed with great fullness and ability. This Report was widely circulated in a pamphlet form, and in the various educational periodicals of the country, and gave a powerful impulse to improvement in this department, not only in Massachusetts, but in other states. In the same year, Hon. Henry Barnard prepared an" Essay on School Architecture," in which he embodied the results of much observation, experience and reflection, in a manner so systematic and practical as to meet the wants of all who may have occasion to superintend the erection, alteration, or furnishing of School-houses. This Essay was originally prepared and delivered as a lecture in the course of his official visits to different towns of Connecticut, as Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools. It was first published in 1841, in the Connecticut Common School Journal, and in 1842 was submitted, with some modifications and numerous illustrations, as a Report on School-houses, to the Legislature. It may be mentioned as an evidence of the low appreciation in which the whole subject was regarded at that time, in a State which prides herself on the condition of her common schools, and on the liberality with which her system of public education is endowed, that the Joint Standing Committee on Education, on the part of the Senate and House, refused to recommend the publication of this Essay, although it is by far the most thorough, systematic and practical discussion of the subject which has appeared in this country or in Europe. And it was only through the strenuous efforts of a few intelligent friends of school improvements that its publication was secured, and then, only on condition that the author should bear the expense of the wood-cuts by which it was illustrated, and a portion of the bill for printing. Since its first publication more than one hundred thousand copies of the original Essay have been printed in various forms and distributed in different states, without any pecuniary advantage to the author.

In 1842, George B. Emerson, Esq., in Part Second of the School and Schoolmaster, devoted a chapter to "The School-house," in which sound and practical views of the location, size, and ventilation and warming of edifices for school purposes, are presented and illustrated by appropriate cuts. A copy of this valuable work was presented to each of the 11,000 school districts in the State of New York, and each of the 3,400 districts in Massachusetts. In 1846, Nathan Bishop, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools in the City of Providence, published a Report on the School-houses of that city, with numerous wood-cuts illustrative of the peculiarities of the furniture and internal arrangements of the buildings devoted to each grade of school. These houses were constructed after an examination of the latest improvements which had been introduced in the School-houses of Boston, Salem, and other large cities and villages in Massachusetts, and have been much consulted by committees and builders as models.

In 1848, Mr. Barnard republished his Essay, with plans and descriptions of numerous School-houses which had been erected under his direction, in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and including by permission all of the plans of any value, which had been published by Mr. Mann, Mr. Emerson, Mr. Bishop, and other laborers in this field-with the title of "School Architecture, or Contributions to the Improvement of Schoolhouses in the United States." As the title conveys a very inadequate view of the fullness and completeness of this valuable work, the Committee

feel that they can not better promote the object of their appointment than by calling the attention of the Convention to the general views with which the subject was approached by this Author, and to the table of contents which will be found appended to the extracts which we have been permitted to make from this volume.

"The subject was forced on the attention of the author in the very outset of his labors in the field of public education. Go where he would, in city or country, he encountered the district School-house, standing in disgraceful contrast with every other structure designed for public or domestic use. Its location, construction, furniture and arrangements, seemed intended to hinder, and not promote, to defeat and not perfect, the work which was to be carried on within and without its walls. The attention of parents and school officers was early and earnestly called to the close connection between a good school-house and a good school, and to the great principle, that to make an edifice good for school purposes, it should be built for children at school, and their teachers; for children differing in age, sex, size, and studies, and therefore requiring different accommodations; for children engaged sometimes in study and sometimes in recitation; for children whose health and success in study require that they shall be frequently, and every day, in the open air, for exercise and recreation, and at all times supplied with pure air to breathe; for children who are to occupy it in the hot days of summer, and the cold days of winter, and to occupy it for periods of time in different parts of the day, in positions which become wearisome, if the seats are not in all respects comfortable, and which may affect symmetry of form and length of life, if the construction and relative heights of the seats and desks which they occupy are not properly attended to; for children whose manners and morals, whose habits of order, cleanliness and punctuality,-whose temper, love of study, and of the school, are in no inconsiderable degree affected by the attractive or repulsive location and appearance, the inexpensive outdoor arrangements, and the internal construction of the place where they spend or should spend a large part of the most impressible period of their lives. This place, too, it should be borne in mind, is to be occupied by a teacher whose own health and daily happiness are affected by most of the various circumstances above alluded to, and whose best plans of order, classification, discipline and recitation, may be utterly baffled, or greatly promoted, by the manner in which the School-house may be located, lighted, warmed, ventilated and seated. With these general views of school architecture, this essay was originally written."

The volume will be found on examination to contain:

1. An exposition, from official documents, of common errors in the location, construction, and furniture of School-houses as they have been heretofore almost universally built, even in states where the subject of education has received the most attention.

2. A discussion of the purposes to be answered, and the principles to be observed, in structures of this kind.

3. Descriptions of a variety of plans, adapted to schools of every grade, from the Infant School to the Normal School, in a variety of styles, hav ing a Gothic, Elizabethan, or classic character, and on a large or small scale of expense; either recommended by experienced educators, or followed in buildings recently erected in this country or in Europe.

4. Numerous illustrations of the most approved modes of constructing and arranging seats and desks, and of all recent improvements in apparatus for warming and ventilating school-rooms and public halls generally. 5. A catalogue of maps, globes, and other means of visible illustration, with which each grade of school should be furnished, with the price, and place where the several articles can be purchased.

6. A list of books, with an index or table of contents to the most impor

tant volumes on education, schools, school systems, and methods of teaching, suitable for school libraries, with reference to catalogues from which village libraries may be selected.

7. Rules and regulations for the care and preservation of School-houses, grounds, and furniture.

8. Examples of exercises suitable to the dedication of School-houses to the sacred purposes of education.

9. A variety of hints respecting the classification of schools.

It will not be necessary to specify further the official reports and periodicals in which the subject has been discussed within a few years past, or to mention in detail the various improvements which have been introduced in the construction of school furniture, and in modes of ventilation and warming. Most of the plans which have been brought before the public, and which have been found on trial to be valuable contributions to plans before published, are embodied in the recent editions of Mr. Barnard's work. In conclusion, the Committee beg leave to present the following summary of the Principles of School Architecture, which the author of that work has drawn up at their request, as presenting the result of his observations and practical knowledge in this department of educational improvement. He has also placed at the disposal of the Committee numerous plans for schools of different grades, selected from his book, or prepared for subsequent editions, which are herewith communicated as a part of this Report.

Philadelphia, Aug. 23, 1850.

The above Report was published as an Introduction to an abridgment of this work, under the title of Practical Illustrations of the Principles of School Architecture, and is adopted in this revised and enlarged edition, of the original treatise, because it contains not only a brief and accurate sketch of the various publications on the subject of School Architecture, but a summary of the aims and contents of this volume.

Office of Superintendent of Common Schools.
HARTFORD, CONN., February 1st, 1854.

HENRY BARNARD.