Book Shelf: Blackboard Sketching

This week it seems as if everyone online has been amazed by the chalkboard drawings from Emerson High School in Oklahoma City that were uncovered when workmen removed the chalkboards which had been installed over the top of them in 1917. If you missed that bit of news, you can read about it here.

The History Blog* covered the story yesterday in depth, including a short video, and a history of chalkboards, colored chalk and the use of both in classrooms over time (with links of course). And here's the paragraph where "livius" introduces today's Book Shelf candidate:

"A century later, blackboard drawings as a pedagogical tool had moved far beyond colored maps for geography lessons. Blackboard Sketching by Frederick Whitney, Director of Art, State Normal School, Salem, Massachusetts, was published in 1908 to teach teachers how to make chalkboard masterpieces that would catch the eye of students bored with lectures. It’s brilliant and very short (a pamphlet, really), so be sure leaf through the whole thing."

[Blackboard sketching by Frederick Whitney, published 1908  Springfield, Mass., New York [etc.] : Milton Bradley Company.

Source: Internet Archive, original contributor: University of California Libraries]

I can't help wondering if any of my early 20th century ancestors saw drawings like these in their classrooms or if those of my ancestors who became school teachers during this period used books like this one.

*If you don't regularly visit The History Blog, believe me, you're missing a lot of great stuff.

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