Educational and Industrial Drawing: Mechanical Series, Nos. 1 + 2

Softcover wraps, 9 x 12 inches. Introductory remarks dated 1893. Numbers one and two of the six drawing books in Thompson's "Mechanical Series." Text pages interleaved with blank heavyweight drawing paper. The cover of book 1 has a small closed tear at the foredge, otherwise both are VG+ to Near Fine--nice and sturdy, clean, unused copies. The text pages are reproduced (out of order) from the teacher's manual, and provide a series of word problems with further explanations and definitions at the beginning and end. The numbered problems continue directly from book one to two, 45 in total. Two flow charts for the Analytical and Synthetic Schemes are presented on the first two pages of book 1, quietly exuberant in their delineations of the task at hand.

Langdon Shook Thompson presented his "Educational and Industrial System of Drawing" as an experienced guide through others' methodologies, not as an original invention of his own. He published an arguably dizzying number of series and variations: the Common School Course consisted of four drawing books and a manual for primary grades, plus three "Model and Object Drawing" books and a manual. Advanced courses were offered in Manual Training (2 manuals), Advanced Free Hand (4 drawing books), Aesthetic (6 drawing books and a manual), and Mechanical (6 drawing books and a manual). With some mix-and-match elements, Thompson endeavored to cover bases in terms of schools' varying intentions for art education. "Model and Object Drawing" series books could be substituted for the early numbers in both the Aesthetic and Mechanical Series, evidence of the diverging purposes for art education between schools. In 1898, Thompson was appointed Chairman of the National Education Association Committee of Ten, a group of art educators chosen to deliberate on elementary art education's means and proper purpose. Thompson's report, issued in 1902, concluded that beauty and aesthetics was more important than pictorial representation--though it was published with dissenting remarks from other committee members, including John S. Clark. ('The Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the National Educational Association,' 1902, p594-614)