Bartholomew's National System of Industrial Drawing. Free Hand (Book No. 2)

Softcover oblong small 4to, 7 x 11 inches. 16 pages of freehand drawing exercises focusing on curved shapes and ornamental designs. Number 2 in the series of drawing books designed for teaching in public schools and used in the late 1870s and '80s. The series included Free Hand (#1-6), Geometric (#7-8), Model and Object (#9) and Perspective (#10). VG+ with light soil to wraps, slight bump to the lower corner; internally bright and clean, an exemplary copy.

William Bartholomew taught in the Boston public schools from 1852-1871 and was among the first to develop a graded series of drawing texts in the 1860s. A trained artist known especially for his landscapes, his interest was in pictorial rather than industrial drawing. Despite serving as Drawing Supervisor in Boston when the Massachusetts Drawing Act (which he had avidly supported) passed, he was shut out by Smith’s appointment.

Bartholomew developed the National System of Drawing Industrial Series in direct competition with Smith. They were published with Woolworth, Ainsworth & Co. in 1874 along with “A state-ment of the merits that entitle them to preference for public school instruction, with special reference to the rival pretensions of the books of Mr. Walter Smith.” (Anderson)