White's Primary School Drawing Cards

Complete set of 12 double-sided White's Industrial Drawing Cards, 4.25 x 6.25 inches, with original envelope. The cards are Near Fine with minor age toning and fingersoil; in a Very Good envelope, chipped at the top edge but with the majority of the text intact. With 141 lessons for use with special classroom slates inscribed with dots for guiding students' early drawing work. The cards correspond to Dictation Lessons in Drawing by Sarah Frances Buckelew, which reproduces the cards as plates and offers more extensive instruction for teachers to further the lessons. Buckelew writes that the subject drawing should begin with an example at the blackboard, then be produced from dictation, copied from a subject, then drawn from memory. Slate drawing was both a practical means of instruction and a popular occupation for children. In addition to educational sets, slate drawing cards became a clever form of trade card that was used particularly for goods and services aimed at women, who were more likely to keep the cards handy because of their usefulness as instructive amusement for the little ones. Designs could become quite pictorial and elaborate, but the ones included in this primary grade industrial drawing set are wonderfully graphic and succinct. No copies in OCLC.