Mechanical Drawing [Ohio - University Athens, Ohio]

Oblong 4to, 8.5 x 11 inches, bound by two metal brads. 27 cyanograph (blueprint) pages, recto-only: Title page, (2) "information sheets", 24 numbered plates. Scuffing and edgewear to wraps; corner of rear wrap creased, otherwise Near Fine. A working textbook for mechanical drawing instruction covering aspects of geometry and measurement, 4 pages on draughtsmen's lettering (including two large alphabets), illustrations of furniture and household objects from different perspectives, machine diagrams and methods of showing threads, etc. Explanatory text and student assignments incorporated throughout; final page outlines an assignment to draft plans for a house and hand-letter a title page.

Stanley Miller Hastings (1889-1961) worked as a draughtsman in a tile factory before receiving his degree in Civil Engineering from Ohio University. He was an active student with a full roster of extracurriculars listed in the yearbook, including Basketball, Glee Club, Philomathean Literary Society, Prom Committee, Science Club, and "O" Association. Hastings is listed as an Assistant in Engineering and Draughting in the Ohio University course catalog for 1917-18 (published in 1916). He gives the University as his employer on his draft card in 1917 and claimed medical exemption for "throat trouble," but was listed among Active Duty Servicemen in the Sigma Pi fraternity's 1918 Newsletter. It is uncertain whether Hastings ever fulfilled his role as instructor, or if his text was ever used.

After WWI, Hastings moved to Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and received his M.A. from Emory University. Hastings became Principal of O’Keefe Junior High School in Atlanta in 1925 and served the majority of his career in that role. In the 1940s, he was named to 'Who's Who in American Education' and co-authored the textbook 'Democracy in America' with fellow educators from Emory, William Muthard and Cullen Gosnell. which is the only work attributed to him in OCLC. We could locate no record of this Mechanical Drawing book, produced in the early days of Ohio University's Industrial Technology program, which began as a manual training program around 1910, and evolved into the "Industrial Education Department" by 1920.