The World That Created MassArt and The Worlds That MassArt Created Mary Ann Stankiewicz Professor of Art Education Penn State University
November 6, 1873, Massachusetts Normal Art School opened in rented rooms on Pemberton Square, Boston
Massachusetts Normal Art School • Was it a school preparing young women to teach basic elements of visual art? • Was it a preparatory school for technical drawing? • Was the state teaching fine arts to students for free?
S. Edward Warren
Varieties of Drawing Le#: Projec+on of Shades & Shadows Right: Representa+onal Drawing Bo=om: Design from Nature
Lucas Baker
George H. Bartle=
Normal Art School Founders
John Dudley Philbrick (1818-‐1886)
Charles Callahan Perkins (1823-‐1886) Walter Smith (1836-‐1886)
• Based on lecture given in Boston, December 1872. • Published in October 1873. • Dr. Clarke argued that women’s minds were at the mercy of their bodies. • A woman could vote, or engage in any professional occupa+ons that men did— as long as the laws of her bodily organiza+on were recognized. • Female bodies were created to bear children and women had a responsibility to conduct their lives with that end in mind.
Women suffrage mee+ng in Worcester, Massachuse=s, November 7-‐9, 1873. Henry B. Blackwell presided at the Sunday a#ernoon session, November 9. Lucy Stone gave the concluding address, repor+ng progress since she became involved with the suffrage movement In 1847. Stone and Blackwell were leaders of the American Women Suffrage Associa+on (1869-‐1890), which published the Woman’s Journal beginning in January 1870.
Harmony in Difference • "My own belief is, that we have no grounds for and no right in making any difference whatsoever in human beings on account of sex, either in their educa+on or occupa+ons, more than Nature has done." (Smith, 1872, p. 165) Walter Smith (1836-‐1886)
Abolitionists and Feminists on MNAS Board of Visitors, 1880s Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-‐1911)
Abby W. May (1829-‐1888)
First MNAS Board of Visitors Hon. Joseph White (1811-‐1890)
Gardiner G. Hubbard (1822-‐1897)
Rev. Alonzo A. Miner (1814-‐1895), Chair
Phillips Brooks (1835-‐1893)
John Dudley Philbrick (1818-‐1886)
Boston Artists in MNAS’s First Classes
Charles Dickens as he appears when reading, 1867 wood engraving from drawing by Charles A. Barry (1830-‐1892) Hunter on Horseback (nd), Pain+ng by Henry Hitchings (1824-‐1902)
Boston’s Great Fire started in a five-‐story warehouse just a#er 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 9, 1872.
Pemberton Square had been developed in 1835, combining private residences and businesses.
Original Mission of Massachusetts Normal Art School “as a Training School for the purpose of qualifying teachers and masters of industrial drawing. Its specific aim at present is to prepare teachers for the industrial drawing schools of the State, who shall also be able to direct and superintend the instruc+on in this branch in the public schools.” (Massachuse=s Normal Art School, 1873, p. 3)
June 23, 1876 • First ceremony to award cer+ficates, MNAS • At 28 School Street where the school rented rooms • 64 students were recognized – 28 men – 36 women
• Not all had completed the full program; some had only passed one or two cer+ficates
28 School Street was across from Boston’s City Hall.
First MNAS Commencement Speakers Gov. Alexander H. Rice (1818-‐1895))
Rev. Alonzo A. Miner (1814-‐1895)
John Dudley Philbrick (1818-‐1886)
Walter Smith (1836-‐1886)
What did the first graduates do? • Teaching in Free Evening Drawing Schools – 11 men: 9 in Boston, 2 in Cambridge
• Teaching in Boston Public Schools – 9 graduates • 3 men, including Henry Hitchings • 6 women
• Teaching in Other Massachuse=s Ci+es/Towns – 1 man and 5 women
What did the first graduates do? • Teaching in State Normal Schools (9) – 5 at MNAS • 3 women, including Mercy A. Bailey and Deristhe “Rissie” L. Hoyt • 2 men, including Arthur C. Patten, first to complete the full program, receiving his diploma and title of Art Master in 1877
– Others at Boston, Framingham, Salem, Westfield, and Worcester
• Mrs. Leah N. Wellington taught at Wellesley College
What did the first graduates do? • 7 graduates taught in public schools in: – Chicago – Columbus, Ohio (2) – Portsmouth & Amherst, NH – Newport & Providence, RI
• 3 graduates taught in post-‐secondary educa+on: – Purdue University, IN – Winona Normal School, MN – Trenton Normal School, NJ
Leaders in Art + Design • Charles A. Barry (1830-‐1892), first headmaster, Rhode Island School of Design, 1878-‐80 • Eugene C. Colby (1846-‐1930), first teacher and principal of Rochester Mechanics Ins+tute (now RIT) • William A. Mason (1855-‐1923), created Art Department, The Ohio State University • Leslie W. Miller (1848-‐1931), A.M. 1880, Principal, Pennsylvania School of Industrial Arts (now University of the Arts) • Walter Sco= Perry (1855-‐1934), Director, School of Fine and Applied Arts, Pra= Ins+tute
Inventors, Engineers, & Painters • A. Hun Berry studied at MIT before MNAS and held several patents, some for fans • George A. Loring first taught in Free Evening Drawing Schools, later became a Mechanical and Civil Engineer
• Walter L. Dean (1852-‐1912) became a well-‐known marine painter • John N. Marble (1855-‐1918) studied at Academie Julian and became a portrait painter in New York
William Ladd Taylor (1854-1926)
Eleanor Norcross (1854-1923)
E. A. Norcross, 1871
“In My Studio” 1891
According to Walter Smith, quoted in the 36th annual Board of Education report:
“The school should be to artisans what the university is to the professional man; and to such professions as those of the architect and engineer it should be a professional school also.”