Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 64

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

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Rhode Island School of Design was made the beneficiary in 1882 of an annual state appropriation for reasons indicated in a commentary by the administrative body in its report for 1883: "The state of Rhode Island is dependent in an unusual degree upon its manufac- turing industries. The most successful manufacturers are those who keep abreast of the times. The most skilled workmen still come to us from abroad. The action of the legislature last year shows that it sees no reason why the inventive Yankee should not take his place beside them." Free state scholarships, appointments to be made by the State Board of Education, were provided through the appropriation, thus linking up the School of Design with the free public school system, and making available opportunities for study of subjects not included in the public school curricula. Remarkable as Rhode Island has been for the volume of products of its manifold industries, state leadership in manufacturing has been maintained more through quality than through quantity production. Quality and versatility have been charac- teristics that have maintained Rhode Island's industrial prosperity. Seat in the late colonial and early state period of a thriving iron and steel manufactory, Rhode Island, in spite of the movement westward of the centre of gross production of ferric metals, continues to maintain a world wide reputation for the excellence of the fine tools and accurate measuring devices, screws and bolts, files, textile and other intricate and accurate machinery produced in busy and thriving factories. The inventive genius of native sons and the highly trained skill of

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artisans and operatives have achieved this distinction. In jewelry and silversmithing Rhode Island holds high rank for artistic design and fineness of product. In textiles Rhode Island has conceded to other states the production of coarse cloth in quantity; whereas one who seeks a glorified fabric in fineness of yarn, beauty of weave, artistic design and pattern, in finish through bleaching, dyeing, printing and coloring, whether in cotton, wool, silk or rayon, may find, and probably will find it to be a product, in whole or in part, of a Rhode Island factory. The contribution of Rhode Island School of Design, through more than half a cen- tury of training artisans and designers, to Rhode Island's achievements in industry is incal- culable; since 1883 thousands of young people and workers have received in Rhode Island School of Design, many through state free scholarships, education which has helped them to improvement and advancement in trades and industries requiring skill and technical knowl- edge, and particularly the application of art and design. Nowhere are there finer facilities provided for training jewelers or textile workers than have been installed at Rhode Island School of Design.

The state's original provision for free scholarships has been increased from time to time ; the annual appropriation of $25,000 in 1930 was apportioned $3000 to current main- tenance, $10,000 to the textile school, and $12,000 to free state scholarships. The number of appointments made by the State Board of Education, variable because of the tuition charges for day and evening classes, averages 500 annually. Service always has been an ideal at the School of Design. During the World War the school took an active part in training mechan- ics for the army and navy, and in training others for skilled employment in the war industries developed at home. Following the war it received a large number of veterans for training in the rehabilitation service set up by the federal government. With all the emphasis placed upon industry and service, however, the School of Design never has neglected art for art's sake, and has not failed "to give such systematic training to students as shall enable them to become successful art teachers, and to promote the general advancement of art and culture." The School of Design has continued to be an art school, and has contributed abundantly to maintaining Rhode Island's distinctive prestige as the native state of a host of excellent artists, beginning with Stuart and Malbone, and continuing into the twentieth century. Art in all its phases and manifestations is cherished and taught.

The resources of the School of Design include six buildings. The main building con- tains the museum, the offices of administration, the library, rooms for the departments of draw- ing, decorative design, and architecture, and a students' social room. Memorial Hall con- tains rooms for the department of sculpture, and other classrooms and a large hall seating 800 people. The Mechanical building is occupied by classrooms of the mechanical department and the machine shop. The Jesse Metcalf memorial building, a remarkably fine structure of steel and brick, contains the department of textile design and the laboratories of textile chemistry and dyeing. The jewelry building houses the departments of jewelry and silversmithing, and normal art. It is of reinforced concrete, four stories high, with a total floor area of 19,700 square feet, most carefully designed in every way for its purpose. The machinery equipment was chosen for its practical value, and presented by the New England Manufacturing Jewel- ers and Silversmiths Association and other friends.

The museum consists of eight galleries, three of which contain oil and water-color paint- ings, and engravings; two, a large collection of casts of the masterpieces of classic and Renaissance sculpture ; one, a fine collection of autotypes illustrating the history of painting ; one, collections of Japanese pottery, metal work, lacquer, and textiles; one, a collection of Greek vases and peasant pottery. The art collection has been referred to as "one of the most important in the country." The Colonial house forms a continuation of these galleries, and houses the Pendleton collection of antique furniture, china, textiles, and paintings. One of

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the rooms of this house contains a collection of paintings, china, glass, and silver. In addi- tion to the permanent collections in the museum, more than 500 special loan exhibitions have been shown in the galleries. These exhibitions have given the people of Rhode Island an opportunity to see representative collections of painting and sculpture by many American artists, besides the work of great French and Dutch artists, and architectural work. For the use of students, exhibitions of the work done in the leading art schools, and exhibitions of drawings in line and color, have been held from time to time. Owners of etchings and engrav- ings have made possible exhibitions of these beautiful arts. In the industrial arts there have been arts and crafts exhibitions, an international exhibition of posters, and exhibitions of furniture, of metal work and jeweiry, of medieval and modern textiles and embroideries, of Persian ceramics, textiles and miniature paintings, of Japanese stencils and prints, of book- plates, of pottery, carvings and coins. The library contains over 5000 volumes, 4000 lantern slides, 4000 post cards, and 20,000 mounted photographs, and reproductions, all in charge of a trained librarian. The collections are the accumulation of half a century of carefully planned acquisitions by purchase and generous gifts. The Colonial house was erected expressly for the Pendleton collection, that the latter might be exhibited in proper setting.

On the death of the owner, Marsden J. Perry, the School of Design will receive also the John Brown house, erected in 1786, and described in 1789 by John Quincy Adams as "the most magnificent and elegant private mansion that I have ever seen on this continent." The John Brown house is the finest among the many splendid Georgian houses built in Rhode Island between 1775 and 1825. Mr. Perry, after purchasing it, restored the house in all details as nearly as possible to the original design. With the house Mr. Perry's gift includes the finest private Shakespearean collection in the world. The purpose of the gift is to pre- serve the John Brown mansion for posterity ; with the house is an ample endowment to assure perpetual maintenance.

Rhode Island School of Design is one of the largest educational institutions in Rhode Island, with a registration of approximately 2000 students, and a faculty of regular instruc- tors and lecturers that numbers close to 100. In addition to persons under regular instruc- tion, large numbers attend Sunday lectures on art, and particularly upon the collections ; groups of children from the public schools visit the museum and are guided through, and visitors are admitted daily. The number of visitors registered annually tends to exceed 75,000.

COLLEGE OF PHARMACY-Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and Allied Sciences was chartered in 1902, and opened October 7 in the same year. The pioneer in the movement to establish a training school for pharmacists was Norman N. Mason, who conducted a class in the Fountain Street evening school in Providence in 1870, the same year in which the General Assembly enacted the earliest legislation requiring the registration of pharmacists. A com- mittee of the Rhode Island Pharmaceutical Association reported in 1876 that there was an opportunity in Rhode Island for a successful school, but no further action was taken. Pro- fessor Edwin E. Calder, who later became Dean of the college, gave lectures on pharmaceutical chemistry to proprietors and clerks of drug stores in the years between 1880 and 1888. Pro- fessor Calder was a skillful teacher, and was for years a member of the faculty at Brown University in the department of chemistry. Other ventures were a private school for the study of theoretical pharmacy and pharmaceutical chemistry, organized in 1885, by John E. Groff ; a private school for similar purposes, organized in 1890 by Charles H. Daggett, and a labora- tory and school for practical demonstration, organized in 1899 by Franklin N. Strickland. All of these men later became professors in the College of Pharmacy. Another concerted movement to establish a college, beginning in 1896, resulted in an arrangement for a prelimi-

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nary course in botany and chemistry at Brown University in the extension department. The work at Brown was discontinued after a year, not because it had not been successful, but because of changes in university policies incidental to the resignation of President Andrews and the election of President Faunce. Four years later an association of pharmacists launched the College of Pharmacy, for which accommodations, consisting of lecture rooms and labora- tories were provided. The College of Pharmacy, as established, resulted from initiative of Rhode Island pharmacists, who recognized the need of a training school as an assurance of satisfactory service in compounding medicines, and the advantage to the profession arising from public confidence. Within three years the rapid growth of the college so taxed the original quarters that removal was necessary, and the college has moved twice since for the same reason. At the present time it occupies its own building, specially constructed for the purpose of the college with reference to classrooms and laboratories. The teaching faculty has been distinguished throughout the quarter-century of the existence of the college, and the reputation of the college has drawn to it an enrollment from all parts of New England and even from New York and other Middle States. Since 1916 the General Assembly has made an annual appropriation for free state scholarships at the College of Pharmacy, appointments being made by the State Board of Education. The college requires completion of a standard high school course for entrance, and grants the first degree in pharmacy on completion of three years of regular courses. Through an arrangement with practising pharmacists, students who complete one year at the college may be employed on part-time in drug stores with the purpose of learning the practical aspects of the business through actual experience. The laboratories at the College of Pharmacy are complete in detail, and are not surpassed in the United States.

BUSINESS COLLEGE-Bryant-Stratton College of Business Administration was chartered in 1916, and offers post-secondary courses leading to the degrees of bachelor of business administration, bachelor of accounts, bachelor of secretarial science, and bachelor of com- mercial science. The institution was established in Rhode Island in 1863, with the purpose of training youth for business and commerce, and has a long history of efficient and satisfactory service in its chosen field. The organization of a college department, and the granting of degrees in recognition of scholastic attainment conformed to a progressive program of extend- ing service, and modern practices in vocational institutions offering post-secondary instruc- tion. Bryant-Stratton College, additional to collegiate instruction leading to degrees, offers also instruction in business practices and commercial education available for all youth who have suitable educational preparation for admission. The State Board of Education recog- nizes courses of secondary classification as meeting the requirements for approval under the high school law, which authorizes school committees in towns not maintaining public high schools to send pupils to Bryant-Stratton for high school commercial education. Operation is practically continuous throughout the year, day and evening; and the program of studies is so adaptable that admission may occur at the convenience of the student, and progress be made at a rate to suit the individual. As an institution for training youth for business and com- merce the college has a splendid reputation, and numbers among its graduates hundreds of men and women prominent in the commercial life of the State of Rhode Island.

OTHER COLLEGES-Catholic Teachers' College of Providence was incorporated by act of the General Assembly in 1929, "to promote virtue and piety and learning in such of the lan- guages and of the liberal arts and sciences, including particularly the science of education and the art of teaching, as shall be recommended" by the corporation. The incorporators included Rt. Rev. William A. Hickey, Bishop of Providence, and a number of Catholic priests, and the purpose of the new college is to provide a more liberal education for Catholic sisters of the

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orders of nuns teaching in Catholic schools. The college is authorized to grant suitable degrees. As the work is intended principally for teachers already in service, to supplement the preparatory training for teaching which is prescribed for novices in the teaching orders of nuns, it must be conducted in summer courses, or on Saturdays, and late afternoons. A beginning was made in the summer of 1929 in the lecture rooms and classrooms of St. Xavier's Academy in Providence, with an enrollment of 180. The annual summer session continues five weeks of six days, thirty days altogether, and is under the direction of Rev. Thomas A. Cassidy, assigned by the Bishop as Diocesan Superintendent of Catholic Schools.

St. Dunstan's College of Sacred Music was incorporated by act of the General Assembly in 1930. The incorporators include Rt. Rev. James DeWolf Perry, Bishop of Rhode Island. The college will carry on and amplify the work in sacred music already undertaken by the choir school at St. John's Episcopal Church, designated by Bishop Perry as the cathedral church for his diocese. The college will emphasize church music and will be extended to include liberal studies. An arrangement for cooperation and exchange of students and courses between Brown University and St. Dunstan's was announced in January, 1930.

Rhode Island in the twentieth century is wealthy in resources for higher education through the opportunities offered by Brown University and Providence College in the liberal arts and sciences; by Rhode Island State College, Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, and Bryant-Stratton in the occupations and business of life; by Rhode Island College of Education and Catholic Teachers' College as teacher-training institu- tions; and by Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design and St. Dunstan's in art and the cultural applications of art. For practical purposes it may be assumed, and it could easily be demonstrated by accurate statistics, that the number of students in Rhode Island colleges who are attracted from beyond the borders of the state, does not exceed the number from Rhode Island who are enrolled in collegiate institutions in other states and in some foreign countries. The enrollment in Rhode Island colleges may, therefore, be taken as a measure of the number of Rhode Island youth receiving college education, in round numbers 4500, includ- ing 2000 at Brown University, 800 at Providence College, 600 at each of Rhode Island's State College and Rhode Island College of Education, and 500 students of collegiate ranking in Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, and Bryant-Stratton. To these may be added as persons enrolled for collegiate education on a part-time basis 5500, reported as follows: Brown University, 2400; Rhode Island College of Education, 1800; Providence College, 400; Catholic Teachers' College, 180; Rhode Island State College, 500; evening and other extension classes elsewhere, 220. Ten thousand Rhode Islanders are "going to college" in the twentieth century, which means a steady increase in the education common to all, and in the number of citizens profiting individually from liberal, cultural and vocational education, yet no more than ought to be in order that Rhode Island democracy may be maintained. The abundance of opportunity and the response, which fills up collegiate institutions to capacity, as witness the remarkable growth of Providence College in ten years to numbers equalling the enrollment at Brown University after 130 years, indicate the strength of the movement for higher education. To the suggestion by President Faunce that "all who want education should have it, but the vast majority would benefit by some other kind of edu- cation than that given in the traditional American college, which is based upon the English model," the answer was given by Wayland, Robinson and Andrews in the development of Brown University on lines suggested by Wayland's "new system," and is still given by Rhode Island State College, Rhode Island College of Education, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence College, Catholic Teachers' College, Bryant-Stratton, Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, all of which have undertaken the new college education demanded by the twen- tieth century, with particular regard for the provision of the type of education that is wanted.

HARKIN'S HALL, PROVIDENCE COLLEGE

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The future for college education is suggested in the remark of the Commissioner of Educa- tion, Walter E. Ranger, that a community cannot in provision for education surpass its own aspirations for better things. An exuberant, enthusiastic member of Dr. Ranger's official family added : "And the time will come in which an American without college education will be as rare almost as the dinosaur and the mammoth. We are going on steadily in the faith that education is essential to our democracy. Our aim and purpose is to educate everybody."

Announcement was made in June, 1930, of preparations under way for the inauguration of a new Catholic college for young women, to be located in Rhode Island, and conducted by the order of Sisters of Mercy.

CHAPTER XXXIV. PAROCHIAL AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

HE material for what might be a fascinating chapter in the history of Rhode Island-the story of private schools conducted in the colonial period in towns that made no provision for public education and in other towns to supplement the public schools or quasi-public schools promoted by public assistance-for the most part is not available. Of dame schools for teaching small children the alphabet, reading and common arithmetic; of schools conducted by migrant masters whose promises of "accomplishments" to be imparted resembled those made by the Sophists in ancient Athens ; of pretentious "finishing" schools in which were instructed the cultured youth of the first families of old Newport and Kingstown, gracing a society that used its wealth to promote "the cultivation of a taste for books, pictures and architecture" and that was preferred by George Berkeley, brilliant Dean of Derry, during his sojourn in America-of all of these and others, perhaps, there is no mention in the public annals, because they never asked for and never received a public grant, favor or exemption; and because there was no registration of private schools, as in this century of rigid compulsory education and strict "child accounting." Following are gleanings from various sources concerning private schools in Rhode Island before the Revolutionary War: St. Michael's Church, Bristol, shared with Trinity Church, Newport, the provision in the will of Nathaniel Kay, 1741, for Latin grammar schools; at Newport the school was required "to teach ten poor boys their grammar and the mathematics free." Samuel Sewall, in 1696, devised 500 acres of land to the town of Exeter for a school; the gift was not accepted until 1766. Edward Scott, grand-uncle of Sir Walter Scott, con- ducted a Latin grammar school in Newport for twenty years from 1710. Matthew Rentz taught a school established in Newport later than 1749 by Moravians. Mrs. Mary Brett kept a school for negro children in Newport in 1773; the school was supported by a society of "benevolent clergymen of the Church of England in London, with a handsome fund for a mistress to instruct thirty negro children in reading, sewing, etc." Peleg Barker, Jr., con- ducted a "morning and afternoon school for young misses" in Newport, 1773; probably he conducted a school for boys in regular hours. Francis Vandeleur, in 1774, advertised in the "Newport Mercury" that "he is ready to teach French and Italian to young ladies at their dwellings." Providence also had a few private schools additional to the society schools for which the town granted land. Samuel Thurber recalled: "There were in my neighborhood three small schools, perhaps about a dozen scholars in each. Their books were the Bible, spelling book, and primer. One was kept by John Foster, Esq., in his office : one by Dr. Benjamin West. Their fees were 7s. 6d. per quarter. One was kept by George Taylor, Esq., for the church scholars. He, it was said, received a small compensation from England. Besides these, there were two or three women schools. When one had learned to read, write and do a sum in the rule of three, he was fit for business." George Taylor taught school in the town schoolhouse, and at another time occupied one of the chambers in the Colony House. A school for "young ladies in writing and arithmetic" was advertised in Providence in 1767; the hours, 6 to 7:30 a. m. and 4:30 to 6 p. m., suggest that it was conducted "out of school hours for boys." Four years earlier a correspondent of the "Providence Gazette" lamented that Providence had no dancing teacher and started an acrimonious controversy as to the merits of dancing master and spinning wheel. Providence supported a teacher of French in 1773. John Sims, in 1759, advertised in the "Newport Mercury" that he taught "reading, writing, arithmetic, both vulgar and decimal, geometry, trigonometry, and navigation, with several

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other' branches of mathematics." He also advertised a "separate school" for instruction of young ladies in writing and arithmetic, the hours being 6:30 to 8 a. m. and 5 to 6:30 p. m. Sims was a teacher far in advance of his time; his advertisement suggested attention to "individual differences" thus : "As he endeavors to study the genius of his scholars, whether of exalted or inferior capacities, and conducts himself accordingly, he hopes to receive the greater encouragement." Sarah Osborne, "schoolmistress in Newport," proposed, in 1758, "to keep a boarding school. Any person desirous of sending children may be accommodated and have them instructed in reading, writing, plain work, embroidery, tent stitch, samplers, etc., on reasonable terms." Thomas Greene, "In Barristers' row," Newport, informed the public in 1766 "that he proposes to open a school .. . to teach reading, writing, arithme- tic, and merchants' accounts-the Italian method-and as he don't incline to undertake for more than twenty (besides a very few small readers), they that favor him scholars may depend on their being taught with the greatest alacrity." Greene certainly was a Sophist. The preparatory school in connection with Rhode Island College, later called the University Grammar School, opened at Warren in 1764. James Mitchell Varnum taught a school in East Greenwich before he joined the Revolutionary army. Elisha Thornton established Thornton Academy in Smithfield in 1773. The proprietary or society schools conducted in Providence at the town schoolhouse and at Whipple Hall are classified by several writers as private schools, and as both subsequently were incorporated in the free public school system of Providence, classification as private or quasi-public is debatable. The Revolutionary War marked a hiatus in private education as definite as that in public education.

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 64

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716