REPORT. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., June 30, 1885. SIR-I have the honor to submit my fifteenth Annual Report, for the year ending June 30, 1885. In all the work of this Office it, has been my endeavor to regard with the utmost care the spirit and letter of the law providing for its operations.1 The appropriations for the Office have never been sufficient to enable it to do all the work legitimately required of it within the law. For the year covered by this Report the items of the appropriation were as follows: The Office may very properly be described as an agency for collecting and disseminating information on the subject of education. The collected information forms already a professional library of great value. This library, its collection, preservation, and cataloguing, have been objects of my constant care during my sixteen years in this Office. Not a hundred volumes belonged to the library when I assumed direction. Now there are 17,500 volumes and 45,000 pamphlets. There was no official pedagogical library for a model by which to shape my efforts. But the plan which I adopted for the general work of the Office was applied to the collection of this library. Keeping in mind sound pedagogical principles First, I sought to answer as far as possible the reasonable demands made for information. Second, I did not seek to communicate my own opinions, but facts and the opinions of others, and to treat all subjects by historical and comparative methods. 1According to the Revised Statutes of the United States, the purpose and duties of this Office shall be "to collect statistics and facts showing the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and to diffuse such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems, and methods of teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise prcmote the cause of education throughout the country." Again, it provides that "the Commissioner of Education shall present annually to Congress a report embodying the results of his investigations and labors, together with a statement of such facts and recommendations as will, in his judgment, subserve the purpose for which the Office is established." In this way all data naturally had a habitation and a name, and the organization o the information became geographical instead of purely logical. Demands came for facts about education as conducted at places. Persons reported education at places. Its history was always located. Necessarily the Annual Reports were made on a geographical basis. All the information, whether about a system or an institution, appeared in connection with its place, whether in descriptive text or statistical tables. The same principles substantially determined the arrangement of the library, the logical element, however, being allowed to come in wherever it could facilitate the work to be done. The intelligent conduct of the work of the Office, as required by the law for its establishment, demanded, it seemed to me, that there should be at hand all current publications on education. These werc, First, reports of systems, State and city, and of institutions of education,-catalogues, announcements, etc. Second, educational periodicals. Third, treatises on educational topics,-pedagogical works. Fourth, dictionaries and encyclopedias and other books of reference in different languages. Beyond these printed materials imperatively demanded in our work, there was a great variety of other publications to which our inquiries naturally led us, and which we sought to supply as the means furnished the Office permitted. There were, therefore, Fifth, biographies and local histories, for these often supply, in this country especially, the only recorded data of the history of education. Sixth, travels often were the only source of information on education in foreign countries. Seventh, general history, although in the main its construction did not give due importance to education. Eighth, works of eminent men who had specially thought or written or spoken on the subject of education. Ninth, looking upon education as I did, as the means given man for changing his condition, I naturally sought to arrange around this agency all the tests of its results as they are to be found in reports or discussions on sanitation, insanity, charity, pauperism, crime, the improvement of labor, or the advancement of health; a great variety of these publications are statistical, and are now made by general, State, or city governments. Tenth, general magazine and newspaper literature, which occasionally is the exclusive source of educational information. Eleventh, a great variety of ephemeral publications, often the only source of names and dates. A special embarrassment connected with the organization of the library has arisen from the fact that we never have had suitable room for the installation of books and pamphlets. We have always had to use the rooms of the library for the general clerical purposes of the Office, and several times the removal of the Office from one building to another has necessitated a perilous carrying of the books to and fro. It is hoped that only one more removal may be necessary, and that when the appropriate building has been erected for the Office, where the library will take its permanent place. Every opportunity has been improved to add value to the library. The largest amount appropriated by Congress has been $1,000 a year for the purchase of books, with additional small amounts to be expended for periodicals, completing sets, etc. For the last several years only $500 per annum has been appropriated for books. The most valuable collection of books and pamphlets in the country relating to education was that made during his life-long labors with much difficulty by my eminent predecessor, Hon. Henry Barnard, LL. D., and was still in his possession. Fortunately he was prepared to sell this collection to the Office and to receive his pay in small amounts from year to year, as appropriations to the Office warranted and other demands permitted. This formed an admirable nucleus for all additions, and saved great expense and labor. Many gifts have been made to the collection by those who have gratuitously aided in furnishing information used annually by the Office. These gifts have been largely reports, pamphlets, catalogues, etc. A large share of the foreign material has been obtained by exchange. Great foreign interest has been shown in the publications of the Office. There has never been a librarian furnished in terms of law by act of Congress. Fo the first several years it was impossible to assign the library to the care of any one in particular. After finishing the special report on libraries, S. R. Warren, A. M., one of the gentlemen that had been assigned to the care of that publication and one of my most scholarly assistants, in addition to other work, was given the care of the library. A scheme for a card catalogue by authors and by subjects was developed, and the work of cataloguing was commenced and has been since carried on as the demands upon the Office would permit. This catalogue now contains 70,000 cards. Since Mr. Warren's resignation Henderson Presnell, A. M., has faithfully and efficiently carried on the work commenced, aided by competent assistants, as the general demands upon the Office would allow. Eminent librarians of the country have given more or less special attention to every department of library organization, excepting the pedagogical. Mr. C. A. Cutter, of the Boston Athenæum, however, after much care, in the light of his great experience, developed a scheme for cataloguing a pedagogical collection. His plan has been of special service to us. It has been my earnest desire that the office of each State and city superintendent of instruction, and especially the large libraries of the country and the libraries of colleges where pedagogical chairs were established, and also normal school libraries, should undertake the organization of pedagogical collections. Wherever any effort of this character has developed it has been my earnest endeavor to aid it so far as in my power. A considerable number of important collections have been commenced. It is well known that the strength and character of any learned profession may be determined by its literature. The collection, reading, and cataloguing of educational works would be much more effective in advancing the vocation of the educator to the position of a learned profession than all the resolutions that all the educational conventions may pass. The interest in the quality and amount of literature touching the different phases of education has increased rapidly in recent years, and it is hoped that the publication of this catalogue will serve to furnish much needed information to those now making these collections for themselves. It gives me peculiar satisfaction to be able to state that the catalogue of the library is so far advanced that it will soon be ready for print. PUBLICATIONS. The law establishing the Office provides for the annual reports, and the appropriation acts from year to year provide for special reports, circulars of information, or bulletins. The nature of the work under the general law and the specific acts of appropriation may be said to require the communication of information by correspondence. Over 22,000 letters were sent out during the year, discussing a great variety of topics, and some of them comprising manuscripts of considerable length. The number of reports, circulars, and other documents distributed was 348,864. The preparation of circulars, bulletins, and special reports has always had in view some specific end. In each case the treatment of the topic has been as thorough and complete as the means at command and other circumstances would permit. The publication when thas prepared and made has been reissued as the demands for the information it contains have required. A publication of this Office issued upon a specific topic just coming into importance in the discussions of the country may be said in all cases to be followed by great growth of information upon that particular topic. New investigations are stimulated and reported, additional experiments are made, modifications are introduced, and thus, after a time, a revision of the publication becomes necessary.1 1 One of the great trials in the administration of the Office has been the dropping of many pieces of work before they are concluded, for lack of means to complete them. An important demand is recognized and an attempt is made to meet it, but in the midst of this work a greater and more im The information sent in response to special inquiries would often be of interest to the general public, but its communication is impossible in the limited compass of the Annual Report. In this Report, from year to year, while including in the briefest terms some notion of the work of the Office, I have sought specially to include statistical and other condensed statements, giving as correctly as possible a view of the progress of education in this country and elsewhere. The following circulars and bulletins have been published since those recited in my previous Report: Circulars No. 5, 1884. Suggestions respecting the Educational Exhibit at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. No. 6, 1884. Rural schools: progress in the past; means of improvement in the Preliminary circular respecting the exhibit of education at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. Educational congress at Havre. Articles exhibited at the Southern Exposition, Louisville, Ky. Also new editions of the following have been printed: Circulars Circular No. 4, 1880. Causes of deafness among school children. Rural school architecture. Circular No. 5, 1881. Circular No. 4, 1882. Circular No. 2, 1883. States. Circular No. 2, 1884. Circular No. 5, 1884. Industrial art in schools. Co-education of the sexes in the public schools of the United The teaching, practice, and literature of short-hand. Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. Circular No. 6, 1884. Rural schools: progress in the past; means of improvement in the future. Circular No. 1, 1885. City school systems in the United States. Bulletins The discipline of the school. Natural science in secondary schools. Planting trees in school grounds and the celebration of Arbor Day. Building for the children of the South. Instruction in morals and civil government. Of the work of publication by the Bureau, I may say, first, it should be greatly enlarged; secondly, facilities should be furnished the Office so that it can print bulletins, perative demand comes in, and what has been accomplished in respect to the former has to be laid aside for another opportunity, because there is not clerical force enough to accomplish both. But however great the disappointment arising from these delays and this non-publication of work, no work well done has proved wholly in vain. The portion of a plan accomplished and the data collected have proved valuable for reference in correspondence, and sometimes in advancing the work on the same reports undertaken elsewhere. The history of colleges and the history of normal schools, undertaken and advanced considerably towards completion, but stopped by other more imperative demands, have proved useful in aiding local efforts where local interest has been sufficient to warrant the undertaking of similar histories. Several histories of colleges, etc., have appeared based on the work measurably completed here. The preparation of the history of Indian education, interrupted half a dozen years ago, has now been ordered completed by a resolution of the Senate. circulars, etc., when circumstances demand, more promptly than heretofore, in larger or smaller numbers, with or without illustrations, and in any proper modification of form that may best meet the interests of education. The General Government has always responded in a greater or less degree to the idea that the intelligence and virtue of the people are essential to its preservation and prosperity. Evidences of the thought in the minds of our statesmen that they have some responsibility for the intelligence of the people appear in the form and character of the government publications from the earliest date. Our government reports are not made solely for the information of the government officials to whom they are addressed; they are uniformly expected to contain information of use to the people with regard to the function of the Government which these reports represent.1 1The following is a complete list of the publications of this Office, including those in course of preparation: Under Commissioner Barnard. Report of the Commissioner of Education, with circulars and documents accompanying the same; submitted to the Senate and House of Representatives, June 2, 1868. Washington, 1868. 8°. 40+ 856 pp. Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the condition and improvement of public schools in the District of Columbia, submitted to the Senate, June, 1868, and to the House with additions, June 13, 1870. Washington, 1871. 8°. 850 pp. + various indexes. Valuable reports on technical education and education in Europe were also prepared, but were not ordered to be printed by Congress. Under Commissioner Eaton. ANNUAL REPORTS. Report of the Commissioner of Education, made to the Secretary of the Interior, for the year 1870, with accompanying papers. Washington, 1870. 8°. 579 pp. Washington, 1873. 8°. 88+1018 pp. Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1871. Washington, 1872. 8°. 726 pp. 8°. SPECIAL REPORTS. Contributions to the annals of medical progress and medical education in the United States before and during the war of independence, by Joseph M[eredith] Toner, M. D. Washington, 1874. 8°. 118 pp. Public libraries in the United States of America; their history, condition, and management. Washington, 1876. 8°. Part I, 36+1187 pp.; Part II, 89 pp. Contributions to the history of medical education and medical institutions in the United States of America, 1776-1876. By N. S. Davis, A. M., M. D. Washington, 1877. 8°. 60 pp. Industrial education in the United States. 1883. History of the University of Missouri. History of the Philadelphia Normal School for Girls. In press History of Indian education and civilization. Industrial and high art education in the United States. Vol. I. Educational exhibits and conventions at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, 1884-85. Outlines for a museum of anatomy. |
