Reports on the Philadelphia International Exhibition of 1876.

Date:: 1877-1878

Credit: Reports on the Philadelphia International Exhibition of 1876. Source: Wellcome Collection.

399/446 page 299

$[299 Report on the Section of Education at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, by Sik Charles Reed, F.S.A., LL.D., appointed Judge in that Department for Great Britain. My Lords, I have the honour of presenting to you a brief report of observations made by me in fulfilment of the duties entrusted to me. Attention may be directed at the outset to the somewhat narrow limits of Limits of the the Philadelphia Exhibition in the section of Education. Although every Exhibition, country was invited to exhibit, little or nothing was sent by Great Britain and her colonies (Canada excepted), by France, Germany, Norway, Austria, Italy and Brazil, save maps, school books and general publications. The absence of countries like these could not but deprive the Exhibition of its universal character, and prevent a full comparison between European and American systems of teaching. Whatever the cause, and probably it is to be found chiefly in the high protective duties of the United States, disinclining school managers and the makers of school material to incur the expense of exhibiting, the result is the more to be deplored in that, elementary education having now taken its place as a science, it was of the highest importance at the present moment to collect and examine the experience of many nations. The countries that entered most cordially into the competition were the United States, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Japan, and the Argentine Republic. By these alone was any appre- ciable show made of specimens of school work or reports of institutions. My colleagues in Group XXVIII comprised representatives of four Judges on countries. They were as follows :— Education. United States. — Hon. Andrew D. White, LL.D., President of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; D. C. Gilman, LL.D., President of the John's Hopkins University, Baltimore; Hon. J. M. Gregory,LL.D. President of the Illinois Industrial Union; Hon. J. W. Hoyt, M.D., LL.D., Madison (Secretary). France.—M. Rene Fouret, Hachette et Cie, Paris; M. E. Levasseur, Member of the Institute and Professor of the College of France. Sweden.—Professor Otto M. Torell. Spain.—Col. Juan J. Marin, Engineer Corps, Madrid. In addition to these MM. F. Buisson and A. Caubert were sent by the French Government with four school teachers as a commission to make enquiries and report. It was a mark of deference and good-will towards Great Britain that although she was practically unrepresented in this section, her delegate was chosen President of the above Board of Judges. It became his duty further to assist the British Judges m other groups in making special awards, on behalf of the Canadian Commission, to exhibitors from the Dominion. But the range in the department of education was sufficiently wide We Wide ran.ro of WenTalTN^ ltraries and Nos 310 to $ H 1 g al Systems> methods> and oraries, ana i\os., 3W to 313 dealing with what were succinctlv called Institutions and Organizations, though really embracing SJasrSS from education and one another as agricultural fairs, dentistryanfthe Z It, will be my aim to present to your Lordships a report of thow exhJiteXi which more closely concerned popular education exmmts alone countries exhibiting werl wholly suWdttft^T^) *S all,the other S^™** American display. W^S^ nee$

Reports on the Philadelphia International Exhibition of 1876.

Licence and re-use

Contents