THE AMERICAN LYCEUM 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLIE BROWN HERSHEY 
 B. A. University of Illinois, 1914 
 
 THESIS 
 
 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the 
 
 Degree of 
 
 MASTER OF ARTS 
 IN EDUCATION 
 
 IN 
 
 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 1921 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Cv* 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 
 
 1 92 
 
 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY 
 
 SUPERVISION BY 
 
 Charlie Brown Hershey 
 
 ENTI TLE D The Ame rlo an Lyoeum 
 
 BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR 
 
 ^Required for doctor’s degree but not for master’s 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/americanlyceumOOhers 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The souroe material for a study of the Amerioan Lyceum is found 
 largely in the Amerioan Journal of Education, 1626-1530, and the Annals of 
 Education, 1630-1539* Several references are made to the movement in the 
 Common Sohool Journal, 1639-1646, and in the Connecticut Common School 
 Journal, 1635-1542. Subsequent articles on the subject have been taken 
 very largely from the sources indicated above. The bibliography indicates 
 the material used, and the extent of the investigation for this study, but 
 the treatment in ohapters II, III and IV is based almost wholly on the earlier 
 Amerioan Journal of Education and the Annals of Education. The statements and 
 interpretations of later secondary works have been given careful consideration. 
 
 C. B. Hershey 
 
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CONTENTS 
 
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 I. Eduoational CoQdltloris in Early Nineteenth Century* 
 
 1. Sohool Conditions 
 
 a. No Central Authority 
 
 b. The Distriot System 
 c • The Aoademies 
 
 d. Sohools not regarded as institutions or agenoies for a moral 
 and intellectual process and progress 
 
 2. Education Societies 
 
 a. First Sooiety about 1796 
 
 b. Common Sohool Societies 
 
 ( 1 ) State Societies 
 
 (2) Local Societies 
 
 c. Mutual and Practical Societies 
 
 d. Publishing Societies 
 
 e. Societies were of the people 
 
 II. Historical . 
 
 1. Josiah Holbrook and the Amerioan Lyceum 
 
 a. First Lyceum in 1£26 
 
 b. Growth of the Movement 
 
 2. The National or Amerioan Lyceum 
 
 a. Organization 
 
 b. Annual Meetings, 1&31-1#39 
 
 3« A National Eduoational Convention 
 4-. Summary 
 
 III. Organization and Program > 
 
 1. Organization 
 
 a. Offioers 
 
 b. Objeots 
 
 c. Sooiety Programs 
 
 d. Groups in Lyceums 
 
 e. Lyceums for Groups 
 
 2. Nature of Societies and their work 
 
 a. Lyoeums in Middlesex County, Massachusetts 
 
 b. Visit to Lyceum Meetings 
 
 c. Nature of the Institution 
 3 .Suumary 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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IV . The American Lyceum and Popular Education 
 
 1. Educational Program 
 
 a. Objects of Lyceum Stated by Holbrook 
 
 b. National Educational Convention 
 
 0. Educational Topios in Lyceum Meetings 
 
 2. Testimonies to Educational Program of Lyceums 
 
 a* By Contemporaries 
 
 b* By Later Educational Writers 
 
 3. The Lyoeum and the American Institute of Instruction 
 4* The Lyoeum and the Common Sohool Revival 
 
 5* Testimony of Mann and Barnard 
 6. Summary and Conclusions 
 
 Appendixes 
 
 I. The Mddern Lyceum and Chautauqua Movement 
 
 1. List of Leoturers 
 
 II. List of Lyceums 
 
 2. List of Men Associated with the American Lyceum 
 
 Bibliography 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Chapter I 
 
 Educational Conditions - Early Nineteenth Century. 
 
 The many education societies of the early years of the nineteenth 
 oentury testify to two oonditions: first, there was an unsatisfactory educa- 
 tional program; and, seoond, there was a deliberate and persistent demand for 
 better opportunities for moral and intellectual advancement. There had been 
 progress in education from the earliest New England settlements, but the forward 
 movement was relatively slow. Many arts had advanced with comparative rapidity. 
 Industry and commerce had not asked in rain for the favorable consideration of 
 the people, for men sohooled themselves to become leaders in almost everything 
 that affeoted the condition of the people. But teaohers and schools waited al- 
 most in vain for a benevolent and generous support of their peculiar interest. 
 There was agitation, a ory, but frequently no language but a cry. However, as 
 years passed, the voice became more artioulate and finally succeeded in oalling 
 with sufficient olarlty to seoure the outstanding educational revival of the 
 third and fourth deoades of the nineteenth oentury. 
 
 Perhaps the most conspicuous fault of the age, a fault of omission, 
 was the laok of any centralized and responsible sohool authority. Acting upon 
 the provisions of those early units for education,- the school distriot,- eaoh 
 local community sought to establish educational privileges in what was considered 
 an economical way • This meant a limited term of sohool, a poorly qualified 
 teaoher who would go from one distriot to another to teaoh, remaining in eaoh 
 during suoh time as the poverty or prejudice of the people of the distriot would 
 permit. This educational oonvenienoe beoame an established and acoepted 
 educational program. It was written into law in Massachusetts in 1759, and 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 later. In 1&17* these emergenoy sohool and sooial units beoame corporations 
 with all the authority suggested by that term. Eduoat ionally, these small 
 units were praotioally independent in questions of money, teaohers, sohool pro- 
 grams, and all other matters. The situation Just indicated was strikingly true 
 in Massachusetts, and Martin, in his Evolution of the Massachusetts Publio Sohool 
 System, calls the situation, "The high-water mark of modern demooraoy, and the 
 low-water mark of the Massachusetts sohool system." 
 
 The districts beoame oenters of politioal activity, and the oause of 
 education suffered aooordingly. The looation and size of the sohool house, the 
 employment or retention of a teaoher, an item of repair to building or furniture, 
 beoame a distriot question, and frequently children remained in ignoranoe while 
 factions gave heated expression to their demands for justioe, and for what they 
 oonsidered a proper consideration of their rights. And the distriot, being a 
 law unto itself, presented a variety of procedures as numerous as the distriots 
 themselves. Other interests than those mentioned above suffered likewise and 
 for the same reason. One writer on eduoat ion in reviewing the period under 
 consideration, pays his oompliments to the eduoational provision of the time by 
 saying: "There was nothing like an eduoational system in the United States at 
 the beginning of the nineteenth oentury. At that time there were four or five 
 oolleges, here and there a private aoademy or fitting sohool, and elementary 
 sohools of indifferent oharaoter in the oities and the thinly settled towns." 1 
 
 Another bad result of the exolusive looal administration and supervision 
 was manifested in the use of sohool texts. There was no uniformity. Horace Mann 
 reported that in Massachusetts more than three hundred different kinds of texts 
 
 were used in the publio sohools. No one had authority to say what books should 
 be used, henoe, the people, and especially the children, were the victims of 
 
 l.A. S. Draper, Amerioan Eduoat ion, p.17* 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 the publishers whose interests were sales and not eduoation. Then, too, there 
 was no program of study adopted for a suooession of years* Saoh teaoher was a 
 law unto himself and adopted and used the program that met mo$ fully his eduoa- 
 tional ideals, or, perhaps more truly, his eduoation&l limitations* Sohool 
 programs changed with a ohange of teaohers, and a ohange of sohool texts followed 
 the advent of a superior salesman of that particular commodity. 
 
 Out of this ohaotio and undone condition there developed an education- 
 al agenoy that proved to have in it the elements both of a blessing and a ourse. 
 The academy, as a distinot institution, has a respectable history in American 
 educational development* It came in response to a demand on the part of some 
 of the dearer minds for sin educational institution of merit* The leaders in 
 any aotivity in that day were not satisfied with the offerings made by the publio 
 free sohools* They demanded better opportunities for their ohildren* Aooording- 
 ly, men and women of means and oulture engaged themselves in the establishment 
 of semi -publio academies* These were for the ohildren of parents who oould af- 
 ford to pay a tuition fee, and the living expenses away from home* There were 
 definite advantages in these sohools* The student body was seleoted, the build- 
 ings were better than most of the district sohool buildings, the teachers were 
 seleoted with greater oare and on a saner educational basis, the curriculum was 
 
 more extensive and rioher in quality* However many the advantages of the aoedemiep, 
 Hr* James Gordon Carter pointed out that they tended to emphasize olass dis- 
 tinctions, and to draw a muoh needed influence and support from the free sohools. 
 The theoretical democracy provided for in the self-suff ioient district led to 
 a practical olass condition, and the effort to make every man feel responsible 
 
 for education by the oreation of small districts led indireotly to a condition 
 that took from the districts the most wholesome influence and the sanest moral 
 support • 1 
 
 1* Old South Leaflets No* 139* 
 

 
 
 
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 Another reason for the eduoational limitations of the times, not of 
 minor importanoe, but one that perhaps did not reoeive the oonsiderat ion it de- 
 served, was the fact thf.it eduoation, as suoh, was not a subject of study in any 
 formal sense. Men and women were taught, but they were not taught to teaoh, 
 and, consequently, they went into the sohool room with subjeot information, but 
 without professional skill. The colleges and universities had no departments of 
 eduoation or courses in pedagogy. The sohool as a distriot social institution, 
 and eduoation as a deserving and commanding interest, were soaroely dreamed of. 
 The inevitable prevailed; the sohool was a kind of plaoe for the dissemination 
 of a body of faots, and not the agenoy of a moral and intellectual prooess and 
 program. 
 
 But the period under consideration was marked by an unusual activity 
 demanding eduoational improvement. Henry Barnard, in the Amerioan Journal of 
 £ ducat ion, says that: “Towards the end of that period, and during the succeeding 
 decade, the ferment wrought to aotively as to generate a numerous, heterogeneous 
 brood of systems, plans, and institutions - many crude and rudely organized; 
 many that did their work quickly and well; few that have survived in any form 
 till the present time."^ Anna L. Custis makes the following observation of 
 the period: “Along in the first quarter of the oentury just dosed, eduoation, 
 always a fad of the Americans, suddenly beoame a hobby. All sorts of societies 
 were organized over night, societies for the diffusion of useful knowledge, 
 mercantile associations, teachers' seminaries, literary institutes, book dubs, 
 societies of eduoation - every sort of sooiety whose name sounded learned and 
 eduoational. Few of these outlived the first ten years, and some died at the 
 time of their birth.” 1 2 Some of these many societies were definitely organized 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Eduoation, Vol.14, p . 535 . 
 
 2. From A Brief History of the Lyceum in Who's Who in the Lyceum, 1906. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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 to advanoe the oause of publio, free sohools. Others were designed for praotioal 
 and popular eduoation among adults* Still others oombined the two rather dis- 
 tinot objectives, and sought by regularly appointed publio meetings and the 
 press to disseminate useful knowledge to adults and to oonduot a propaganda for 
 better common schools* 
 
 There seems to be no occasion in thie oonneotion to enter into a 
 lengthy disoussion of these several agenoies for oulture and intellectual ad- 
 vancement* However, it is desirable to mention a sufficient number to indioate 
 more fully the speoifio objectives set before them. In the annals of Kduoation 
 under the heading, "Origin of Sohool Associations," is the following statement: 
 "The first associations in New fngland for the improvement of common schools - 
 so far as we have been able to learn from authentic documents, - was formed about 
 forty years ago, in the county of Middlesex, in Connecticut. We have in our 
 
 possession, a code of Kegulations for the government of Conxcon Schools. 
 
 They were drawn up, as we believe, by the first president of the association, the 
 late Rev. Wm. Woodbridge, father of the editor of this Journal, and for more 
 than half a oentury a teaoher." 1 This voluntary sohool sooiety not only drew up 
 a "Code of Regulations", but presented them to the visitors and overseers of 
 sohools in the county for their consideration, and, if they saw fit, for their 
 adoption. 
 
 A Boston Sohool Society was organized in 1527 "to extend the advantages 
 of education to all the ohildren of the poor in this city." This was a looal 
 sooiety and was created to meet a looal need arising from the influx of working 
 people from various quarters, and particularly from abroad, whioh brought a 
 numerous class of uneducated ohildren. The following observation was made by 
 the society relative to the oity school system: "The city arrangements do not 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.6,p.474 ; the date was 1536. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 and oannot embraoe the instruction of such ohildren." 
 
 The Hartford Society for the Improvement of Common Sohools refers to 
 
 the oommon sohools, or eduoation, as a "moral engine of sooial happiness and 
 
 political security." This sooiety grew out of a recognition of the defeots 
 
 in the oommon sohool program. The recognition, however, was of general defects, 
 
 and the sooiety proposed to conduct a campaign of inquiry and investigation to 
 
 ascertain speoifioally the nature and extent of the defeots. It was soientifio 
 2 
 
 in its procedure. The plan and program of the Hartford Society is elaborated 
 in a later volume of the same Journal."* The artiole urges the importance of 
 organizing societies for the improvement of eduoation, and suggests lines of in- 
 vestigations to be followed by these sooieties as follows: 
 
 1. Early Eduoation and Infant Sohools 
 
 2. Primary Sohools 
 
 3* Sohool Visitors and Inspectors 
 4. Text boohs 
 
 3. Importation of European Methods 
 
 6. Leotures for Teachers 
 
 7. Traots for Propaganda Purposes. 
 
 The Ohio State Sooiety for Public Instruction announoed the following 
 objeot: "To improve fend multiply the oommon sohools of the state, and to obtain 
 well qualified teachers." The governor of the state was the first president. It 
 was hoped to have auxiliary sooieties in every county, "oolleoting the statistics 
 of the sohools, suggesting improved methods of teaching, and the best boohs for 
 use." 1 2 * 4 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Eduoation, Vol.2, p.315» 
 
 2. Amer. Journal of Eduoation, Vol.2, p.37 S. 
 
 3* Amer. Journal of Eduoation, Vol.3> p.7£. 
 
 4. Annals of Eduoation, Vol.6, p.l&2» 
 
« Oil «f 
 
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 The Illinois Institute of Instruction was organized at Vandalia, 
 
 Illinois , February 13 , 1 #33* This sooiety presented a list of twenty-two 
 questions to be submitted to friends of education, teachers, and preaohersof 
 the gospel* The questions dealt primarily with oommon sohool education, and a 
 few sought information relative to libraries and general oulture. The institute 
 was to have annual meetings, and branoh associations in counties and towns were 
 to be a part of the organization. 1 
 
 The Florida Education Sooiety had auxiliary societies in olties and 
 
 oounties. 2 3 
 
 In 1631 the Pennsylvania Sooiety for the Promotion of Public Sohools, 
 through its oounoil, resolved to form and establish a collection of works in the 
 department of education* This was done in anticipation of the establishment of a 
 general system of public sohools by the legislature of the state* A oommittee was 
 appointed to examine all books and report on the intrinsic merits of eaoh traatise 
 and its adaptations to the operations of public sohools.^ 
 
 It was reported in 1631 that sohool conventions were held in the 
 twelve oounties of Vermont, in several oounties in Massachusetts and New York. 
 
 "At nearly every meeting the oitizens manifested much interest, intelligence, 
 promptness of action, unanimity, and simplicity in the measures adopted" 
 
 The sooiet iesimentioned in the foregoing paragraphs are a few of many 
 similar societies of the early years of the nineteenth oentury* In some respeots 
 they were like educational associations, institutes, and conventions today, but 
 there is this significant difference, that, whereas, we now have as members of 
 suoh organizations only teachers and a few others who are direotly related to 
 the educational activities of the state and nation, at that time the membership 
 
 and attendance were not so limited* Frequently reference was made to the 
 
 1* Annals of Education, Vol*3, p. 165 . 
 
 2. Annals of Education, Vol*2, p*94. 
 
 3. Amer. Journal of Education, V 0 I. 5 , p.23b. 
 
 Annals of Education, Vo 1.1, p.126* 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 “friends of education," when teachers and school officials were not in the minds 
 of those mating the reference. The people sought better opportunities for 
 intellectual training and mental development, and they, through their leaders, 
 expressed their desires in the many voluntary, representative societies for the 
 advancement of oommon schools. 
 
 In many instances attempts were made to supplement the meager offerings 
 of the oommon sohools by societies for mutual and practical instruction. Among 
 the several organizations of this character were those known as Meohanios ' Insti- 
 tutes. This particular organization had a definite European background. Professor 
 John Anderson, professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, be- 
 queathed his valuable philosophical apparatus, museum, and library for the pur- 
 pose of popular education. A meohanios' class was organized in the Anderson 
 Institute which was chartered in 1796. This olass and a similar movement in the 
 gas-light oompany of Glasgow were in a flourishing condition in the early 
 twenties of the nineteenth oentury. In 1S21 a few gentlemen in Edinburg began 
 a movement for lectures to meohanios on the meohanio arts and chemistry. A library 
 was provided. The lectures were to be twioe eaoh week for six Months. A sooiety 
 was formed in London in 1S24, and lectures were delivered on Chemistry, Geometry, 
 Hydrostatios, Application of Chemistry to the Arts, Astronomy, Eleotrioity, and 
 the Frenoh language. About one thousand belonged to the institute. There were 
 similar institutions in almost every town in England of ten thousand inhabitants 
 or more, and in some of muoh smaller numbers.* The celebrated geometrician and 
 astronomer. La Plaoe, addressed a letter to the president of the London Mechanics' 
 Institute in whioh he oommended the organizations very highly. 
 
 Meohanios' Institutions were formed in Paris under the direction of 
 Baron Charles Dupin, and in other cities of France by some learned professors.^ 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Education, Vol. 1, p.34. 
 
 2. Amer. Journal of Education, Vol. l,p.251. 
 

 
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 It seems that they were very popular in Franoe as well as in Great Britain and 
 Ireland. In 1529 the Massachusetts Journal reported that they were established 
 in ninety-four towns in France, and that recently they were introduced into 
 Germany • 
 
 The Meohanios' Institutes in America were very similar in organization 
 and purpose to those in Europe. They were organizations of adults for "mutual 
 instruction in the soienoes as oonneoted with the meohanio arts." 1 The ohief 
 feature of the public meetings of the institutes was a leoture in familiar form 
 and terminology on the theory of meohanios, natural philosophy, ohemistry, or 
 some other helpful subjeot for meohanios. Horaoe Mann, in his third annual 
 report, mentions eight meohanios institutes in Massachusetts. And, again, in 
 the Common School Journal, 1542, he speaks of the superior advantages offered to 
 young apprentices in the meohanios' institutes “with their familiar leotures upon 
 the soienoes, illustrated with apparatus." In addition to the formal leotures in 
 these sooieties, all the members wers urged to ask questions and to enter into 
 an informal disoussion of the subject presented. 
 
 Another kind of society for the diffusion of useful knowledge devoted 
 its efforts to publications. Through the printed page an attempt was made to 
 impart useful and helpful information. The objeot of the General Knowledge 
 Sooiety indicates rather fully the ends sought by the publishing organizations. 
 
 It was the "publication of approved works with speoial regard to their moral 
 and religious tendenoy, but will include works on moral, religious, historical, 
 
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 soientifio, and miscellaneous subjeots." In the general sooieties subjects of 
 a controversial and exclusive character were oarefully shunned. 
 
 In the first oopy of the Youth's Companion, April 16, 1527, sohool im- 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Eduoation, Vol.2,p.l57. 
 
 2. Amer. Journal of Eduoation, Vol.l, p.56. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 provement is given as one of the subjects whioh the new publication was founded 
 to disouss helpfully* On the third page of that same issue there appeared an 
 artiole, "Hints on Education* 11 And ever since 1527 that interest has found con- 
 tinuous expression. 4 
 
 The Amerioan Education Society whose interests were represented in 
 its publication. The Quarterly Register, was designed for the purpose of 
 assisting financially young men who desire to prepare for the ministry. Five 
 hundred and fifty-seven young men from nineteen states and territories and from 
 four or five different denominations were assisted by the society. They were 
 aided in sixty different educational institutions. 
 
 In addition to the societies indicated above and many others of a 
 similar character, the period under consideration marks the beginning of an 
 educational literature in periodio form. Chief among the few was the Amerioan 
 Journal of Education, 1526-1531, whioh was succeeded by the Annals of Education, 
 1531-1539. These journals constituted a part of the propaganda for better and 
 bigger opportunities in education. 
 
 Altogether the demand was sincere and widespread. It was a period in 
 whioh were mingled two of the three neoessary steps to seoure a desired publio 
 goal. It was a time of agitation and investigation, and this was followed logical- 
 ly and inevitably by a period of legislation. There were leaders during this 
 period of propaganda, and to them is due great credit for effecting a change 
 of sentiment and conduct. But great weight was added by the many who beoame 
 interested through the leaders and formed themselves into groups, societies, eto. , 
 to make known in a sort of oonoerted aotion the feelings of the people toward an 
 educational reform. At no other time in the history of Amerioan education wasthere 
 suoh an impaot of sentiment springing up, as it were, from the rank and file of 
 
 1. Leoture at University of Tennessee, Warren Dunham Foster, July 11, 1913. 
 

 
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 the people* Subsequent advancement has resulted more largely from the 
 aotivitles of teaohers, and eduoators by profession, but in the early years of 
 the nineteenth oentury, the leaders were effectively seoonded in their efforts 
 by the oitizenship in general* 
 
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 Chapter II 
 Historical . 
 
 Among the many agenoies designed to advance educational activities in 
 the early years of the nineteenth century, the American Lyoeum oooupied a promi- 
 nent place. It developed from inoonspiouous origins, but grew rapidly and pros- 
 pered during a period of about fifteen years beginning in 1526. The founder and 
 promoters were ambitious and planned a sort of universal conquest of ignoranoe 
 and vice. It was part of a general ory for better educational equipment and 
 opportunity. It was rather definite and comprehensive in its program, providing 
 for the moral and intellectual development of all the members of a community. 
 
 The founder of the Amerioan Lyoeum, Josiah Holbrook, son of Col. Daniel 
 Holbrook, of Derby, Conneotiout, a veteran of the Revolutionary war, was born in 
 1756, entered Yale University in 1606 , and was graduated in 1610. In 1620 he 
 took oharge of his father's farm at Derby, and began a sohool there in 1624 for 
 the purpose of praotioal instruction in agriculture, combining aotual farming 
 with instruction. It was a private venture, not well baoked financially, henoe 
 did not oontinue long. In Ootober, 1626, Mr. Holbrook prepared a statement for 
 the American Journal of Education in which he announced and outlined his plan for 
 "Association of Adults for Mutual Education." In this statement is embodied the 
 plan of the Amerioan Lyoeum. 
 
 In November, 1526, Mr. Holbrook delivered a oourse of lectures at 
 Millbury, Massachusetts, on subjects in natural soience, at the dose of whioh 
 he induoed thirty or forty of his hearers, farmers and mechanics of the place, 
 to organise themselves into a society for mutual Improvement whioh, at his request 
 

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 was oalled “Millbury Lyoeum, Number 1, Branoh of the Amerioan Lyceum." The 
 organization of this first lyoeum was followed very soon by the organization 
 of twelve or fifteen other town lyoeums, and these were then organized into the 
 Woroester County Lyoeum. The lyoeum of Windham County, Conneotiout, and its 
 constituent town lyoeums, were also organized shortly afterward. 
 
 Thus began the development of the Amerioan Lyceum, a movement embodied 
 in a tangible and workable organization. It grew rapidly and extended widely. 
 
 In Ootober, 1626, some fifty or sixty branohes of the Amerioan Lyoeum had been 
 organized. In 1629 branohes had been formed in nearly every state in the 
 Union. In two instances it reoeived the patronage of states with a view to 
 making it a board of education and a means to extend the usefulness of sohools. 
 In February, 1529, a meeting was held in the representatives' hall, Boston, 
 consisting of members of the legislature and other gentlemen, to oonsult upon 
 the state of eduoation in the oommonwealth, and on those associations for pro- 
 moting it, denominated lyoeums. It was resolved, “that we regard the formation 
 and suocess of Lyoeums as oaloulated to exert a oonspiouous influence upon the 
 interests of popular education and of literature and soienoe generally, and 
 that it be recommended to the sohool teaohers in the several towns to oonneot 
 themselves with Lyceums, and form a distinot class or division for their ap- 
 propriate pursuit s.“ 
 
 A convention of the friends of eduoation was held at Utioa, New York, 
 on January 13th, 1531, with delegates present from twenty-two counties. Governor 
 Yates addressed the oonvention. This convention resolved itself into a state 
 lyoeum. At the request of the New York State Lyceum, delegates and other friends 
 of eduoation assembled in the oity of New York on May 4th, 1531, to organize 
 a National Lyoeum. Annual meetings of the National or American Lyceum were held 
 during a period of nine years, dosing in a National Educational Convention 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, November 22, 1539. No reoord seems to have 
 been left to relate the oause of the rather sudden oeseation of aotivities of 
 the National Lyceum. 
 
 The ohief hietorioal interest of the movement oenters in the annual 
 meetings of the national organization. The following skeleton of faots indioates 
 very briefly the fortunes of the national movement. The plaoe and time of meet- 
 ings, the number of delegates present, and the president are indioated: 
 
 New York, May 4,1531 
 23 delegates present 
 
 President, Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer, Albany, N.Y. 
 
 New York, May 4,1$32 
 55 delegates present 
 President, J. Griscom, LL.D. 
 
 New York, May 3, 1533 
 75 delegates present 
 
 President, W.A. Duer, President of Columbia College. 
 
 New York, May 2, 1534 
 
 64 delegates present 
 
 President, W. A. Duer, President of Columbia College. 
 
 New York, May 5 , 1535 
 
 50 delegates present 
 
 President W. A. Duer, President of Columbia College. 
 
 New York, May 6, 1536 
 
 51 delegates and members present 
 
 President, W. A. Duer, President of Columbia College. 
 
 Philadelphia, May 5, 1537 
 
 65 delegates present 
 
 President, Rev. G.W.Ridgley, of Pennsylvania 
 
 Hartford, Conneotiout, May 15, 1535 
 Presiding, Rev. T.H.Gallaudett . 
 
 New York, May 3> 1539 
 
 Plans for National Educational Convention. 
 
 Philadelphia, November 22,1539 
 
 Meeting of National Educational Convention. 
 

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 To indioate more fully the oharaoter and extent of the Amerioan Lyoeum 
 as represented in the annual meetings, the following condensed statements are 
 made* As suggested, these do not in any way present the many lines of thought 
 and aotivity advanoed and proposed in the several meetings, but offer rather a 
 guide for an appreciation of the historioal aspects of the movement. 
 
 In the first meeting the extent of the movement was set forth in the 
 provision made for representation. Every seotion of the Union was to be 
 represented in the local lyoeums already organized or to be organized under the 
 direction of the oentral agency, and these looal societies were then to be re- 
 presented in the national meetings. This very general representation was to 
 provide a means for collecting information relative to educational activities 
 and general culture, and also to seoure a group of interested people in every 
 community who would make an impaot upon legislative and administrative bodies 
 for the purpose of advancing educational activities. The lyoeum was a voluntary 
 association, or an advisory body, and resorted to no law, nor to any other power 
 
 but evidence, and the power of motives 
 
 In the seoond annual meeting a number of pupils from the New York City 
 
 publio schools were examined. This was before the day of mental tests and the 
 determination of mental age by means of tests, but it was a day in whioh school 
 systems were examined* This examination, like most of those at that time, was 
 to determine the efficiency of the sohool, and to demonstrate the most acceptable 
 means of advancing ohildren in the ways of learning. 
 
 Provision was made at this seoond meeting to seoure permanent moral 
 and increased financial support. An individual might become a life director 
 of the institution on payment of $100.00; life member on payment of $20.00; and 
 an annual member on paying $3.00 annually. The executive oomittee was requested 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.l, p.273 
 

 
 
 
 
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 to prepare a monthly paper of four to eight pages for the purpose of oiroulating 
 information on the subjeot of lyoeums. At about this time Mr. Holbrook began 
 publishing a weekly paper oalled"Ihe Family Lyoeum." 1 2 
 
 The diversified interests of the Amerioan Lyoeum axe shown in the sub- 
 jeots disoussed in the third annual meeting, and, incidentally, the lyoeum is 
 shown as a pioneer in oertain important fields of oulture. Meteorology was dis- 
 oussed, and sohools and lyoeums were urged to oooperate with the national organiza- 
 tion to seoure data on this subjeot. Manual labor, as oonneoted with sohools, 
 was disoussed, and the oonolusion reaohed that manual labor in sohools was a very 
 desirable feature. A report on vooal musio as a part of the oommon school program 
 urged its import anoe as a reoreation and as a means of giving moral and religious 
 instruotion. The establishment of a national oabinet of natural history in New 
 York was advooated. Mr. Holbrook advocated a oabinet of natural history for 
 eaoh- of the looal lyoeums. Systematic benevolence in sohools and lyoeums was 
 reoonanended. The measures and probable success of the Colonization Sooiety were 
 disoussed. The above are only a few of the subjeots discussed in the meeting of 
 1&33# but they show that the leaders of the movement were abreast of their time, 
 and, in some instances, ahead of their time. 
 
 A report to this meeting from the Boston Lyceum oontains the following: 
 "From a comparatively small society, it has beoome, during the short period of 
 
 2 
 
 about four years, one of the most popular and useful associations in the city." 
 
 The Boston Lyoeum conducted an aggressive program of leotures and 
 general disoussions. 
 
 At the third meeting mention was first made of appointing one or more 
 agents to promote the objeot* of the lyoeum. At subsequent meetings committees 
 were appointed to seoure an agent or agents and to provide means for their work. 
 
 1. Annals of Eduoation, Vol.2, p.27£. 
 
 2. Annals of Eduoation, Vol.3> p .343. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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 but it seems that suoh agents were never appointed. 1,1 
 
 In the fourth meeting measures were taken for the extension of the 
 society’s operations and connections by the formation of departments and classes 
 of soienoe, literature and the arts. Men of soienoe and letters were invited 
 to cooperate. This departmental idea and organization was oarried into the looal 
 societies and provided there for group meetings to discuss topios that were 
 particularly related to the interests of the group members. 
 
 The establishment of a oentral school for teachers was one of the out- 
 standing subjeots for disoussion in 1 £34. This was not the first time the sub- 
 ject was considered, but it reoeived more serious and extensive consideration 
 in this meeting than at any earlier time. Among other subjeots discussed were. 
 The Monitorial System, Corporal Punishment, Natural History and Ancient Languages 
 in the Common Sohools. 
 
 This meeting urged the importance of oloser cooperation among all the 
 
 looal organizations by providing for representation in the annual meetings, 
 
 either by the presence of delegates or a report on the state and condition of 
 2 
 
 their societies. 
 
 Miss Catherine E. Beecher, of Ohio, read an essay before the fifth 
 annual meeting, on The Education of Female Teachers, and it provoked considerable 
 oomment favorable to female education in general. A series of resolutions ex- 
 pressed the conviction that the education of women deserved a more prominent 
 plaoe in the thought of American educational leaders. 
 
 Resolutions encouraging the lyoeum movement in the South were adopted. 
 Arrangements were to be made to hold a special meeting there at a time during 
 the yefcr most convenient to the friends of the lyceum in that part of the country. 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.3, p.345. 
 
 2. Annals of Education, Vol.4,p.279» 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 A few of the topios reviewed are with us still and appear in modified 
 form in educational meetings today. Among them are: 1. What improvements are 
 necessary in the laws of the state in relation to oommon sohools, 2. How may 
 our thinly settled districts be best supplied with the means of education. 
 
 3. How may the application of soienoe to the arts of life be best taught in 
 the oommon sohools. 
 
 Favorable aotion was taken on reports of educational endeavors in New 
 Granada, and a oommittee was appointed to ascertain by what means education in 
 New Granada might be promoted by the Amerioan Lyoeum. Reports were reoeived at 
 different times from other foreign countries, including Mexioo, Cuba, Venezuela, 
 and attempts were made to relate the lyoeum program to educational endeavor 
 everywhere* 1 
 
 By a provision of the constitution of the Amerioan Lyoeum the annual 
 meetings were to be held in New York City, but during the year preceding the 
 sixth meeting there was a development that suggested the wisdom of an amendment. 
 There was an unusual growth of interest in the movement in Pennsylvania during 
 the year and the leaders thought it expedient to recognize and encourage the new 
 section by holding the annual meeting in Philadelphia. Accordingly, provision 
 was made by amending the constitution to enable them to hold the meetings “at 
 such time and place as the preceding annual meeting shall have deoided. 1 * 
 
 In this meeting a pronouncement was made on the subject of divisive 
 topios. By a resolution it was provided that no reference was to be made 
 in any reports or essays either to the sectarian peculiarities of any religious 
 denomination or the party politios of the day. If any suoh allusion appeared, 
 
 I 
 
 the executive oommittee was direoted to omit the paragraphs oontdning them. 
 
 The same sentiment was expressed in reporting the organization of a lyoeum in 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.5> p.267 
 

 
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 Baltimore in whioh people of all religious faiths and all politioal parties co- 
 operated for the oommon moral and intelleotual good of the oity. 
 
 A very clear understanding of what constitutes a normal procedure is 
 evinoed in the resolution "that the enaotment of wise laws in favor of education 
 is very important, out that popular cooperation is of paramount importance, and 
 may better be in advance of laws than behind them." The foregoing resolution 
 enforoes previous suggestions that the movement was of the people, and that it 
 sought to oreate through the people an insistent demand for better praotioal 
 and oultural advantages.^ 
 
 Before the meeting in Philadelphia in May, 1S37, Congress had provided 
 for a distribution of the surplus revenue to the several states. The American 
 Lyoeum at this time, and later, advised that larger expenditure of available 
 funds be made for education. In keeping with that general policy one of the 
 questions disoussed was, "What principle should be adopted by a state in ap- 
 propriating its share of the surplus revenue for the support of education?" 
 
 The seventh annual meeting was rather ambitious in presenting a memorial 
 to Congress to make an appropriation to seoure simultaneous, extensive, and sys- 
 tematic observations to disoover laws which govern the weather. This was urged 
 for the general good, but especially for the benefit of the farmer, meohanio, and 
 mariner. 
 
 One other interesting feature of this meeting which is to be found in 
 several of the others, was a self-oongratulatory resolution. The oonviotion was 
 expressed that no institution has ever been established so well calculated to 
 allay party exoitements, and to unite all classes of oitizens upon the great 
 
 and important subject of education. The great advantage was to fall also direotly 
 
 2 
 
 to the individual and to the community generally. 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.6, p.2t>9* 
 
 2. Annals of Education, Vol.7, p.3l£. 
 

 
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 By a vote of the society in Philadelphia, the eighth annual meeting 
 was held in Hartford, Conneotiout, in May, 1S3#. Two rather interesting subjeots 
 were disoussed at Hartford* First, there was a consideration of the question of 
 the embellishment and improvement of the towns and villages, and the advantage 
 such improvement would be to the cause of intelligence and morality. This pro- 
 gram feature in the field of aesthetios is further evidenoe that the lyoeum was a 
 whole-man and whole-community endeavor. Seoond, the influence of Europe is seen 
 definitely as a part of the thought of the leaders of the lyoeum. There was a 
 lecture on "Principles of the Prussian Bystem of education which are applicable 
 to the condition of the United States." An essay and message from Rev. Wra.C. 
 Woodbridge, in Switzerland, were read. 
 
 In several earlier meetings the question of Bible and religious in- 
 struction in the oommon sohools was considered, and always favorably. The lyoeum 
 favored most heartily the free, publio school, but the leaders were still under 
 the influence of the religious spell of an earlier day. In this eighth meeting 
 a resolution was adopted expressing the oonviotion "that the use of the Bible in 
 our popular systems of education, as a text booh of moral and religious in- 
 struction, is regarded by the lyoeum as indispensable." 1 
 
 The ninth and last annual meeting of the Amerioan Lyceum was held in 
 New York, May, 1^39* Apparently the sessions were devoted largely to a dis- 
 oussion of plans for the proposed National Educational Convention. Professor 
 Charles Brooks of Massachusetts offered the resolutions providing for the con- 
 vention, and they were maturely considered and unanimously adopted. In no 
 previous meeting did the interest in education seem so comprehensive. This 
 interest is brought out in the list of questions below, many of which are much 
 like the questions disoussed, perhaps in a modified form, in educational oircles 
 
 1 .Annals of Education, Vol.S,p.2£0 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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 today. Most of the topios listed in the following questions were discussed in 
 
 one 
 
 earlier meetings of the lyceum, but at no time were they brought together as in 
 this last meeting. The list follows: 
 
 1. How many children are there in eaoh state who, according to the laws 
 of that state, should be under instruction? 
 
 2. How many of this number are found in the sohools? 
 
 3. What is the condition of the oommon sohools in each state? 
 
 4. What is the organization of the school system? 
 
 5* What branohes of knowledge should be taught in our oommon schools? 
 
 6. What should be the character of our oommon school books? 
 
 7. How may school apparatus and sohool libraries be made most useful? 
 
 5. In what branohes should instruction be given orally, and in what 
 
 degree? 
 
 9* What should be the qualifications of teaohers? 
 
 10* Are normal sohools (or seminaries for the preparation of teachers) 
 
 desirable? 
 
 11. On what plan should they be established? 
 
 12. Is a central normal sohool for the Union desirable? 
 
 13* Should it be under the direction of Congress or a society of 
 
 citizens? 
 
 14. What oonneotion sho uld the oommon sohools have with aoademies, 
 colleges, and universities? 
 
 15. What models for sohool houses are best? 
 
 16. Will a "Board of Education", established by each state, afford 
 the best supervision, and secure the highest improvement of the sohools? 
 
 IT. How can itinerant teaohers and lecturers best supply destitute 
 
 plaoes? 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 1&» Is a national system of instruction desirable? 
 
 19» How should a sohool fund be applied? 
 
 20. In what part of each state has the greatest progress been made 
 in elementary education? 
 
 21. How may sohool statistics, whioh must be the basis of legislation, 
 be most easily oolleoted? 
 
 22. What features of the systems now in operation in Holland, 
 
 Germany, Prussia, Franoe, and Great Britain, may be most usefully adopted 
 in this oountry? 
 
 The above list of questions together with an address to the governors 
 of the several states and the publio in general were prepared and reported by 
 Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Charles Brooks of Massachusetts, John 
 Grisoom of Pennsylvania, Henry R. Sohooloraft of Miohigan, and Theodore Dwight, 
 Jr., of New York. 1 2 
 
 The National Educational Convention provided for in the ninth annual 
 meeting of the lyoeum met in Philadelphia, November 22, 1639. It was ambitious 
 in its program and showed large faith in its askings. Among other resolutions 
 was one asking that the Smithsonian legaoy be appropriated at an early date to 
 the oause of education; another resolution asked for the appropriation of money 
 from the sale of publio lands for eduoation; still another urged the legisla- 
 tures of the several states to make early provision for a system of general 
 educat ion whereby free and common sohools may be made accessible to all, and 
 the governors of the several states were requested to direct their messages in 
 favor of popular’ eduoation. State conventions on eduoation were urged, and a 
 
 O 
 
 general national convention was called to meet in Washington in May, 1S40. 
 
 After reviewing the several meetings of the lyoeum and referring to the 
 
 1. Annals of Eduoation, Vol.9, p.421. 
 
 2. Amer. Journal of Eduoation, Vol.14, p. 535 . 
 

 
 
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 educational convention in Philadelphia, Henry Barnard makes the following ob- 
 servations: "This ended, it is believed, as far as all public aotion was con- 
 cerned, the operations of the 'Amerioan Lyceum.' Under the discouragements and 
 difficulties attending an imperfeot organization, want of sympathy and hearty 
 cooperation, want of authority and want of funds, it had done what it oould. The 
 defects of the system of which it was a part, and whioh it advocated, the en- 
 deavors to remedy them, and the attendant disoussions and experiments, tended 
 strongly to develop and introduce better systems and the use of better means. 
 
 Out of these early lyoeum movements originated many permanent educational 
 libraries and lecture associations, as well as innumerable looal improvements 
 in the organization, instruction and discipline of sohools, public and private." 1 2 
 
 No attempt is made here to give the history of any of the local, county, 
 or state lyceums. In Appendix II is a partial list of the societies indicating 
 the looation and the speoial interest of a few of them. However, the fore- 
 going presentation of the activities of the American Lyceum reflects rather 
 fully the interests represented in the meetings of the lyceums in the states, 
 oounties, and towns. 
 
 No story of the propaganda for better facilities for moral, phyeioal, 
 
 and intellectual development in the seoond quarter of the nineteenth century 
 
 would be complete without a chapter presenting the work and dreams of the 
 
 Amerioan Lyceum. Its annual meetings were held in the centers of inf luence,and 
 
 one of the leading educational journals of that time devoted considerable space 
 
 2 
 
 to its plans and programs. It was a part, and a large part, of that neoessary 
 period of agitation and preparation. With lyceums in every state, and a total 
 of about three thousand in the United States in 1S34- some appreciation of its 
 influence is forced upon the student of the times ? The variety of subjects 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Education, Vol.14, p «535. 
 
 2. Annals of Education. 
 
 3* Annals of Education, Vol.5, p.H70. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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discussed and interests espoused, as presented in the foregoing pages, are 
 
 24 
 
 further testimony of the breadth and sincerity of the promoters of the move- 
 ment • 
 

 
 
 
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25 
 
 Chapter III 
 
 Organization and Program. 
 
 The Amerioan Lyoeum flourished before the day of highly specialized 
 sooieties. The men who promoted its aotivities looked over almost the entire 
 field of human endeavor and enterprise, and sought to offer mankind an organiza- 
 tion that would provide for him not only encouragement but aotual benefits for 
 his labor and leisure. According to the pronouncements of the leaders of the 
 movement, man is oapable of entering into a constantly enlarging and richer ex- 
 perience. He requires some contributing agency to direot him and to provide for 
 mutual associations of general helpfulness. The Amerioan Lyceum was designed 
 to supplement each man's laok, so that by a proper cooperation of the several 
 leaders of thought in a community there might be a mutual exchange of attainments, 
 and a dissemination to those who seemed to laok most the fruit of knowledge. Mr. 
 Holbrook, the founder of the lyceum movement, assumed that there were many men 
 interested in the advancement of intellectual and moral values, but knew that no 
 provision was made for them to exohange ideas and promote those designed to serve 
 mankind most effectively. 
 
 The formation of a looal lyoeum was a very simple matter. One enthusiast 
 suggested that where the members of a family met for the discussion of some worthy 
 topio, there was a lyceum; or when two people met to disouss somewhat formally 
 some topic for the general good, there was a lyceum. The institution we are 
 disoussing was not quite so simple. As a first step in the organization, a few 
 influential individuals would take it upon themselves to oall a public meeting. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 to which all olasses should be invited. At this meeting a plain, familiar 
 address would be given by some one seleoted for the oocasion, to present the 
 nature, use, and advantages of the lyceum, its effect upon schools, the manu- 
 facturing and meohanio arts, as well as their salutary and more general effeot 
 upon the moral and intellectual welfare of the community at large. At the olose 
 of the meeting both men and women would be invited to unite in the formation of 
 a lyceum. A oommittee would be ohosen to prepare a constitution and to take any 
 other steps neoessary to get the society well on its way. Another meeting would 
 
 be appointed for the adoption of the constitution and to oomplete the organiza- 
 1 
 
 tion. 
 
 In the artiole in which Mr. Holbrook suggested the organization of 
 associations for mutual and praotioal eduoation he indicated what he considered 
 to be a proper list of officers together with their duties. "The offioers of 
 each branch of the sooiety shall be a President, Yioe President, Treasurer, 
 Recording and Corresponding Secretaries, five Curators, and three Delegates, to 
 meet delegates from other branches of the sooiety in the same county. The 
 President, Vioe President, Treasurer, and Recording Secretary shall perform the 
 duties usually implied in those offioes. The Corresponding Secretaries shall 
 make communications to eaoh other for the benefit of the sooiety, as discoveries, 
 improvements, or other oiroumstances shall require. The Curators shall have 
 charge of the library, apparatus, oabinet, and all other property of the sooiety 
 not appertaining to the treasury. The delegates of the several branches of the 
 sooiety in any one county shall meet semi -annually, at such place as they shall 
 choose, for the purpose of consulting upon measures for promoting the designs of 
 the society, particularly for encouraging an institution for giving an economical 
 
 p 
 
 and practical eduoation, and for qualifying teachers. M 
 
 1. Annals of Ecuoation, Vol.l, p.lPST. 
 
 2. A mer. Journal of Education, Vol. 1, p. 594 .. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
27 
 
 Incidentally, the above quotation suggests some of the lines of 
 aotivity followed by the looal lyoeums. The people of the community were to 
 bring together in their society books, apparatus to illustrate some of the simple 
 laws of physios, chemistry and other soiences, and specimens of minerals and 
 other articles of natural or artificial production. These were to be kept in 
 the meeting plaoe for the use of all the members and for all the people of the 
 community. In their meetings attempts would be made to oreate a desire to use 
 the books and study the oontents of the cabinets. Again, Mr. Holbrook suggests 
 the objeots to be attained and the most desirable procedure to attain them. "The 
 first objeot of this sooiety is to procure for youths an eoonomioal and practical 
 education, and to diffuse rational and useful information through the community 
 generally. The seoond object is to apply the soiences and the various branohes 
 of education to the domestic and useful arts, and to all the common purposes 
 
 of life The sooiety will hold meetings as often as they think it expedient 
 
 for the purpose of mutual instruction in the soienoes, by investigating and dis- 
 oussing them or any other branch of useful knowledge. The several branches of 
 natural philosophy, viz.: Mechanics, Hydrostat ios. Pneumatics, Chemistry, 
 Minerology, Botany, any branoh of the Mathematics, History, Polit ioal Eoonomy>> or 
 any political, intellectual, or moral subjeot, may be examined and discussed by 
 the sooiety. Any branoh of the sooiety may, as often as they think it expedient, 
 procure regular oourses of instruction by leotures or otherwise, in any subjeot 
 of useful knowledge. Any person may beoome a member of the society by paying 
 to the treasurer annually, one dollar; and ten dollars paid any any one time 
 will constitute a person a member for life. The money paid to the society for 
 membership or otherwise shall be appropriated to the purohase of books, apparatus, 
 a oabinet , aiding an institution for practical education, or for some other objeot 
 for the benefit of the society." 1 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Education, Vol. 1, p.594. 
 

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 In the early days of the movement the meetings were usually held weekly 
 or bi-weekly, and were rather informal in procedure. The proper officers would 
 arrange for the program whioh was varied to meet the peouliar requirements of 
 the plaoe and people. Some gave their attention largely to soienoe, and dis- 
 oussed the subject somewhat informally but aooording to a rather definite pro- 
 gram. Others used the more formal leoture method of presenting the subjeots 
 for consideration. In some oases the society would vary from the subjeots of 
 a soientifio and definite character to those of a more general or miscellaneous 
 nature, involving principles of expediency in the fields of government, law, 
 political and domestic eoonomy, agriculture, education, morals, etc. Thdse sub- 
 jects would be discussed in the form of debate or by formal address followed by 
 general disoussion. Exeroises for young and inexperienoed members such as read- 
 ings, declamations, composition, particularly letter writing, also grammar and 
 geography, were introduced. Eaoh oounty, town, and state lyoeum conducted 
 its meetings and managed its affairs as local conditions direoted. In the earli- 
 est days the leaders of the meetings and those who participated in them were 
 drawn from the immediate community • The societies were self -sufficient in the 
 matter of programs. Later, some person of superior ability as a speaker or 
 demonstrator, and with knowledge somewhat above the average, would be invited to 
 speak before neighboring lyceums. He would receive no compensation, in addition 
 to his expenses, for his services. Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered many lyceum 
 leotures in his early days for such a consideration. In one instance he reported 
 to a oommittee that he would be pleased to give an address for the expenses of 
 the trip, but would have to insist that he have three quarts of oats for his 
 horse. Still later there developed a group of men who gave considerable time 
 to public lecturing before lyoeums and other similar societies, - Mr. Emerson was 
 the leader of this group not only in point of time, but also in the quality and 
 

 
 
 
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29 
 
 character of his messages, - and with their ooming oame also the lecture fee, 
 very small at first - only $5.00 or $10.00 for a leoture - and the more formal 
 but less frequent meetings of the lyoeum. 
 
 Provision was made in most of the lyoeums for meet in s of different 
 groups at different times. School teaohers, beoause of their common tasks and 
 interests, would have a speoial time to meet to disouss their problems. Likewise 
 the farmers, the meohanios, women, and still other groups would meet, apart from 
 those whose special interest was different, to oonsider their own activities. 
 
 These group meetings did not supplant the general meetings, but were designed 
 rather to be supplementary. 
 
 In many instances lyoeums were organized for and by a group whose 
 interests were alike. The programs in such oases were, of course, directed to 
 secure oertain results for the group involved. The oharaoter and extent of the 
 library, oabinet, apparatus, eto., would be determined by the speoial activities 
 of the members. In 1 S35# j-u Philadelphia, was organized a Teachers’ Lyceum. It 
 was sufficiently commanding to oall a meeting for the formation of a state lyoeum, 
 and this state lyoeum was sufficiently important to attract the attention of the 
 national organization and secure an amendment to the national constitution so 
 that the seventh annual meeting oould be held in Philadelphia. In this oonnectia 
 mention might be made of the faot that the Germans in Pennsylvania who were gener- 
 ally opposed to the public sohool idea favored the local, self -supported, demo- 
 crat io lyceum. 
 
 The Junior preaohers of the New England Methodist Conference formed a 
 society for the pursuit of knowledge whioh was called the Clerical Lyceum. Their 
 work in their sooiety was muoh like that of the general lyoeums except that 
 more attention was given to courses of reading. These oourses were general 
 and not limited to theological subjects. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 
 
 
30 
 
 Late in 1S33 the United States Naval Lyceum was organized. It pro- 
 posed to oolleot from all parts of the world objects of natural history, to give 
 some attention to disoovery, and reports on findings and explorations on new or 
 little known islands and coasts. Instruct ion was given in navigation and in the 
 use of sea-faring instruments. It was proposed to publish a magazine to 
 present items of interest to men in the navy. Collections in natural history were 
 deposited in the navy buildings in New York City. The reports of this lyceuin 
 to the national meetings were unusually interesting and contained muoh helpful 
 informat ion. 
 
 In 1SH2 Mr. Holbrook went to New York and opened rooms in the building 
 of the trustees of the Publio Sohool Society to oonduot an kxohange Lyoeum. He 
 was noting as the oentral agent of his plan of sohool exchanges by which he 
 proposed to induce students in different sohools to exohange drawings, minerals, 
 and other work and collections that would be mutually helpful. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln addressed a Young Men's Lyoeum in Springfield, Illinois, 
 in 1S3#» A report was made to one of the National meetings from a Juvenile Lyoeum 
 in New York City. 
 
 The Literary and Philosophical Sooiety of South Carolina appointed 
 Messrs. T.S.Grimke, H.R. Frost and Wm. P. Finley to prepare an address on the 
 "Lyoeum 1 * . Mr. Grimke probably prepared the address. After referring to the 
 earlier use of the word "lyoeum", the address recommended a division of the 
 organization into two classes, the elementary and the representative. Among the 
 elementary lyceums are described the family, the social or neighborhood, the 
 village and parish lyoeums; the representative lyceums are the district, state, 
 and national organizations. A further description presents the family lyoeum 
 as a simple arrangement by whioh the members of a family designate oertain even- 
 ings or a oertain evening of each week for helpful and enlightening conversation. 
 

 
 
 
31 
 
 and this is to be according to some program previously agreed upon. The sooial 
 or neighborhood lyoeum is oomposed of many persons in a sooial group or in a 
 neighborhood. The term sooial would be used to designate a group in a oity 
 where other faotors than proximity determine relations. In sparsely settled 
 communities the neighborhood would be the unit. By suoh an arrangement visiting 
 would be made more significant and would have some point to it. There might be 
 olass lyceums oomposed of those who are interested in the study of some particular 
 book, books, or branoh of knowledge. The representative lyoeums recommended in 
 the address were like the oounty, state, and national lyoeum outlined by Mr. 
 Holbrook. The address doses with some observations worthy of a plaoe in this 
 statement . 
 
 "The lyoeum system interferes with no other soheme of improvement, 
 and is, on the contrary, auxiliary to them all. 
 
 "It is in harmony with the spirit of the age, and by oombining various 
 modes of aotion, will give it new strength and animation. 
 
 "It will counteract the spirit of jealousy which prevails too exten- 
 sively among individuals of particular olasses and professions. 
 
 "It is essentially a plan of self-instruotion and of mutual instruction. 
 
 "It furnishes a convenient and simple method of preserving knowledge 
 aoquired in early life, and of diffusing and maintaining a taste for reading and 
 intellectual improvement. 
 
 "It will thus enable all the members of society to act with more effeot 
 in promoting the oause of education, and the progress of literature. 
 
 "The last benefit which the address mentions is that the system is 
 peculiarly a republican institution, - the people's system - and admirably fitted 
 to confer precisely that degree and that kind of knowledge which is so valuable 
 

 
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32 
 
 to the people of this oountry, whioh, without making them profound soholars, 
 will enlarge their mind6 so that they oan oomprehend the value of learning, 
 and enable them to disoover, in some measure, their own ignorance, - whioh will 
 inspire the love of improvement, and while it shows them their own defeots, 
 direots and assists them in providing a remedy, and in surmounting the obstacles 
 whioh lie in their way."* 
 
 Certain features of the lyoeum membership, libraries, apparatus, eto., 
 are reported in a statement relative to the Middlesex County, Massachusetts 
 Lyoeum. There were twenty-three town lyceum6 in Middlesex County, and the 
 number of members in eaoh society varied from one hundred to three hundred with 
 over six hundred members in the Newton Lyoeum. The Waltham Lyoeum had a library 
 of eight hundred volumes, and apparatus worth $1000.00; in Newton there was a 
 library of five hundred volumes, and in Ashby there was a oolleotion of three 
 or four hundred mineral specimens and a collection of plants ana inseots. It 
 is remarked that two of the societies had instrumental music on their programs. 
 
 Unusually extravagant language was used to indioate the wholesome 
 influence of the lyoeums on sooiety. “There is no way of accomplishing so 
 muoh good for a trifling expense." “It has brought together the broken and 
 disjointed members of society." "Its influence on the members has been powerful 
 in uniting opposing par-ties." "Many who have been in the habit heretofore of 
 going to the theaters now say that they prefer going to the lyoeums." The 
 foregoing are a few sentences taken at random from the report of the Middlesex 
 County Lyceum. Very similar statements are found in praotically all of the 
 reports concerning the operation and influence of the organizations. 
 
 Perhaps the best way to understand the nature of a lyoeum meeting and 
 its contribution to a community is to read what a visitor had to say about his 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.^,pp.l93> 19#* 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
33 
 
 reactions to a lyoeum program. At a meeting in 1S30 at Topafield, Massachusetts, 
 to organize a lyceum several gentlemen made addresses. Among them was Judge 
 Cummins who is reported as relating his experiences in visiting several lyoeums . 
 The quotation following will give an idea of the subjeots disoussed, the attend- 
 ance, interest, and general effeot. “In Worcester he was invited to attend one 
 of these lyoeums. He found the place of meeting well filled with interested 
 and attentive listeners. They were the mechanics and traders, and the laboring 
 olasses generally. There ware the most intelligent gentlemen in the place and 
 the most respectable f amilies . And what, after all .perhaps, was the best of 
 it, and what ought not by any means to be omitted or forgotten, was that those 
 families not only went there themselves but they oarried their domestics with 
 them. He had previously visited the lyceum in Concord; it was the same there. 
 All olasses were present; all olasses were interested; and he believed all 
 classes were receiving instruction. He afterwards visited Hampshire, where 
 he was very generally acquainted, and attended a Lyoeum at Northampton. The 
 same speotaole presented itself there. A learned and able gentleman was imparting 
 to a throng of listeners knowledge, whioh until these days had been considered the 
 speoial property of a profession. 
 
 “In these three large sooieties he had the pleasure of hearing three 
 professional men explaining the mysteries of their peculiar orafts to the un- 
 initiated. In one of them a physioian explained the circulation of the blood to 
 people whose blood had been circulating all their lives without their knowing 
 how. For his own part, he never knew how his blood circulated before. He had 
 heard about it, it was true, but he never understood it before. The leoturer 
 explained to him how the heart performed its functions and how the blood was 
 forced through the various channels, and he came away astonished and delighted 
 to find that all this curious and wonderful mechanism could be so exhibited as 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . .1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
34 
 
 that even he should understand its oonstruotion. At another plaoe he heal’d a 
 Theologian inouloating the theory of morality. It was plain and praotioal. He 
 enforoed different duties by showing they oould be derived from the plain great 
 prinoiples; he showed us how we ought to aot, and why we ought to act; he 
 made the path plain before us, and truths divine fell mended from his tongue. 
 
 At the third, the labyrinths of the law were explored. This scienoe he had been 
 all his life-time exploring but now on a sudden it was made so plain that he 
 could understand it, and he was almost afraid everybody else would understand it. 
 His brother Ashmun had made it so simple and easy that it was almost to be feared 
 that all the people of Northampton would beoome lawyers, and then they would 
 have no need of any lawyers at all. He seemed indeed to be possessed with the 
 spirit of the place, and had let himself completely down to the comprehension of 
 the publio. For his own part, he was astonished that so unintelligible a subject 
 had been made so perfectly intelligible. And this, he said, would be one ad- 
 vantage of these institutions ." 1 
 
 As we have already observed, Mr. Holbrook’s plan was to relate the 
 local society to the national organization through the county and state associa- 
 tions. In this complete organization provision was made for the larger aspects 
 of education, and some things were planned then that have never been fully ac- 
 complished. The following additional statement taken from his initial article 
 on the matter presents his plan of oomplete organization. 
 
 "The board of delegates in each county shall appoint such offioers as 
 shall be necessary for their organization or for doing any business coming within 
 their province. Each board of delegates shall appoint a representative to meet 
 representatives from other boards who shall be styled the Board of Mutual Educa- 
 tion for a given state; and it might be advantageous to have also a General 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Education, V 0 I. 5 , p.141. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 . 
 
 Ha » 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
35 
 
 Board embracing the United States. It shall be the duty of the general or 
 state boards to meet annually to appoint a president and other offioers, to 
 devise and recommend such a system of education as they shall think most eligible, 
 also to recommend such books as they shall think best fitted to answer the 
 purposes for which they are designed, and to adopt and recommend suoh measures 
 generally as are most likely to seoure to the rising generation the best intel- 
 lectual, moral, and physioal education, and to diffuse the greatest quantity of 
 useful information among the various olasses of the community." 1 2 3 In addition to 
 the above the state boards were to form the oonneoting link between the local and 
 oounty societies and the national organization. In praotice that particular 
 item miscarried. Looal, oounty, and state lyceums were represented in the 
 annual meetings, and the leaders seemed pleased to have any one in attendance 
 who represented in any way any kind of a lyceum or kindred society. 
 
 Hr. Holbrook planned even more widely than the borders of the United 
 States. He proposed an Universal Lyceum with Chanoellor Brougham of England 
 as president, and with fifty-two vice presidents representing different countries 
 
 p 
 
 and different interests. This was never accomplished. 
 
 In 1637 Mr. Holbrook began the Lyceum Village of Berea, twelve miles 
 from Cleveland, Ohio. Five hundred acres of land was vested in an incorporated 
 board of trustees. Houses, shops, and a sohool house were erected, and a 
 flourishing settlement was soon established. This was to be the first of a 
 series of suoh villages including persons interested in the lyceum enterprise. 
 Another was started at Westohester , near Mew York. The Berea enterprise oame to 
 a disastrous close in a few years and left Mr. Holbrook heavily in debt. 15 
 
 Under the heading "Nature of the Lyceum" is the following rather 
 comprehensive statement of the fundamental aspeots of the organization, indicating 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Education, Vol.l, p.594. 
 
 2. Annals of Education, Vol.7, p.l63» 
 
 3. Barnard's Amer. Journal of Education, Vol.6,p.230. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
36 
 
 its oharaoter: 
 
 "It is a voluntary institution. It resorts to no law, but the law 
 of motives, and the freedom of ohoioe. It invites, but never urges. It asks 
 for effort, but wishes for none but voluntary and oheerful effort. It believes 
 that the dignity, success, and hopes of the whole system, are founded in the 
 simple faot, that the human intellect is a self-moving, self-acting, and self- 
 controlling principle, - oapable, under the aid and guidance of its Creator, 
 of achieving its own advancement and elevation It proposes the organiza- 
 
 tion of a Branch Lyceum in every town in our Union but requires it in no one. 
 
 It is a social institution. It recognizes that our social intercourse 
 has a very great bearing upon our personal life, and, accordingly, seeks to 
 provide an atmosphere designed to make sooial intercourse both pleasant and 
 profitable. Most of the public meetings are informal and the participation of 
 all is invited. The easy, conversational way of instruction may be oarried on 
 to family or other smaller sooial groups. 
 
 It is a self-adapting institution. Any community, and any olass of 
 the community, can form a lyceum, not only to suit their wishes, but to advanoe 
 their own purposes and pursuits. A farming community oan associate, not only 
 as intellectual, moral and sooial beings, but as farmers. Small groups may 
 beoome departments of a general sooiety. 
 
 It is a republican institution. Its foundation is moral freedom and in- 
 dependence, without whioh no one oan be truly free. It permits, invites, and 
 enables all who unite in its operations to think, judge, and aot for themselves. 
 
 It would liberate them from the slavery of a party, of a demagogue, and of their 
 
 passions It aims at universal education by induoing and enabling all whom 
 
 it embraces to eduoate themselves. 
 
 It is a benevolent institution. It is mutual, or gives , hoping to 
 

 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
37 
 
 reoeive. It also gives, not hoping to reoeive It luaintains that teaohers 
 
 are bound, not only to iostruot their pupils, but to do good to each other, and 
 
 1 
 
 to make the improvements in the soienoe and art of teaohing, public property." 
 
 An attempt has been made to present the nature and objectives of the 
 Amerioan Lyceum. It was a simple organization of the people of a community. 
 There was just enough of the offioial and formal aspeots to give it a proper dig- 
 nity and entity, but it was designed to be a free, open sooiety for all the 
 people and for the discussion of all worthy community problems. Its chief 
 interest was education. The programs of the sooiety meetings were for the 
 diffusion of praotioal and oultural information among the immediate members, 
 and, through them, into the entire oomnunity. This instruction was largely 
 mutual, eaoh member participating to the extent of bis ability or inclination 
 in the several programs. But indireotly the lyoeums oarried on a oonstant 
 propaganda for the improvement of the common sonools. Teaohers were urged to 
 beoome members of the local societies, and every opportunity was given to them- 
 to advance themselves in the efficiency of their work. The libraries, cabinets, 
 and apparatus were available for teaohers in their school work. The lyoeum was 
 for the people and was established and maintained by the people. It ocoupied 
 a prominent plaoe in the movement for better organized and more comprehensive 
 intellectual, moral and cultural advantages. 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.2, p .35 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter IV 
 
 The Amerioan Lyoeum and Publio Eduoation. 
 
 It is evident from the foregoing ohapters that the Amerioan Lyceum was 
 an educational agency of considerable importance in the second quarter of the 
 nineteenth oentury. No attempt was made in ohapters II and III to emphasize the 
 educational features of the movement, but, simply, to present the historical 
 development and the character of the organization. However, no story of the 
 institution can be told without apparent special interest in its many references 
 to education. It was a movement of the people and at a time when readjustments 
 were necessary. New seotions of the oountry were being settled and the older 
 states were in the prooess of change by the influx of foreigners, and the develop- 
 ment of manufacturing interests. Measures were neoessary to secure to these 
 changing conditions some stabalizing agent, and eduoation of the ohildren and 
 a continuation of that eduoation into the years of adulthood seemed to be the 
 most effective means available. But eduoation was in a sorry condition so 
 far as the principal agency, the public school, was concerned. Accordingly, the 
 people, upon whom all responsibility rests in the last analysis, reoognizing the 
 limitations of the schools and the urgent need of the product of a better school 
 system, engaged themselves in the promotion of greater interest by the organiza- 
 tion of numerous and varied societies to accomplish the desired end. Foremost 
 among these was the American Lyoeum. 
 
 Henry Barnard refers to the many societies, and places his estimate 
 upon the achievements of the lyoeum in his introductory statement to a disoussion 
 oi the institution. "Of all these, whether under the names of sohool systems 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 ■ 
 
39 
 
 (Infant, Free, Monitorial, Manual Labor, Agricultural, etc . , ) or of Mechanics' 
 
 Institutions, Lyceums, Societies for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Mercantile 
 
 Associations, Teaohers' Seminaries, Teaohers 1 2 Associations, Literary Institutes, 
 
 Societies of Education, Sohool Agents' Societies, Library Associations, Book 
 
 Clubs, Reading Associations, Educational Journals, etc., etc., none oreated so 
 
 immediate and general interest, or excited for a time an influence so great or 
 
 benefioent as The American Lyceum. After Josiah Holbrook had outlined his 
 
 plan for an association of adults for mutual instruction he stated the object of 
 
 the sooiety as follows: “The first objeot of this sooiety is to prooure for 
 
 youths an economical and practical education, and to diffuse rational and useful 
 
 information through the community generally. The second objeot is to apply the 
 
 soiences and the various branohes of education to the domestic and useful arts, 
 
 2 
 
 and to all the oommon purposes of life.” In the above, Holbrook not only pre- 
 sented himself as a farsighted educational advooate, but also as an educational 
 prophet. Subsequent efforts have been in the direction of a more intimate re- 
 lation between education and the practical aspeots of life. 
 
 Mr. Holbrook stated the objects of the lyceum in l£2t>, and thirteen 
 years later, in Philadelphia, the closing meeting of the Amerioan Lyceum was a 
 national educational convention. From its inoeption to its dose there were 
 repeated assuranoes that the movement was for the promotion of a better educa- 
 tional program. These assuranoes were eipressed in many ways, ohief of which was 
 the oonstant discussion of educational topios in the meetings of all the societies. 
 Teaohers were given a large place in the consideration and the programs of the 
 meetings. Attempts were made to make the way of learning easier for the youth 
 by introducing more widely the use of simple apparatus for experimental and 
 illustrative purposes, also by the establishment and resurrection of libraries in 
 
 1. Barnard's Amer. Journal of Education, Vol. 14, p .535, (1&64). 
 
 2. Amer. Journal of Education, Vol. 1, p. 595 , (lS2o). 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • •- • i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 W-j 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
40 
 
 or near the schools. Subsequent quotations with accompanying oomment will 
 indioate not only the efforts of the lyoeum to improve the schools and the attitude 
 of the people toward education, but also, and part ioular ly , the reaotion of the 
 people to the activities of the societies. 
 
 A committee of the Middlesex County Lyoeum was appointed to report on 
 the best way to study the general subject. Improvement of our Common Schools. 
 
 The report provided for a disoussion of the topio "under three distinct proposi- 
 tions. 1. Whether any, and if any, what measures can be taken to provide for our 
 common sohools, teachers of greater talents and more practical knowledge of their 
 profession, than are now generally employed. 2. Whether the method in which our 
 sohools are generally oonduoted, may not be improved by introducing a modification 
 of the system adopted in schools of mutual instruction, and in infant schools. 
 
 3. What apparatus is it desirable should be introduced into our schools; and what 
 series of books oan be confidently recommended that would facilitate their im- 
 provement." 1 Teaohers, method, and the tools of education are the three subjects 
 of eduoation for disoussion in the above quotation. They were among the out- 
 standing topics in 1531# and they are with us still, suggesting that in those 
 days men were sufficiently oonversant with educational requirements to give 
 their time to fundamentals. 
 
 One characteristic of the anno uncements and reports of lyoeum meetings 
 was the presentation of a list of subjects for discussion. At a meeting in 
 Boston in 1529# Rev. Asa Rand made remarks on the lyceum indicating the reasons 
 why he favored the movement. First, it is economical, second, it agrees well 
 with the modern principles of eduoation in that it "cultivates and exeroises 
 the mind instead of filling, and orowding, and loading it." At this meeting a 
 list of seventeen questions was proposed for discussion, ten of whioh dealt 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.l,p.l32 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
41 
 
 direotly with education and the publio schools. 1 2 In 1534 the New Jersey Lyceum 
 reported to the Amerioan Lyoeum in its annual meeting, and the first sentence 
 of the report was, “The New Jersey State Lyoeum was organized at Princeton on 
 the third and fourth of April, 1534, by the friends of education and of intel- 
 lectual improvement The report states further that the following subjects 
 were discussed informally: “1. What is the state of oommon school instruction 
 in your vioinity? 2. What attention does it reoeive from the community gener- 
 ally? 3. How may it be improved?" In the same report it was pointed out that 
 "answers to the following questions were requested from every township." There 
 
 were twenty-six questions in the list, all of which dealt with the publio school 
 2 
 
 situation. The number of meetings might easily be multiplied many times in 
 which all or a large number of the questions discussed were of a distinctly 
 educational character. 
 
 It seems that this very general discussion of the subjeot of education 
 bore fruitful results, and that the generous and benevolent spirit of the leaders 
 was not without its reward. There were ohanges in the common schools, and in 
 the attitude of the people toward them. In 1531 a rather elaborate statement is 
 made relative to the practical value and results of the lyceum. We give here 
 only the second item, “sohools," although the report is largely a statement of 
 educational accomplishments. “By means, entirely within the reach of any town 
 in the United States, the oharaoter of a vast number of sohools has been en- 
 tirely ohanged, and that, too, without any additional expense of time or money. 
 Numerous towns are now realizing at least douole from their appropriations to 
 schools, of what they received two years since. The same teachers and the same 
 pupils do twioe the work but very recently performed by them in consequence of 
 the encouragement, animation, and aid received by them from lyceums. These in- 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Education, Vol.3,p.746, (1525). 
 
 2. Annals of Education, Vol.4, p.314. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . . 
 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 •• 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
42 
 
 stitutions virtually oonstitute a seminary for teachers, already enjoyed by 
 thousands, and oapable of being so extended as to embrace every teacher in our 
 Union, and under suoh oiroumstanoes as to improve him immediately, constantly, 
 and without expense." 1 2 3 
 
 In a report of the sixth annual meeting of the AmericanLyoeum in Hew 
 York City one paragraph contained the following: "We oannot help expressing the 
 gratification we feel in finding the attention of the lyoeum, at its late session, 
 turned almost exclusively to oommon sohools. These, one would think, are be- 
 ginning to be regarded as they should be - as the hope of our country and of its 
 
 2 
 
 free institutions." Lest the unwarranted conclusion might be reached that the 
 foregoing statements were made by some biased enthusiastic advocate of the 
 system, it seems desirable to interjeot a few statements made late in the oentury. 
 Herbert B. Adams, after indicating the several objectives the lyceum sought to 
 accomplish, continued: "Most of these objeots were earnestly promoted and are 
 worthy of historio record as characteristic features of the first great movement 
 
 for popular- educational extension in these United States. Vigorous efforts 
 
 were made to introduce history, the subject of political institutions, and 
 natural soience into the public schools. Lyoeum extension was far more general 
 and popular than the later 'university extension,' because, like mechanics' 
 institutes, it was a more demooratio and spontaneous movement." In the same 
 artiole are the following observat ions : “Local libraries, fallen into disuse, 
 were revived and oame into demand. New libraries were oreated and used extensive- 
 ly. Traveling libraries were advocated and provided for in 1631 by the American 
 Lyceum. Historio types of local lyoeums deserve investigation, for they repre- 
 sented the first great wave of educational democracy or adult popular education. 
 Free public libraries followed lyoeums."^ 
 
 1. Annals of Education, Vol.l,p.326. 
 
 2. Ann. Is of Education, Vol.o, p.2£l. 
 
 3. Report, Commiss ioner of Education, 16^99-1900, Vol.l,pp.275 ff» 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I ' ” •• 
 
 
 
 
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 - 
 
 ■ 
 
 ’ ■ 
 
43 
 
 In a like manner E. G. Dexter points out the different measures en- 
 dorsed and advocated oy the lyoeum, and oontinues: "a mere glance at this list 
 is enough to show that we have in this movement the forerunner and parent of 
 many of our most valuable institutions today. The United States Weather Bureau, 
 library extension, the museum of natural history, the soientifio laboratory, 
 free text-books, the village improvement sooiety, all are there fore-shadowed; 
 and there oan be little doubt that the National Education Association, and 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science were both more or less direct- 
 ly the outgrowth of the lyoeum movement .“ As a kind of su.juary statement, 
 
 Dexter says that "The American Lyceum was a popular institution of immense educa- 
 tional influence." The claims made by Ddxter may seem to be somewhat extrava- 
 gant, but when the varied and persistent programs of the lyoeum movement are con- 
 sidered, there are many reasons for concluding that the many societies in their 
 separate as well as their general meetings contributed largely to the inauguration 
 of new movements and the acceleration or modification for better results of some 
 already launched. 
 
 It is interesting, in this connection, to note the relation of the 
 
 lyoeum to an outstanding and worthy educational agency that had a continuous 
 
 history for seventy-eight years beginning in 1530, The American Institute of 
 
 Instruction. Hinbdale speaks of the organization of the Institute of Instruction 
 
 as a development of the growing interest in education and sohools, "and appears 
 
 to have had some special relation to the lyeeum movement which was then aotive 
 2 
 
 in New England." This rather cautious statement is warranted if one has not 
 gone oarefully into the activities of the lyoeum at that period. The first 
 meeting that led to the formation of the Amerioan Institute of Instruction 
 oonvened on Maroh 15,1530, in Boston. "Pursuant to public notice, more than 
 
 1. Dexter, History of Education in the U.S., p.569. 
 
 2. Hinsdale, Horaoe Mann and the Common School Revival in the U.S., p.6b. 
 

 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
44 
 
 two hundred instructors met in Boston on the fifteenth of Maroh. Among them were 
 several who hold a high rank in the literature of the oentury. A oommittee was 
 appointed on eaoh of the following subjeots, viz.: 
 
 1. The Infant Sohool System. 
 
 2. Monitorial Sohools. 
 
 3. Means of Raising the Qualifications of Teachers. 
 
 4. Branohes of Instruot ion Appropriate to Common Sohools . 
 
 i?. Associations of Teaohers as Departments of Lyceums^ 
 
 The oall for the meeting referred to in the above quotation was 
 issued in the name of the State Committee of Lyoeums, and the objects as set 
 forth in an editorial notioe widely oopied in the New England papers was “to 
 reoeive reports on the progress of lyceums , and the condition of common sohools, 
 and to aoquire information as to the organization of infant schools, and the use 
 
 p 
 
 of sohool and cheap scientific apparatus." However intimate the relation be- 
 tween the lyoeum movement and the beginning of the American Institute of In- 
 struction, it must not be forgotten that the soil was particularly rich for suoh 
 an organization at that time. But the lyceum movement had been giving the soil 
 that particular kind of fertility. It is not surprising that other and more 
 highly specialized organizations were born and began a long and worthy existence, 
 and it is the highest praise to the popular movement, the lyceum, that there 
 resulted from its activities definite movements among legislators and profession- 
 al men to lay well and deeply the neoessary foundation stones for a permanent 
 and commanding superstructure. When Holbrook was drowned near Lynohburg, Vir- 
 ginia, in 1#54, the Amerioan Institute of Instruction passed the following reso- 
 lution: “That our whole community owes a debt of lasting gratitude to the de- 
 
 1. Amer. Journal of Education, V 0 I. 5 , p .235* (1330). 
 
 2. Barnard's Amer. Journal of Education, Vol.2, p.l9> (1356). 
 

 
 
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 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
45 
 
 oeased, as having been the father of the system of the lyaeums, by which a taste 
 for soienoe has been excited, and the young of our oities and villages have been 
 allured from frivolous if not hurtful pleasure, and instructed in subjects whioh 
 enlarge, elevate, and improve the mind and heart." 1 2 3 
 
 It is the purpose of this study to oall attention to the very deoided 
 and extensive movement for educational reform as represented by the lyceum or- 
 ganizations, and to oorreot the impression that prevails rather generally that 
 Horaoe Mann and Henry Barnard were the oreators of a new interest in education. 
 Such wrong impressions result from statements like the following: "Under the 
 leadership of Horaoe Mann and Henry Barnard, and largely through their personal 
 efforts, a reaction set in. Associations to foster edueat ion were everywhere 
 
 formed; journals for the discussion of educational questions were formed in 
 2 
 
 great numbers. M Graves represents the situation more accurately when he says, 
 "For a soore of years before Mann appeared, definite preparation for the movement 
 had been in progress, and the labors of the individuals and associations engaged 
 in these endeavors should be briefly noted." And again, "In this awakening the 
 most conspicuous figure is probably Horace Mann, but there were several leaders 
 in the field before him, many we re contemporaneous, and the work was expanded and 
 deepened by others of distinction long after he withdrew from the soene."^ 
 
 Before Mann and Barnard were Carter, Brooks, and many other advocates of better 
 things educationally. The Massachusetts State Board of Education was created 
 before Mann was ever thought of as an aduoational leader, and the Massachusetts 
 Board did not come out of a clear 3ky,- it did not happen;- it was a logical and 
 inevitable result of agitation and propaganda. And the propaganda had been con- 
 ducted during a period of eleven years in a hundred and more places in the state 
 
 1. Barnard’s Amer. Journal of Education, Vo 1 .8, p. 230. 
 
 2. Bunker, F.F., Reorganization of the Public School System, Dept, of Interior, 
 
 Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1916, Wo. S. 
 
 3. Graves, F.P., A History of Education in Modern Times, p«167. 
 

 
 » 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 . 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
46 
 
 through the lyoeurn organizations. 
 
 No atteu.pt is made here to discredit Mann and Barnard, but rather to 
 place them. They came in on a rising tide, and were peculiarly fitted to oarry 
 the movement on to a relatively successful completion. Mann had a sane knowledge 
 of men, and a consuming human interest. When his mighty powers were released to 
 the cause of education, the time and the man seemed to meet most happily. 
 Seminaries for teachers had been advooated by the lyoeurn from its beginning, and 
 the lyceums, in many instances, constituted practical seminaries. The idea of a 
 school for teuohers was by no means new when Man n advooated it soon after he be- 
 came secretary, but he was so sufficient as a leader and as a spokesman for the 
 rather general but poorly spoken wish of the people that he was able to establish 
 "the first normal school." It was indeed fortunate for the lyoeurn that men like 
 Mann and Barnard appeared when they did. The time of agitation was passing, ana 
 the day for conserving results was at hand. The two leaders in Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut, and Rhode Island were fortunately at hand to oonserve the results 
 of a decade or more of persistent seed sowing. 
 
 Perhaps the last word on the subject of the lyceums should be spoken 
 by the men we have referred to in the preceding paragraphs, Mann and Barnard, for 
 the reason that they, more than any others during the period of their education- 
 al careers, were able to interpret and evaluate correotly. In their Common 
 School Journals references were made to the societies and favorable comment was 
 
 -j 
 
 made upon them. Barnard remarks: "We have again and again oalled the attention 
 of the friends of education to the powerful instrumentality which lyceums and 
 similar institutions oan beoome in the great work of promoting intelligence 
 in society. We have almost invariably found that those who were establishing 
 and maintaining them were ready to promote the advancement of oommon school 
 eduoation, which they felt to be at the foundation of permanent and enlarged 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 . 
 
 
 
 
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47 
 
 suooess in their several enterprises. We are glad to find that in most of the 
 modified forms of the lyceum system, and that during the coming winter more or 
 less extended courses of popular lectures will be delivered." 1 2 3 And, again, 
 
 "The increase of active and well conducted lyoeums in this state, and at this 
 season, is much to be desired, as one of the most direct and effectual means of 
 directing the attention of the people to the importance of improving the schools.. 
 
 In looking over the oourses of lectures to be delivered in several of our 
 
 larger cities, it is a oheering symptom of an awakening interest in popular educa- 
 tion, to see that some of the most eminent minds in the country are at this time 
 
 maturing and uttering their opinions on some of the varied topios hound up in 
 
 2 
 
 this mighty subject." Barnard refers further to the lyceums as agenoies for 
 continuing the work of the public schools. He says, "they should take up the 
 education of the community where the schools leave it, and by every help and 
 means of self-culture, oarry it forward to the end of life."'^ 
 
 Horace Mann, in his third annual report to the Massachusetts State 
 Board of Education gives several paragraphs to a discussion of the lyceum and 
 similar institutions. One can hardly escape the conclusion that Mann thought 
 and wrote about the lyceum at a time when it was declining as an aggressive 
 factor in education. The more formal leoture course had supplanted the earlier, 
 self-sufficient village discussion group, and with the change had oome a clearly 
 defined adult and more general interest. He observes, "A olass of institutions 
 has lately sprung up in this state, universally known by the name of lyceums or 
 mechanics' institutes, before some of which courses of popular lectures on literary 
 or scientific subjects are annually delivered, while others possess libraries and 
 
 reading rooms; and, in a very few oases, both these objects are combined. These 
 
 1. Conn. Common School Journal, Vol.2, p.Sl. 
 
 2. " " " " Vol.l, p.39. 
 
 3. " " " " Vol.4, p.25 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
institutions have the same general purpose in view as publio libraries, viz., 
 that of diffusing instructive and entertaining knowledge, and of exciting a 
 ouriosity to acquire it; though they are greatly inferior to libraries, in 
 
 point of efficiency An inventory of the means of general intelligence which 
 
 did not inolude these institutions would justly be regarded as incomplete." * 1 
 
 A detailed statement of these voluntary agencies and their efforts in 
 the field of popular education is given as a part of the third report. It is 
 inoluded in this study to show the distribution of the lyceums in Massachusetts. 
 No doubt similar statements oould have been made for other states. Incidentally, 
 some suggestion is made as to the number of people reached by the lyceum. And 
 this report oovers the year ending July 1, 1539* a time, as indicated above, 
 when the extreme popular features of the organization had yielded to the more 
 formal leoture oourse. The county is the unit in making the report on this 
 particular item: 
 
 Essex County 
 
 Number of Mechanics' Institutes 3 
 
 Number of Members 340 
 
 Number of Lyceums, etc. 12 
 
 Average number of Attendants 4-355 
 
 Expenses for leotures, including incidentals $2,751 
 
 Middlesex County 
 
 Number of Mechanics' Institutes 2 
 
 Number of Members 675 
 
 Number of Lyoeums, etc. 24 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 5050 
 
 Expenses for Leotures, including 
 
 incidentals $3,004 
 
 1. Common School Journal, Yol.2,p.l22 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 -*> 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
49 
 
 Worcester County 
 
 Number of Mechanics' Institutes l 
 
 Number of Members 64 
 
 Number of Lyoeums, eto. Iff 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 3005 
 
 Expenses for Leotures, including incidentals $539 
 Hampshire County 
 
 Number of Lyceums, eto. 3 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 635 
 
 Expenses for Lectures, including incidentals $75 
 Hampden County 
 
 Number of Heohanios ' Institutes 1 
 
 Number of Members 60 
 
 Number of Lyceums, etc. 4 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 300 
 
 Expenses for Leotures, including incidentals, $100 
 Franklin County 
 
 Number of Lyoeums,etc. 5 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 430 
 
 Expenses for Leotures, including incidentals, $32 
 Berkshire County 
 
 Number of Lyceums, eto. 10 
 
 Average number of Attendants 1065 
 
 Expenses for Leotures, including incidentals, $136 
 Norfolk County 
 
 Number of Lyceums, eto. 13 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 1355 
 
 Expenses for Lectures, including incidentals, $1,146 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bristol County 
 
 Number of Mechanics' Institutes 1 
 
 Number of Members 100 
 
 Number of Lyceums, eto. 6 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 1060 
 
 Expenses for Lectures, including incidentals, $1,455 
 Plymouth County 
 
 Number of Lyceums, eto. 7 
 
 Average Number of Attendants £05 
 
 Expenses for Lectures, including incidentals, $327 
 Barnstable County 
 
 Number of Lyceums, etc. 5 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 570 
 
 Expenses for Lectures, including incidentals $73 
 Dukes County 
 
 Number of Lyceums, eto. 3 
 
 Average NumbeV of Attendants 140 
 
 Expenses for Lectures, including incidentals, $25 
 Nantuoket County 
 
 Number of Lyceums, etc. 1 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 400 
 
 Expenses for Lectures, including incidentals, $100 
 Summary for the state 
 
 Number of Mechanics ' Institutes 8 
 
 Number of Members 1439 
 
 Number of Lyceums, eto. , 137 
 
 Average Number of Attendants 3269 8 
 
 Expenses for Lectures, including incidentals, $21197 1 
 ^•Common School Journal, Vol. 2, p. 137* 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ' > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
51 
 
 The report observes that, in addition to the above, there are many 
 sooieties in the state, using different names, aiming at self-improvement by 
 defeating, deolamation, reading, composition, and leotures at irregular intervals* 
 The author of the report not only mentions the variety of sooieties, but refers 
 also to the diversity of benefits oonf erred by the several organizations* He 
 remarks that, "It has been often repeated, by numerous and accurate observers, 
 that, in the oity of Boston, the general topics of conversation, and the mode 
 of treating them, have been deoidedly improved since what may be called the 
 reign of popular leotures. wl Mann’s very great interest in establishing more 
 permanently and extending more widely the free public school as an institution 
 of the state probably acoounts in part for his failure to make reference to 
 the lyoeum as an agenoy for the promotion of oomraon sohools. Then, as 
 suggested above, the lyceum itself was undergoing a ohange. It had wrought 
 well in doing its part to secure a state board of education and a secretary, 
 and now it was free to enter a new field. In Appendix I the new field will be 
 discussed. 
 
 1. Common Sohool Journal, Vol.2, p.137 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ . 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
52 
 
 Summary and Conclusions. 
 
 In ohapters II, III, IV, a somewhat extended statement has been 
 made relative to the history and organization of the Amerioan Lyceum* Begin- 
 ning in 1826, in Massachusetts, the movement spread rapidly and widely during 
 little more than a deoade. It was a movement of the people for popular’ and 
 mutual education, with a persistent and comprehensive interest in publio or 
 ooionon school education. The meetings of the society were frequent, either 
 weekly or bi-weekly, during the larger part of the year, and the subjeot dis- 
 cussed most frequently was some phase of the oommon school problem. The 
 national meetings were, in fact, educational conventions, although it was only 
 the last one that was oalled by that name. 
 
 As indicated in Chapter I, during the earlier years of the century and 
 on into the second quarter, there were almost no effeotive school laws, and 
 very little effective school practioe* Responsible supervision was lacking, 
 and there was no uniformity in supervision, teaching, or in the tools and 
 equipment for school work. Districts were self-sufficient and independent in 
 matters of money, sohool program, and in every other school interest. Into 
 this untoward oondition the Amerioan Lyceum was injected, demanding reform in 
 every fundamental feature of the eduoational spirit and machinery. The lyceum 
 was an agitator with the loud but inarticulate voice of the agitator part 
 of the tune, but with the clarion voice of the prophet sounding in every city, 
 town, and hamlet most of the time* The demands of the lyceum were heard finally, 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
53 
 
 and, supplemented and enforoed by other similar agenoies, oalled into being 
 the American Institute of Instruction, the Massachusetts, and other. State 
 Boards of Eduoation, Normal Sohools, and other long- and much-needed school 
 machinery. State leaders of educational foroes were selected and set to a 
 worthy task. Additional periodical literature was printed and generously dis- 
 tributed. Education won new and able friends, and the Common Sohool Revival was 
 on. The lyceum did not aooomplish it all, but an organization that touohed 
 regularly and intimately hundreds of thousands of people with a oonstant and con- 
 sistent disoussion of the subjeot of eduoation certainly had some part in se- 
 curing a more substantial interest in and a more sympathetic attitude toward 
 public education. 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Appendix I 
 
 The Modern Lyoeum and Chautauqua. 
 
 According to a statement in The Dial, the history of popular leoturing 
 in this country would seem to fall into three periods: “the first, roughly 
 bounded, ends with the civil war; the seoond, some twelve years ago; while 
 the third is still with us." 1 Apparently, the later leoture period of the 
 lyeeum is taken as the beginning of this long period of popular lecturing. The 
 local lyeeum, as presented in the preceding chapters, became an organization to 
 secure leoturers for the villages and oities, and the annual lecture oourse 
 became an established feature of Amerioan intellectual and oultural life. 
 Emerson, the first professional leoturer, spoke ninety-eight times before the 
 Conoord lyeeum, and in Salem every year for twenty years. He said "My pulpit 
 is the lyeeum platform." 
 
 When James Redpath and George I. Fall established the Boston Lyceum 
 Bureau in 1S6S, a practical recognition was given to the ohange that had taken 
 place in the management of organizations for practical and popular improvement. 
 Before that time each local sooiety or committee went into the open leoture and 
 entertainment market and selected the speakers for their formal, pub li ^programs . 
 With the advent of the lyoeum bureau, the market was centralized and committees 
 would go, not to the leoturer himself, but to his manager, the bureau* This 
 simplified the procedure by putting it on a business basis, and it also proved 
 to be an economical arrangement in time and money. The publicists, reformers, 
 
 1 .Mark Lee~Luther , Dial, Vo 1.25, P‘291, 1W* 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • M 
 
 
55 
 
 and leaders in every field of thought toured the oountry under the direotion 
 of the lyoeum bureaus to speak in the towns where they had been "sold." They 
 were the magazines and propagandists of their day. The leaders in many of the 
 great sooial movements of the nineteenth oentury were prominent on the leoture 
 platform. John B. Gough, leader in temperance agitation, leotured many times 
 on "The Power of Example," "Sooial Responsibilities," "Sooial Drinking Customs," 
 and "The Duty of the Intemperate." Wendell Phillips, following his great oam- 
 paign against slavery, during whioh he refused any compensation, next took up 
 the labor problems. Mary A. Livermore also lectured on the labor question, 
 and was a pioneer in the Aiovement for woman's suffrage. Anna Eliza Young, 
 nineteenth wife of Brigham Young, leotured against Mormonism in the seventies. 
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony lectured widely on woman's rights. 
 
 A few of the other earlier and more prominent leoturerson the lyceum platform 
 were: Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, Louis Agassiz, Horace Greeley, 
 Charles Sumner, Charles Francis Adams, Daniel Webster, Horaoe Mann, Edward 
 Everett Hale, and Henry Ward Beecher. These are simply the outstanding represen- 
 tatives of a large group of men and women who sought by means of the public plat- 
 form to improve the general condition of the human family. They were sincere and 
 delivered a worthy message. Beecher probably announced their creed when he said, 
 "I believe in giving people what they ought to have as long as they will stand 
 for it, then I give them what they want." The New York Graphio, in 1S77, sized 
 up the lyceum movement of that time as being composed of "poets, generals, 
 politicians, travelers, hunters, novelists, heroes, exiles, and martyrs." 
 
 With the coming of the central or bureau management oame also a 
 variety of “numbers'? on the course, and, in many instances, a lower standard of 
 "talent." It does not follow that the oentral bureaus were responsible for the 
 decline, although many of the minor ones were not careful and reliable in their 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
56 
 
 selections and recommendations ; but the desire to please the people influenced 
 the local oommittees and frequently the element of instruction was saorifioed 
 for entertainment. The extent to whioh this cheapening process went is sug- 
 gested in The Nation, 1&69. "We would advise, ( oommittees ) in making arrange- 
 ments next year, to restriot their invitations to specialists of established 
 reputation, men who either have completely mastered some subjeot and speak on it 
 with generally recognized authority, or men who are gifted with great powers 
 of statement and apply them suooessfully to a particular class of subjeots; and 
 to esohew the simple rhetorioian who is ready to treat any theme at a hundred 
 dollars an hour. The body to which he belongs is one which is growing prodigious- 
 ly, and its influence, whether exerted through the platform, the magazine, or 
 the wholesome and independent family paper, is producing the worst effeots on 
 the tender and susceptible minds of both Edward and Almira." 1 
 
 Perhaps the great increase in lyoeum or leoture bureaus and the almost 
 innumerable leoture or "star" courses have each made some contribution to the 
 decline in the character of the programs offered. The high standards set by 
 the founders of the early bureaus have not always been ^maintained by the more 
 local agencies. All bureaus oould not have the great leaders of thought on their 
 lists, and the leading platform men oould visit only a few places in the oourse 
 of a year. Accordingly, looal bureaus would engage speakers and entertainers to 
 supply the demand of a less discriminating public. The World's Work mentions as 
 the principal bureaus: Redpath, Mutual, Co it. Alkahest, Central, Eastern, White, 
 Midland, Davidson,- and about forty smaller agencies. The same artiole also 
 points out that the "talent" have their union, the International Lyceum 
 Association, whioh is made up of 762 members. These agenoies and the union, per- 
 haps with some non-union talent, supplied approximately twelve thousand village 
 
 1 The Nation, Vol.ff, p.271, 16T69 
 

 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
57 
 
 and small oity lyoeums in 1912. The lecturers, according to the author of the 
 article, were divided into two classes: 1, the man who has accomplished something, 
 and leotures incidentally to tell it, and, 2, the man or woman who can tell any- 
 thing in£ pleasing and forceful manner. 1 The period of decline was character- 
 ized as "a string of entertainments that iiave no earnest purpose, and minister to 
 no manly and womanly want." In connection with the quotation just given is the 
 suggestion that the high prioes paid leoturers and entertainers brought an influx 
 of medioority into the field whioh degraded the lyceum system. Colonel T.W. 
 Higginson notes that "the scholar reoedes from sight, and the impassioned orator 
 takes his plaoe." Also, musio and operatic effeots, together with vaudeville 
 performances of doubtful merit, are offered to relieve the tedium of the lectures. 
 
 The advent of the magazine, exploiting every known oause and championing 
 every known reform, had a tendency to supplant the spoken word of the platform 
 leoturer. It was argued that the times were degenerate because the people would 
 not listen to the serious lectures as in other days, but the premises do not 
 warrant the conclusion. The people were not indifferent to the serious 
 
 business of life, but were receiving their information and mental stimulus through 
 other channels. The reformers spoke through the press and thus increased greatly 
 their sphere of influence. The change that some thought indicated degeneracy was, 
 in faot, a kind of evidence that the public demanded something even better than 
 the spoken word,- the written word that could be preserved and reviewed. 
 
 As a part, and an increasingly popular part, of the modern lyceum and 
 lecture movement is the Chautauqua. This was begun as a campmeet ing at Chautauqua 
 iiew York, in 1&71. In 1&74 the character of the meetings was modified and it 
 became a Sunday Sohool Assembly. This was done through the efforts of John H. , 
 later Bishop, Vincent, and Lewis filler, an Ohio manufacturer. In the beginning 
 
 1. French Strother, Worldb Work, Vol.24-, p«551> 1912. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 •• 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
58 
 
 it was a movement of the Methodist Episcopal Church . In lff7£, the Chautauqua 
 Heading Cirole was begun, and in 1 885 nearly one hundred thousand were enrolled 
 as students in this reading oircle. Thus, the Chautauqua, begun as a religious 
 movement, has become a large part of the general lecture movement for moral, 
 oultural, and intellectual ends. Like the later lyoeuiu programs, there has been a 
 tendency to froth in the Chautauqua movement, but many attempts are made to 
 eliminate this element for the worthier numbers and talent. 
 
 One of the latest statements relative to the extent of the Chautauqua 
 and lyceurn movement is to the effect that there are between ten and fifteen 
 thousand lyceurn courses and almost nine thousand Chautauquas in the United States; 
 that approximately fifteen million people attended the lyceurn numbers in one year, 
 and that the total number in Chautauqua audiences in 1920 was about thirty-five 
 million; that there were $10,000,000 in receipts from lyceurn courses, and 
 $20,000,000 from the Chautauquas in one year; that about thirty per cent of the 
 "numbers" given were leotures, and that on the Chautauqua platform the aggregate 
 number of lectures was 46.36S for 1920. 1 
 
 Dr. Paul M. Pearson, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, says of the Chautauqua: 
 "Its program is patriotic but non-partisan, its teachings are always clearly moral 
 but never sectarian. Without 'regard to class, oreed, party or social stratifica- 
 tion, its gospel is always of genuine uplift and broadening vision." Roosevelt 
 remarked: "I know of nothing in the whole country which is so filled with blessing 
 for the nation. There is probably no other educational influence in the country 
 quite so fraught with hope as the Chautauqua and the movement of which it is the 
 arohtype ." 
 
 1. W.R.Balch, Boston Transoript , Jan. 29, 1921 
 

 
 
 IU y ' 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 • * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
59 
 
 
 Lecturers 1 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis 
 
 Greeley, Horace 
 
 Adler, Dr. Felix 
 
 Hale, Edward Everett 
 
 Agassiz, Louis 
 
 Higginson, Col. T. W. 
 
 Aloott, A. a. 
 
 Holmes, O.W. 
 
 Anthony, Susan B. 
 
 Howe, Julia Ward 
 
 Arnold, Matthew 
 
 Ingersoll, Rob't G. 
 
 Banks, Gen. Nathaniel 
 
 James, Henry 
 
 Beeoher, Henry Ward 
 
 Kennan, George 
 
 Blaine, James G. 
 
 King, Star 
 
 Billings, Josh. 
 
 Livermore, Mary A. 
 
 Burdette, Bob. 
 
 Lowell, JamesRussell 
 
 Butler, Ben. 
 
 McCace, Chaplain 
 
 Cable, Geo.W. 
 
 McCarthy, Justin 
 
 Collyer, Robert 
 
 Nasby, Petroleum V. 
 
 Colfax, Sohuyler 
 
 Nast, Thomas 
 
 Cook, Joseph 
 
 Nye, Bill 
 
 Curtis, Geo.Wm. 
 
 O'Reilley, John Boyle 
 
 Cushman, Charlotte 
 
 Parsons, Hon. Wm. 
 
 Dana, R.H. 
 
 Peary, Rob't E. 
 
 Dickenson, Anna 
 
 Phillips, Wendell 
 
 Douglass, Frederick 
 
 Pickering, Prof. 
 
 Eggleston, Edward 
 
 Potter, Helen 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 
 
 Riley, James Whitcomb 
 
 Garrison, Wm. Lloyd 
 
 Sohurz, Carl 
 
 Gough, John B. 
 
 Stanley, Henry M. 
 
 l.The lecturers in this list belong almost wholly to the later lyceum and 
 Chautauqua period, beginning about 1SM-0. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 
 Stoddard, John L. 
 Sumner, Charles 
 Talmadge, T. DeWitt 
 Taylor, Bayard 
 Thoreau, Henry D. 
 Tilton, Theo. 
 
 Trourgee, Albion W. 
 Trowbridge, T.J. 
 
 Twain, Mark 
 Wallaoe, Lew 
 Watterson, Henry 
 Whipple, E .P. 
 
 Young, Ann Eliza 
 
/ 
 
 
61 
 
 Appendix II 
 
 List of Lyoeums 1 
 Amerioan or National 
 Ashby, Massachusetts 
 Baltimore, Maryland 
 Beriah Saored Lyceum, New York City 
 Boston, Massachusetts 
 Boston Mechanics Lyoeum 
 Brooklyn, Connecticut 
 Bucks County Pennsylvania 
 Bucks County Teachers' Lyoeum, Pennsylvania 
 Buffalo, New York 
 Cincinnati, Ohio 
 
 Clerical Lyceum, New England Methodist Conference 
 
 Concord, Massachusetts 
 
 Connecticut State 
 
 Darby, Connecticut 
 
 Detroit, Michigan 
 
 Dover, New Hampshire 
 
 East Baltimore, Maryland 
 
 Exohange Lyceum, New York City 
 
 Gardiner, Maine 
 
 Geneva, New York 
 
 1 • list includes only those considered in this study. Mi*. Holbrook reported 
 at IVestohester , Pa., on August 18 , 1 835 , that there were in the United States 
 "A National Lyceum, fifteen or sixteen state lyoeums, over one hundred county 
 lyceums, and about three thousand village lyoeums." Only the location of the 
 lyoeums is given, except in a few instances the character is indicated. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
German Lyoeums in following oounties in Pennsylvania: Berks, 
 Buoks, Cumberland, Lancaster, Montgomery. 
 
 Hartford, Connecticut 
 Illinois State 
 Jacksonville, Illinois 
 Jacksonville, Indiana 
 Juvenile Lyoeum, New Brunswiok 
 Juvenile Lyoeum, New York City 
 
 Lyoeum League of America. Organized under auspices of the 
 Youths Companion 
 Lyceum of Teachers, Philadelphia 
 Lyceum Village of Berea, Ohio 
 Louisville, Kentucky 
 Massachusetts State 
 Marietta, Ohio 
 
 Middlesex County, Massachusetts 
 Millbury, Massachusetts 
 Montpelier, Vermont 
 Newark, New Jersey 
 
 Newarks Mechanic Association and Lyceum 
 
 New Bedford, Massachusetts 
 
 New Haven, Connecticut 
 
 New Jersey State 
 
 Newton, Massachusetts 
 
 New York State 
 
 North Adams, Massachusetts 
 
 Northern Lyoeum of Philadelphia 
 

 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
63 
 
 Ontario County, New York 
 Pennsylvania State 
 Perth Amboy, New Jersey 
 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
 Plymouth, Massachusetts 
 Rochester, New York 
 Rutland County, Vermont 
 Salem, Massachusetts 
 St • Johnsbury, Vermont 
 Tennessee State 
 United States Naval 
 Utica, New York 
 Walpole, Massachusetts 
 Waltham, Massachusetts 
 Washington, D.C. 
 
 Williamstown, Massachusetts 
 Windham County, Connecticut 
 Worcester, Massachusetts 
 Worcester County, Massachusetts 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
64 
 
 Men who were prominent in the Lyceum Movement, 1&26-1&40. 
 Forty-four names in the list appear in Lippincott’s Pronouncing Biographical 
 Dictionary. Others are known to have been very prominent in education. 
 
 Alcott, Dr. A.B. 
 
 Lowell, Charles 
 
 Ashmun, J.H. 
 
 Ma loom, Howard 
 
 Baboook, Rufus 
 
 Mann, Horaoe 
 
 Bailey, E. 
 
 Merrill, J.c. 
 
 Barnard, Henry 
 
 Real, John 
 
 Bartlett, Dr. Josiah 
 
 Olmstead, Prof .Denison 
 
 Bigelow, J.P. 
 
 Peabody, Francis 
 
 Bowdoin, J. 
 
 Peers, Rev.B.O. * 
 
 Bradley, Rev. 
 
 Phillips, Stephen C. 
 
 Brooks, Charles 
 
 Pond, Enoch 
 
 Carter, J.G. 
 
 Proudfit, Alexander 
 
 Channing, Dr. Wm. E. 
 
 Rand, Rev. Asa 
 
 Chapin, Rev. A.B. 
 
 Rensselaer, Hon. Stephen von 
 
 Choate, Rufus 
 
 Ridgeley, Rev.G.W. 
 
 Cleveland, Nehemiah 
 
 Russell, Wm. 
 
 Colburn, Warren 
 
 Sargent, Nathan 
 
 Davis, Seth 
 
 Schoolcraft, Henry R. 
 
 Day, Pres. Jereiuiah 
 
 Sharfc, Daniel 
 
 Dewey, Prof. Chester 
 
 Shattuck, Lemuel S. 
 
 Duer, Wm. A. 
 
 Shaw, Oliver A. 
 
 Dwight, Theodore 
 
 Snelling, G.H. 
 
 Emerson, G.B. 
 
 Sumner, Charles 
 
 Emerson, R.W. 
 
 Totten, Pres. 
 
 Everett, A.H. 
 
 tJpham, Rev. C.W. 
 
 Everett, Edward 
 
 Vaux, Robert 
 
 Farrar, John 
 
 Walker, Rev. James 
 
 Fay, Warren 
 
 Ward, Malthus A. 
 
 Felton, Cornelius C. 
 
 Ware, Henry 
 
 Field, Rev. Dr. 
 
 Washburn, Emory 
 
 Finley, Wm. P. 
 
 Way land. Prof. Francis 
 
 Flint, Rev. Timothy 
 
 Webb, Jonathan 
 
 Foote, Caleb 
 
 Weob, Stephen P. 
 
 Forrest, Wm. 
 
 Webster, Daniel 
 
 Frelinghuysen, Theodore 
 
 Weeks, Rev. Dr. 
 
 Frost, H.R. 
 
 White, Hon. Daniel A. 
 
 Dallaudet, R0v. T.H. 
 
 Wilder, Jonas 
 
 Green, Samuel 
 
 Williams, Judge Charles K. 
 
 Grirnke, Thos.S. 
 
 Wisner, B.B. 
 
 Grisoom, John 
 
 Woodbridge, Wm.C. 
 
 Holbrook, Josiah 
 
 Woods , Alva 
 
 Howe, Samuel M. 
 
 Yates, Gov. N.Y. 
 
 Jackson, Wm. 
 
 
 Jenks, Wm. 
 
 
 Johnson, Gen. 
 
 
 Lincoln, Levi, Gov. Mass. 
 
 
 Linds ley, Philip 
 
 
 Lovering, W. 
 
 
/ 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 • • 
 
 
 
 
65 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Adams, Herbert B., Report of Commissioner of Education, 1699-1900, Vol. 1. 
 
 Amerioan Institute of Instruction, Proceedings, Boston, 1631-1906. 
 
 American Journal of Education, Boston, 1626-1630. (Fifty-four items) 
 
 Amerioan Lyceum, Tbe, Proceedings, Boston, 16J1-1633. 
 
 Annals of Education, Boston, 1630-1639. (Seventy-nine items) 
 
 Balob, W. R., Boston Transcript, January, 1921. 
 
 Barnard's Amerioan Journal of Education, Hartford, I656-I662. 
 
 Bunker, F.F., Organization of the Public Sohool System, Bureau of Education, 
 Bulletin, 1916, No. 6. 
 
 Carter, J.G., Old South Leaflets, Vol. 6, Mo. 135. 
 
 Common School Journal, Boston, 1639-1646. 
 
 Conneotiout Common Sohool Journal, Hartford, 1636- 1642. 
 
 Curtis, Anna L*, Who's Who in the Lyoeum, 1906. 
 
 Frank, Glenn, The Century Magazine, Vol. 96. 
 
 Garnett, Riohard, Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson, New York, 1666. 
 
 Higgj.nson, T.W., Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 95. 
 
 Hinsdale, B.A., Horaoe Mann and the Common Sohool Revival in the United States, 
 New York, I696. 
 
 Hollis, A.P., The Oswego Movement, Boston, I696. 
 lies, George, The World's Work, Vol. 5. 
 
 Luther, Lee, The Dial, Vol. 25. 
 
 Nation, The, Editorial, Vol. 6. 
 
 Pearson, Paul M. ,Lippinoott ’ s Magazine, Vol. 76. 
 
 Pond, James B. , Cosmopolitan, Vols.20 and 21. 
 
 Pond, James B., Modern Eloquence, Vol. 6, Philadelphia, 1900. 
 
 Powell, E.P.,The New England Magazine, New Series, 11. 
 
 quarterly Register, Boston, 1627-1642. 
 
 Strother ,FITenoh, The World's Work, Vol. 24.