Holbrook, Josiah B. (1788-1854)

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Josiah B. Holbrook (1788-1854)

Founder of the american lyceum movement

Amateur Scientist. From an early age Josiah Holbrook of Darby, Connecticut, who graduated from Yale College in 1810, mixed interests in business, science, and educational reform. A well-to-do farmer turned amateur scientist, Holbrook dreamed of sharing scientific knowledge with citizens throughout the nation. After listening to the science lectures of Benjamin Silliman, the eminent professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Yale, Holbrook returned to Darby to spread his interest in science to others and traveled throughout the state as an itinerant lecturer on scientific subjects. In 1819 he organized one of the nation’s earliest industrial schools in his hometown. He continually experimented with other schools that combined manual training, agricultural education, and formal academic instruction. By the 1820s he had acquired a reputation as one of the leading voices of the new sciences and an advocate of educational reform.

American Lyceum. In October 1826 Holbrook wrote an article titled “Association of Adults for Mutual Education” for the American Journal of Education, in which he proposed a federation of adult educational organizations, called lyceums (from the Greek name for the garden at Athens where Aristotle taught), on town, county, state, and national levels. He explained the lyceum as a way to increase educational opportunities and to promote “the advancement of education” including “the general diffusion of knowledge.” Such an organization would be “a voluntary association of individuals [men and women] disposed to improve each other in useful knowledge and to advance the interests of the schools.” One month after his influential article Holbrook founded the first American lyceum at Millbury, Massachusetts. The movement spread rapidly, particularly throughout New England, the Middle Atlantic states, and the growing Midwest. By 1828 there were well over one hundred town lyceums. By 1831 the movement had become so popular that supporters organized a National Lyceum and created a constitution. Holbrook estimated in 1835 that there existed fifteen or sixteen state lyceums, over one hundred county lyceums, and about three thousand town lyceums. The American lyceums not only disseminated “useful knowledge” through lectures but also, reported Holbrook, many local lyceums organized libraries, museums, and science exhibitions. Some groups compiled town histories and town maps, and others conducted agricultural and geological surveys. The topics of discussion at town lyceums also covered a range of issues that went beyond science and agricultural techniques and embraced nearly every issue or interest of the day. Holbrook and other local leaders initially discouraged only the controversial issues of war and slavery.

School Reform Ally. Part of Holbrook’s plan for the American lyceum was to popularize interest in public school reform. Holbrook and other lyceum leaders invited prominent reformers such as Henry Barnard and Horace Mann to speak in favor of tax-supported public schools. Lyceums, however, did more than act as platforms for school reform advocates. As Holbrook reported, they often furnished teachers “with a room, apparatus, and other accommodations, for holding meetings, and conducting a course of exercises in relation to their schools.” In addition Holbrook encouraged older children to attend various lyceum sessions to fill in some of the many deficiencies of their local school curricula.

Legacy of Learning. Holbrook’s movement has been described as “educational evangelism,” with the part of the circuit-riding preacher played by the itinerant lecturer. Like the religious revivals of the era, however, the movement could not sustain itself indefinitely. It peaked in the mid 1830s with over thirty-five hundred local lyceums organized in the Northeastern states. Attendance at the national conventions decreased yearly until the final meeting in 1839. Yet on the local level the lyceums continued to thrive through the years of the Civil War. Holbrook’s American lyceum was the most important stimulus to popular education of its time and for over a decade was as powerful and influential as the public school system itself was soon to become. Through his efforts Holbrook and the lyceums did much to establish the regular public school. The American lyceum movement also served as the precursor to the Chautauqua movement organized in the later nineteenth century. Throughout the remainder of his life Holbrook remained dedicated to the cause of popular education. In 1849 he moved to Washington, D.C., where he promoted the lyceum system until his death. He died doing what he loved best: furthering the knowledge of science. In 1854 he drowned in Blackwater Creek near Lynchburg, Virginia, on an outing to collect specimens of minerals and plants indigenous to the area.