[Education]. [Labor]. Wilson, Richard R., compiler.

The Continuation School for Factory Apprentices. [Lesson Book].

Waterbury, Connecticut: Waterbury Mfg. Co., 1941. This is a workbook of a student training to be a machinist. The lessons focus on fractions, physics, and geometry, as well as the practical use of specific machines. Lower cover detached. Soiling to boards. Some soiling and toning to leaves and some creasing and chipping to edges, but overall quite clean. A unique, fragile item in very good condition. Contemporary green cloth punch-hole binder with shop sticker on front inner cover. 8 in. x 6 in. Approx. [500] ff. Cyanograph title-page, which is filled out with the name of student Richard R. Wilson. With typewritten, mimeographed, and manuscript equations, diagrams, tables, and lessons throughout. Also with several other cyanograph leaves with the same content. Item #17003

In 1917, the Smith-Hughes Act of authorized federal funding for vocational schools in the United States. These institutions, usually a replacement for traditional high school, were established to divert children from low-income families into labor roles, often in factories, while wealthier children went on to universities. The vocational education movement was prompted in large part by rapid industrialization resulting in a shortage of skilled labor in factories at the same time that more immigrant families were moving into cities and sending their children to public schools. In addition, just a year after the passing of the Smith-Hughes Act, Mississippi became last state to enact a compulsory education law, which caused an additional influx of students to public schools.

We could not locate any information on Richard R. Wilson, nor on Waterbury Manufacturing Company’s Continuation School. Hanford, Emily. The Troubled History of Vocational Education. American Public Media Reports (website). September 9, 2014.

Price: $500.00