[ Froebel, Friedrich, gifts]. [ Dudley, Bertha F[rances], artist.]

Weaving. O.K.T.S. [Cover title.]

[Portland, OR: Oregon Kindergarten Training School, 1892.]. Friedrich Froebel (1782 - 1852), early childhood education pioneer who developed the concept of the kindergarten, created his Gifts between about 1830 and 1850. These twenty activities, which varied in complexity and included artistic methods like embroidery, paper-folding (similar to origami), and parquetry (similar to tangrams), were intended for young children to preteens. Many of the Gifts could be fashioned through materials available at home, but publishers like the Milton Bradley Company also distributed the materials for the Gifts in kits for parents and teachers. In large part due to the popularity of Milton Bradley’s Froebelian materials, “The Forms selected by Froebel and his followers in the 1850s and 1860s thus became a kind of international standard for use in schools of all countries,” (Brosterman). Through the Gifts, educators were able to use the concept of “learning through play” to teach students abstract reasoning, problem-solving, artistry, and many more skills that would prepare them for a life of creativity and independent thinking. With seventeen beautifully executed paper-weaving samples, including a woven-paper title-page. Some toning to front pastedown and first leaf. A very good, unusually clean and attractive example of unique a Froebel Gift sample album. Accordion-fold leaves in brown cloth album with fore-edge ties. Titled in gilt. Some edgewear. Floral pastedowns. 6 z 6." Item #17744

Froebel Gifts twelve (sewing/embroidery), thirteen (paper-cutting), and fourteen (paper-weaving) represent an increase in difficulty as well as an increase in the aesthetic value of the finished products. Froebel valued beauty and artistry in learning, and the later Gifts encourage students to pay greater attention to color, design, and craft. These more advanced gifts, as well as gift eighteen (paper-folding) have been particularly influential to figures like Frank Lloyd Wright and Kandinsky, as well as book artists like Barbara Hodgson and Claudia Cohen.

Bertha Frances Dudley, later Habersham (1867 – 1937) was a kindergarten educator trained at the Oregon Kindergarten Training School in Portland (OKTS). Dudley trained under Caroline Dunlop at the OKTS, which was sponsored by the author and kindergarten pioneer Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856 – 1923). By 1893, Dudley was a principal in the Oregon school system. See Brosterman, Norman. Inventing Kindergarten, p. 99.

Price: $1,100.00