This post written by Michelle Cadoree Bradley, a Science Reference Specialist in the Science, Technology and Business Division.
By the 1840s this teaching aid was being lauded as miracle of instruction. In a “Letter to a Primary School Teacher” published in the February 15,1844 issue of the The Common School Journal the author writes that the blackboard is “… a great discovery, almost equal to the art of printing and the steam engine (p58)”
Josiah F. Bumstead, in his introduction to his book “The Black Board in Primary School” (1841) states:
The inventor or introducer of the black-board system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not among the greatest benefactors of mankind; and so he will be regarded by all who know its merits, and are familiar with school-room trials.” (p71)
Although there are some references to the blackboard being used in some small classrooms before 1817, its popularization is widely traced to Frenchman Claudius (Claude) Crozet (1790-1864) who joined the faculty of the West Point Academy, serving as Assistant Professor of Engineering. In teaching geometry he wished to illustrate and have cadets illustrate and perform instructions before the class. His use of the “black-board” became a widely popular way of teaching mathematics and was soon introduced into many colleges and schools.
To read more about the early uses of the blackboard the following selections from the Library of Congress collection are available digitally.:
- Chalk Lessons ,or The Blackboard in the Sunday School (1841)
- Slate and Black Board Exercises W.A. Alcott (1843)
- The Black-board, Exercises and Illustrations on the Black-board by John Goldsbury (1847)
- Blackboard Reading Lessons (1903)
- Blackboard Sketching (1906)
- Blackboard Work in Reading (1913)
An introduction to early teaching technologies can be found in Charnel Anderson’s Technology in American Education 1650-1900.
For a great look at many early classroom interiors (and a lot of blackboards in the background) see the blog post “Absorbing details in the classroom,” by Barbara Orbach Natanson, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.