FROEBEL, Friedrich (1782-1852), BRADLEY, Milton (1836-1911), HAILMANN, William Nicholas (1836-1920), KRAUS-BOELTÉ, Maria (1836-1918), KRAUS, John (d. 1896), WIEBÉ, Edward (d. 1885)

Froebel's Kindergarten "Gifts" Art Albums Collection, Including 28 Albums of Paper Beauty Forms, 1 Manuscript Lesson Book, 1 Milton Bradley Art Supply Catalog, 3 Books of Froebelian Educational Theory, and Froebel's Autobiography

United States; Guelph and London, Ontario; Brighton, England; Germany: c. 1860-1920. 34 volumes. (7 x 7 inches to 10 2/3 x 13 inches).

Extraordinary collection of 28 art albums from Froebel's beautiful Kindergarten "gifts," with over 1,230 beauty forms, or examples of vernacular artwork. These visual exercises developed for children left an indelible mark on the luminaries of twentieth-century art and architecture. The albums come with a manuscript book of Froebelian lesson plans, a Milton Bradley catalog selling a line of Froebel products, and three contemporary books of Kindergarten educational theory.

"Come let us live with our children." - Friedrich Froebel In the 1830s, German pedagogue Friedrich Froebel developed an educational system for young children based on the use of twenty "gifts," a sequence of simple educational toys using blocks, sticks, tiles, paper, sewing kits, dried peas, and other craft supplies. Using these gifts, the students would "create pictures or structures that fit into three fundamental categories - forms of nature (or life), forms of knowledge (or science), and forms of beauty (or art)." [Brosterman] The visual albums in this collection are full of the beauty forms created by these students out of Froebel's gifts. By the 1850s, the system was in widespread use in Europe. "Kindergarten," as Froebel called the system, caught on in the United States starting in 1860, with the first English-speaking Kindergarten then opening in Boston, though a German-speaking Kindergarten opened as early as 1836 in Columbus, Ohio. Lithographer and toy manufacturer Milton Bradley "developed an early interest in educational theory and in 1869 published the first American book on Kindergartens: Wiebe's The Paradise of Childhood and throughout the years Bradley's company produced a large amount of educational material for Kindergartens and primary schools, including books, magazines, demonstration equipment, and art supplies." [Last] Bradley began issuing comprehensive catalogs of such materials, one of which is in the present collection. After Bradley exhibited the educational system at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia, other commercial agents began marketing materials for making Froebel's Kindergarten gifts, including pre-cut strips and "mats" of glazed paper, known today as color-aid, as well as blank concertina-fold brown cloth albums for mounting and displaying a pupil's finished works. In Froebel's pedagogy, a student progressed through a series of twenty "gifts" or "occupations," with each step of the progression becoming more complex. The gifts in order comprised: 1. Variously colored soft balls. 2. A wooden sphere, cylinder, and cube. 3-6. Wooden blocks, starting with a cube composed of eight smaller cubes and proceeding to more complex structures, ending with a three-inch cube divided into thirty-six different rectangles. 7. Parquetry, i.e. quadrangular and triangular tiles of colored paper or wood. 8. Stick laying. 9. Ring laying. 10. Drawing. 11. Paper pricking. 12. Paper sewing. 13. Paper cutting. 14. Paper weaving. 15. Slats. 16. Jointed slats. 17. Interlacing. 18. Folding. 19. Peas-work. 20. Modeling clay. The present collection of 28 visual albums, 1 manuscript lesson book, 3 books of educational theory, Froebel's autobiography, and a Milton Bradley trade catalog includes examples of Froebel's paper-related occupations: pricking, sewing, cutting, weaving, folding, and interlacing. These gifts, with the exception of paper pricking, especially emphasize color: "Although Froebel deemed color so important for infant development that he included it as a feature in the first gift, it was in the paper occupations where color in the kindergarten really exploded." [Brosterman] Gifts taught children counting, progression, method, composition, planning, and creativity; they also developed fine-motor skills, dexterity, and concentration. The present collection principally consists of albums likely created by teachers as examples for their students and for other teachers, though student work is also represented here, providing a full picture of the pedagogical practice. Indeed, 12 of the albums, those of Edith M. Garretson carry grades from B- to A. Some of the albums are dedicated to specific gifts, while others consist of a mix of multiple occupations. Brosterman convincingly argues that Froebel's gifts, and particularly their colorful geometric abstraction, would have a remarkable influence on twentieth-century modern art, especially that of Josef Albers, Braque, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, Klee, Mondrian, Le Corbusier, and Victor Vasarely. Once viewed, it's difficult to imagine Op Art, hard-edge abstraction, or the canvases of Agnes Martin without Froebel's gifts. Froebel's Kindergarten, Brosterman writes, "was the seed pearl of the modern era." For instance, Gropius, who founded the Bauhaus school, designed a building in Froebel's honor, Friedrich Froebel Haus in Bad Liebenstein, Germany. Gropius taught Albers at the Bauhaus, and both then moved to the US to teach at Black Mountain College where the student body would blossom into a who's who of American art. Albers then left to head the program at the Yale School of Art and developed an art school curriculum that has been copied throughout the United States for generations. Froebel's color and design exercises formed the backbone of Albers's program, and that is particularly obvious in the painting practices of both Josef and Anni Albers. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) in his Testament (1957) discusses the influence of Froebel's Kindergarten. He writes lyrically of Froebel's "smooth cardboard triangles and maple-wood blocks," noting that "all are in my fingers to this day, also German papers, glazed and matte, beautiful soft color qualities, were another one of the 'gifts,' cut into sheets. These squares were slitted to be woven into gay colorful checkerings as fancy might dictate. Thus color sense awakened. The virtue of all this lay in the awakening of the child-mind to the rhythmic structure in Nature - giving the child a sense of innate cause-and-effect otherwise far beyond child-comprehension. I soon became susceptible to constructive pattern evolving in everything I saw. I learned to 'see' this way and when I did, I did not care to draw casual incidentals to Nature. I wanted to design." This unparalleled Froebel collection comprises:

a. BAKER, G. Victoria. Weaving. London, Ontario, c. late-1800s. (7 x 7 inches). Gift 14. Black half-leather over blue boards with dye-stamped gilt lettering on front, concertina-fold format, floral front pastedown with binder's ticket of H. P. Bock of London, Ontario. 80 color-aid paper-weaving beauty forms mounted on card with penciled and ink attributions of the "invention" of several of the designs.

b. BAKER, G. Victoria. Folding. London, Ontario, c. late-1800s. (9 x 9 inches). Gift 18. Black half-leather over blue boards with dye-stamped gilt lettering on front, concertina-fold format detached from covers, floral front pastedown with binder's ticket of H. P. Bock of London, Ontario. 49 groupings of folded colored paper designs mounted on cards with blue guards. 4 tree leaves also pasted in. Pieces of colored paper and a sheet with penciled folding instructions laid in. Some paper forms with ink manuscript attributions.

c. BAKER, G. Victoria. Cutting. London, Ontario, c. late-1800s. (9 x 9 inches). Gift 13. Black half-leather over blue boards with dye-stamped gilt lettering on front, concertina-fold format detached from covers, floral front pastedown with binder's ticket of H. P. Bock of London, Ontario. 67 cut colored-paper designs mounted on cards with blue guards. One card creased. Several cuttings accompanied by penciled drawings.

d. BAKER, G. Victora. Sewing. London, Ontario, c. late-1800s. (8 x 9 inches). Gift 12. Blue boards with gilt dye-stamped lettering on front, stab-stitched with blue string, with yellow floral endpapers and binder's ticker of H. P. Bock of London, Ontario. 20 sewn designs of various colors taped onto cards with blue guards on recto only.

e. BOND, Edith R. Paper Folding. c. late-1800s. (9 x 11 inches). Gift 18. Blind paneled black cloth boards with dye-stamped gilt-titling on front, with black ribbon ties, in concertina-fold format. 17 cards, each with 6 to 12 folding colored-paper designs in pink and blue. Paper with ink signature of "Edith R. Bond" tipped-in.

f. BRADLEY, Milton. Bradley's Kindergarten Material. Springfield, MA: Milton Bradley Co., 1888. (9 x 6 inches). 50 pp. Stab-stitched pamphlet with printed wrappers. Detailed comprehensive text with woodcut illustrations arranged by gift with a bust of Froebel on back wrapper and a list of early books on Kindergarten. Shows embroidery cards which are found completed elsewhere in the collection.

g. BROWN, M. Kindergarten Work. c. late-1800s. (9 x 11 inches). Gifts 12, 13, 14. Pebble-grained black boards with gilt embossed title on cover and remnant of ribbon enclosure in a concertina-fold form. 43 groupings of 85 design figures including paper weaving, paper sewing, and paper cutting, as well as 4 watercolors, with paper samples laid in.

h. EVANS, Irma. Kindergarten Work. 1891-1892. (9 x 6.5 inches). Gifts 12, 13, 14. Brown quarter cloth over red stone-pattern marbled boards, stab-stitched with brass fasteners, with ink manuscript paper label on front board. 52 beauty forms including paper sewing, weaving, and cutting, many signed in pencil and glued to recto only. With Milton Bradley logo on one of the pieces of sewing.

i. FRANCIS. [Booklet of Frobelian Gifts.] c. late-1800s (8 ½ x 7 inches). Gifts 12, 14. 40 pp. Saddle-stitched booklet with tan paper wrappers. 21 Froebel figures, including a sewn cat and duck, with color-aid paper-weaving and sewing samples glued down. Two loose beauty forms laid in at rear. "Francis" written in pencil on front wrapper.

GARRETSON, Edith M. Brooklyn, NY, 1915. All 12 volumes are 8 ½ x 11 inches on stab-stitched tan construction paper with black ink manuscript titles on front wrappers. Produced by a student at Pratt Institute's School of Kindergarten Training, at the time headed by Alice E. Fitts.

j. "Circular Cutting." Gift 13. 22 pp. 11 beauty forms of circular collages and cuttings composed of color-aid paper tipped-in on rectos.

k. "Circular Folding." Gift 18. 22 pp. 22 pieces of folded blue paper glued to rectos of leaves in pairs.

l. "Color Book." Gift 13. 66 pp. 34 beauty forms of chromatic scales composed of cut color-aid paper tipped-in on rectos with penciled captions and hand foliation on versos.

m. "Free Cutting." Gift 13. 20 pp. 15 beauty forms of cut black paper.

n. "Free Tearing." Gift 13. 20 pp. 19 beauty forms of black torn paper designs adhered to rectos of leaves.

o. "Froebel Cutting." Gift 13. 24 pp. 12 beauty forms of cut navy color-aid paper with ink manuscript diagrams and descriptions in top right-hand corners of leaves.

p. "Froebel Drawing." Gift 10. 50 pp. 25 pencil drawings overtop blue grids. Typescript titled "Froebel Drawing (Rules)" numbered 1-8 and bound-in on translucent copy paper. Hand foliated on verso of each leaf. Captions on two leaves. Two inch tear in front cover.

q. "Interlacing." Gift 15. 16 pp. 8 beauty forms composed of popsicle sticks arranged in patterns and adhered to blue pieces of paper mounted on leaves.

r. "Intertwining." Gift 17. 18 pp. 18 beauty forms intertwined blue paper shapes tipped-in.

s. "Pricking." Gift 11. 46 pp. 33 beauty forms of pricked white paper, often with two to a leaf.

t. "Sewing." Gift 12. 50 pp. 45 beauty forms of variously colored thread sewn on paper cards tipped-in to rectos.

u. "Square Folding." Gift 18. 92 pp. 105 pieces of blue folded paper tipped-in on rectos of leaves with some ink captions, often in groupings.

v. G. R. N. Cutting. '94. s.l., March, 1894. (8 x 10 inches). Gift 13. Concertina-fold format with blue boards, silver ink manuscript title on front board. 66 examples of paper cutting, often with both negative and positive silhouettes mounted on blue card.

w. G. R. N. Sewing. '94. s.l., 1894. (8 x 10 inches). Gift 12. Concertina-fold format with blue boards, back board is detached and has "Sewing. '94" written in silver ink on it. Contains 30 groupings of 77 individual beauty form designs, these embroideries are especially exquisite in pink and green on one side of the concertina, and brown and gold on the other. With nine cards of pricked paper as well.

x. G. R. N. Weaving. s.l. c. 1894. (7 x 9 inches). Gift 14. Concertina-fold format with blue boards, manuscript silver ink on front board, hand numbered in pencil. 54 wove color-aid designs in blue, green, and purple.

y. KOLLISCH, Charlotte. Flechtschule. [Weaving School]. Germany, c. 1890. (6 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches). Gift 14. 64 pp. Oblong red cloth boards dye-stamped gilt with title and name on front board, blue endpapers. 59 color-aid paper-weaving examples mounted on rectos, with contemporary ink notations. Including 50 two-color designs, 7 three-color designs, and 2 four-color designs, employing 9 total colors.

z. MCKINNON, Edith. Cutting. c. late-1800s. (9 ½ x 9 ½ inches). Gifts 13, 15. Gilt-paneled black cloth boards with frayed hinges gilt dye-stamped title on front in concertina-fold format. "Edith McKinnon, Guelph" written in ink on inside front board. 73 cut-paper designs, 3 with toothpicks, all glued to card.

aa. POOLE, Kate. Scrapbook. Brighton, England. c. late-1800s. (10 x 13 inches). Gifts 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18. Pebbled black cloth boards paneled gilt with dye-stamped gilt title on front, binder's ticket of Carter Brothers in Brighton on front pastedown. Front board and spine covering detaching. 25 mounted groupings included 113 figures encompassing paper folding, plaiting, systematic drawing, paper-sewing, paper pricking, and paper cutting, with tipped-in manuscript instructions, captions, and stickers. Penciled note and folded figure laid in.

bb. S.N. Paper Folding. c. late-1800s. (9 x 11 inches). Gift 18. Blind-paneled black pebble-grain cloth with dye-stamped gilt-titling on front in concertina-fold format with a black ribbon tie. 28 groupings of folded blue paper, each with 2 to 5 pieces glued to card with brown guards.

cc. S.N. Weaving. c. late-1800s. (8 x 10 inches). Gift 14. Blind-paneled black cloth with gold dye-stamped title on front and ribbon tie enclosure, set within a clamshell box with title on spine. 57 color-aid weaving designs of various colors mounted on cards.

dd. STRANG, Mildred E. Paper Folding. Yorktown, NY, c. late-1800s. (9 x 8 inches). Gift 18. 24 pp. Sewn green paper wrappers. The entirety of this book, including its decorative cover, is in Strang's ink manuscript. Sections: Index, Preliminary Folds, Envelope Series, Tent Series, Checkerboard Series, Tablecloth Series, Odd Form Series. Each section heading is complemented with "Conversational Suggestions" for pupils, and "Method," which provides detailed instructions on how to execute each lesson plan. The series headings are also accompanied by tipped-in envelopes, six in total, containing finished examples of each Froebel exercise in the unit. Strang, a teacher, wrote this detailed lesson plan; now it provides invaluable insight into how Froebel's art activities actually occurred in practice.

ee. HAILMANN, William Nicholas. Kindergarten Culture in the Family and Kindergarten: A Complete Sketch of Froebel's System of Early Education, Adapted to American Institutions. For the Use of Mothers and Teachers. Cincinnati and New York: Van Antwerp, Bragg and Co., 1873. First edition. [i]-xi [12]-119 [1] Plates I-XII. 144 pp. (7 1/3 x 4 3/4 inches). Elementary educator William Nicholas Hailmann (1836-1920) and his wife Eudora Lucas Hailmann (1835-1904) were some of the first promoters of the philosophy of Froebel in the United States. Together, they developed a nationally acclaimed curriculum for both children and teachers, established two of the first Normal schools in the country, and published Education (1876-1893), the primary periodical for Kindergarten educators across the United States. They also established the Froebel Institute, which later became the Kindergarten Department of the National Educational Association in 1884.

ff. WIEBÉ, Edward. The Paradise of Childhood: A Manual for Self-Instruction in Friedrich Froebel's Educational Principles, and a Practical Guide to Kinder-Gartners. Revised Edition, Containing the Text of "A Hand-Book for the Kindergarten." Springfield, Mass: Milton Bradley Company, 1887. Revised, rarer, and best edition due to the inclusion of the Hand-Book. [i]-iv [5]-83 [1]-16 Plates I-LXXIV. 136 pp. (10 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches).

gg. KRAUS-BOELTÉ, Maria and KRAUS, John. The Kindergarten Guide. An Illustrated Hand-Book, Designed for the Self-Instruction of Kindergartners, Mothers, and Nurses. First Volume: The Gifts. New York: E. Steiger and Co.; London: A. N. Myers and Co., February 22, 1877. First edition. [i]-v [1] [1]-453 [1]. 460 pp. Publisher's half-gray cloth over marbled paper-covered boards, gilt-titling on spine, marbled edges. Thorough explanatory text with step-by-step instructions for Gifts 1-13, with thousands of woodcut illustrations.

hh. FROEBEL, Friedrich. Translated and annotated by Emilie Michaelis and H. Keatley Moore. Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel. Syracuse, NY: C. W. Bardeen, Publisher, 1889. First edition thus. [i]-xv [1] [1]-167 [1]. 184 pp. Beveled purple pebble-grained boards with gilt-stamped title on spine, on wove. Half-title, title, ad, preface, comments, table of contents, introduction, Autobiography of Froebel, critical moments, chronological abstract, bibliography, index.

Brosterman, Inventing Kindergarten, passim. Bruce et al, The Bloomsbury Handbook to Friedrich Froebel, passim. Bruce, Early Childhood Practice: Froebel Today, passim. Hewes, W. N. Hailmann: Defender of Froebel, p. 103, 107. Kindergarten Review, Vol. 14 (1903), pp. 52-56. Last, The Color Explosion, pp. 40-44. Lilley, Friedrich Froebel: A Selection from His Writings, passim. MoMA, Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000, 2012. Peabody, Kindergarten Culture, p. 7. Rubin, Intimate Triangle: Architecture of Crystals, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Froebel Kindergarten, passim. Wiebé, The Paradise of Childhood, passim. Weston, Friedrich Froebel: His Life, Times, and Significance, passim. Wright, A Testament, p. 20.

Item #33770

Price: $42,500.00