Sewing Course, A.
DELUXE EDITION
[Education] Woolman, Mary Schenck. A Sewing Course. Comprising Directions for making the Various
Stitches and Instructions in Methods of Teaching. New York & Buffalo: Frederik A. Fernald, 1908.
Large 8vo.; brown half calf, burgundy cloth, stamped in gilt; worn but expertly repaired.
The substantially rewritten and expanded fourth edition of Mary Schenck Woolman’s book, first published
in 1893. Includes over 100 text illustrations and diagrams, and 31 additional leaves tipped-in with over 50
mounted fabric samples showing cross-stitch, embroidery, finished stitches, patterns, and so forth.
This example of the uncommon interleaved edition supplied by the Domestic Art Department of the
Columbia Teachers College includes sets of models mounted on the bristol-board leaves. The deluxe
edition could be purchased for $ 19.25 at the time, as opposed to $ 3.50 for a standard copy with blank
bristol-board leaves (upon which the student’s practice pieces would be mounted), and they offered the
means to teach many students at once with direct examples. The lessons are illustrated with tipped-in
samples include cardboard sewing, cross stitch on canvas, weaving, mitering; running gathering and
basting; hemming and overhanding; determining garment bias; sewing aprons, and much more.
Woolman (1860-1926) was a specialist in home economics, taught Domestic Arts at the Teachers College
at Columbia University between 1902 and 1910, and was a member of the American Home Economics
Association.
She is best remembered for her role as the organiser and first director of the Manhattan Trade School for
Girls. This school was founded in 1902 by a group of philanthropists and reformers and was, for a long
time, the only vocational school for female students in New York City. At the time, numerous young girls
left school only to be forced into dead end jobs for poor wages. The founders had investigated the working
conditions for these young girls and found that they were being exploited by the garment trade for cheap
labor, while the supply of actual skilled labor was inadequate. “The immediate purpose of the school was
to train the youngest and poorest wage-earners to be self-supporting as quickly as possible” (Woolman,
The Making of a Trade School, Boston, 1910, p.3), and classes were offered covering a range of skills,
including cooking, sewing, garment-manufacturing machines, paste-and-paper design, women’s hat
millinery, and even physical education.
“A Sewing Course” was intended to be used within the trade school and the book offers a vivid specimen
of the education materials and instruction which were being developed for women in the late Victorian,
and Edwardian period to provide training for work in the fast expanding American tailoring and textile
operations.
Woolman strongly believed not just in educating the young girls, but also that the mental training through
hand and eye developed character: ‘The training of the hand makes it dexterous in other employments.
ll
Page
40
Habits of thrift, cleanliness, patience and accuracy are inculcated, economy taught and the inventive faculty
developed. Attention and the power of observation are increased by giving the lesson to an entire class at
one time instead of by the old method of showing each pupil separately’ (Preface).
A fascinating early promotional documentary for the Manhattan Trade School has survived and been
preserved by the National Film Preservation Foundation:http://www.filmpreservation.org/preservedfilms/
screening-room/manhattan-trade-school-for-girls-1911
(#4657589)
Print Inquire
