The Biographical Dictionary of America/Barnard, Henry

​BARNARD, Henry, educator, was born at Hartford, Conn., Jan. 24, 1811. He was educated at the district school, the academy, Munson, Mass., Hopkins grammar school, and at Yale college, where he was graduated in 1830 with the degree of A.M. During his last two years at Yale he acted as assistant librarian. On leaving college he began to study law, but accepting an invitation given by President Day of Yale, took charge of an academy at Wellsboro, Pa. He did not enjoy teaching, and in a few months returned to the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1835, and spent the a year 1836 in Europe, where he studied the educational, social and municipal systems, visited Pestalozzi's school at Yverdon, and made the acquaintance of Carlyle, Lord Brougham, De Quincey, Wordsworth, Chalmers, Lockhart, Combe, and other leading men. He returned to the United States late in 1836, and in 1837 was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, holding his seat until 1840. Mr. Barnard was an orator of great power, and his earnest and forcible speeches were influential in bringing about various reforms in the treatment of criminals and in the care of the insane. In 1838 he was successful in amending and obtaining the passage of a bill providing for the better local supervision of schools, which had been defeated in the senate the previous session. This bill provided for a state board of school commissioners; Mr. Barnard was made a member of the board and served as its secretary from 1838 to 1842. He also, during those years, made a tour of the United States, addressed ten state legislatures, and lectured and held conferences in every state but Texas, with the object of elevating public ​sentiment in regard to education. His work, "Educational Development in the United States," of which thirty thousand copies were sold, was the fruit of this tour. In 1843 Governor Fenner of Rhode Island appointed Mr. Barnard superintendent of schools in that state. In 1849 nervous exhaustion caused him to resign his position, and after a short period of rest he became, in 1850, superintendent of the Connecticut state schools, an office which he filled until 1854. Dr. Barnard's valuable labors in behalf of popular education met with appreciation in America and abroad. Dr. Wimmer, a German educator, described him as "the veritable reformer of popular education," and Professor Le Roy, of Liege university, wrote of him in 1855 as "that indefatigable apostle of progress and distinguished administrator." In 1855 he began the publication of the Journal of Education, and during the years 1856 and 1857 he was chiefly occupied with his work on that periodical. In 1858 he accepted the position of chancellor of the University of Wisconsin and agent of the normal regents. "His chief purpose in accepting the position," wrote James L. Hughes, "was to bring about a state unity of all educational forces, from the kindergarten to the university, and make the complete system free." He inaugurated the Teachers' institute in Wisconsin. In 1866 he was elected president of St. John's college, Annapolis (founded in 1784), which had been closed during the war, and while reorganizing the college he was appointed the first United States commissioner of education. In his first report, June, 1868, Dr. Barnard anticipated almost every measure of educational reform that was afterwards adopted in the United States. As commissioner of education he organized the bureau of education. Dr. Barnard established the first state system of libraries, and the credit is due to him for the inception of a national organization of teachers. He advocated throughout his life the equal education of the sexes. In 1852 he received the degree of LL.D. from Yale college, and in 1853 a like degree from Harvard college; Columbia college in 1887 conferred upon him the degree of L.H.D. Dr. Barnard's literary work was voluminous. He established The Connecticut School Journal, which he edited for eight years, and issued during the years 1843 to '49 the Rhode Island School Journal. Of the thirty-one volumes of the American Journal of Education issued under his supervision, the "Encyclopædia Brittanica" says, "The Journal is by far the most valuable work in our language on the history of education." He issued seven volumes of "Papers for Teachers," and over eight hundred educational tracts, in which he expended forty thousand dollars of his private means. A corporation was organized in July, 1891, for the purpose of publishing the Journal of Education and Dr. Barnard's many other writings. "The Henry Barnard Society" was also organized, membership to which entitles holders to special reduction in the price of his publications. Among his published books are: "School Architecture" (1839); "National Education" (1840); "Practical Illustrations of School Architecture"; "Report on Public Schools in Rhode Island" (1845 and 1848); "Documentary History of Public Schools in Providence"; "Education and Employment of Children in Factories"; "Normal Schools and Teachers' Institutes" (1850); "National Education in Europe" (1854); "Normal Schools in the United States and Europe"; "History of Education in Connecticut from 1638 to 1854"; "Educational Biography" (1857); "Papers for Teachers"; "Military Schools"; "Technical and Scientific Education"; "American Pedagogy"; "Discourses on the Life and Character of T.H. Gallaudet, with History of the American Asylum"; "Hints and Methods for the Use of Teachers"; "American Teachers"; "Elementary and Secondary Instruction in Switzerland, France, Belgium, etc."; "English Pedagogy"; "German Teachers and Educational Reformers"; "Life of Ezekiel Cheever, and Notes on the Free Schools of New England"; "Kindergarten and Child Culture Papers"; "Object Teaching and Oral Lessons on Social Science and Common Things " (1861); "Pestalozzi and Pestalozzianism" (1861); "Primary Schools and Elementary Instruction"; "School Codes"; "Science and Art"; "Superior Instruction in Different. Countries," and "The American Library of Schools and Education" (1886); a collection of 52 volumes, which contain eight hundred treatises, all of which are also published individually. His 83th birthday was celebrated in Hartford. Conn., Jan. 25, 1897, many well known educators being present at the exercises. He died at Hartford, Conn., July 5, 1900.