Free Lectures--New York 1900

Think lifelong learning is a new concept? Here's an article from the New York Times, October 20, 1900, Saturday Review of Books and Art, that might interest you. It's titled, FREE LECTURES., Courses in History, Literature, Art, and Science Under the Board of Education.

"The popularity of the free lectures to the people given under the auspices of the Department of Education of this city was long ago demonstrated. Begun as they were experimentally as long ago as 1888, when the lectures were given in only six places, they have been gradually extended until last year the lecture centres numbered fifty-one, and the attendance reached the enormous total of 533,084. There are many persons to whom knowledge comes by means of these free lectures who could not have it otherwise. They are "the other half," the common people, the workers, who toil early and late, and who could not study if they would, since they lack the needful books, the time, and the energy. And yet they are anxious to gain knowledge. They love art, and often appreciate it in its higher forms more than we suspect. The Social Settlement and the University Extension movements have been surprising in the revelations that have spring from them. The lecturer sows the seeds of knowledge so easily and by means of his lantern slides makes his subject so luminous that those in his audience learn almost in spite of themselves, and if they forget the words of the lecturer they do not forget the pictures thrown upon the screen. Lacking the school and the college, therefore, the lecture hall supplies the deficit, and a little learning, instead of being a dangerous thing, is found rather to be a stimulation to add to the small stock that has been gleaned with most beneficial results.

The present lecture season, which began on Oct. 1 is the thirteenth undertaken by the Department of Education of the School Board for the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. As a result of twelve years of experience the lectures given are arranged in two great classes, viz.; those which are elementary in their character, and whose purpose, generally speaking, is to give information in a pleasing way, and thus to form an antidote to the lurking snares and temptations of a great city. and those whose object is to follow a prearranged and definite line of study.

The themes generally considered last year having proved quite satisfactory in secured results will be continued this year. Travel, geography, history, literature, music, physics and electricity, natural science, and art appear in the bulletins just issued as lecture topics, preference being given to these subjects in the order of enumeration. Astronomy, first aid to the injured, education topics the human body, and New York City also appear less prominently and less numerously as lecture motifs.

Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, the supervisor of lectures, will make an effort this year to introduce scientific lectures, in which experiments and demonstrations with apparatus shall be made a feature. The use of the "Platform Library" will be continued, and a larger number of books bearing upon the lecture themes will, it is hoped, be made available for reference and circulation. When a condition of idealism is reached every school will not only have an adequate library, but also an auditorium for lectures and class meetings."

You can finish reading the article which gives a list of the locations of the first quarter lectures and the a partial list of lecture topics.

Yes, the writer appears to consider himself a bit above "the other half" for whom these lectures are intended. But, isn't it amazing that over 500,000 learners attended these lectures during the one season, 1989-1900? The desire to learn seems to be embedded in our DNA. Wouldn't you love to be able to attend one of those lectures? What a scene!