Rewards of Merit
Rewards of merit, small tokens of congratulation given to students for
good behavior and scholastic accomplishments, have been utilized by
teachers for generations. The practice was most popular during the
nineteenth century when printing techniques evolved to make this form of
ephemera more readily available. A majority of the surviving rewards of
merit are printed, as opposed to hand drawn and painted examples that
involved significant artistic effort. The earliest rewards of merit were
almost always purely of a religious nature, depicting the benefits of
piety. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, the rewards of merit
gradually became more secular, touching lighter topics such as polite
behavior, patriotic awareness, and children's games and other activities.
Rewards of merit, in addition to being examples of a nineteenth century
classroom tool, reveal the progress of printing in America as well as the
priorities of educators and disciplinarians of the time. AAS's unique
collection of hand painted, engraved, printed, and chromolithographed
examples provide a glimpse into education and cultural issues over a span
of almost one hundred years. The collection is sorted by the topics listed
below.
-Sharon White, Senior Page
|
Reward of merit printed in Boston
* Rewards of Merit
inventory
For current information on the cataloging status of this and
other AAS collections, choose "Collection Access" below.
|
|
