What do you think?
Rate this book
Little Red Schoolhouse
Discusses the style and character of early American schoolhouses and examines the equipment found in these classrooms
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
Hardcover
First published June 5, 2007
About the author
Eric Sloane
104 books58 followersEric Sloane (born Everard Jean Hinrichs) was an American landscape painter and author of illustrated works of cultural history and folklore. He is considered a member of the Hudson River School of painting.
Eric Sloane was born in New York City. As a child, he was a neighbor of noted sign painter and type designer Frederick W. Goudy. Sloane studied art and lettering with Goudy. While he attended the Art Students League of New York City, he changed his name because George Luks and John French Sloan suggested that young students should paint under an assumed name so that early inferior works would not be attached to them. He took the name Eric from the middle letters of America and Sloane from his mentor's name.
In the summer of 1925, Sloane ran away from home, working his way across the country as a sign painter, creating advertisements for everything from Red Man Tobacco to Bull Durham. Unique hand calligraphy and lettering became a characteristic of his illustrated books.
Sloane eventually returned to New York and settled in Connecticut, where he began painting rustic landscapes in the tradition of the Hudson River School. In the 1950s, he began spending part of the year in Taos, New Mexico, where he painted western landscapes and particularly luminous depictions of the desert sky. In his career as a painter, he produced over 15,000 works. His fascination with the sky and weather led to commissions to paint works for the U.S. Air Force and the production of a number of illustrated works on meteorology and weather forecasting. Sloane is even credited with creating the first televised weather reporting network, by arranging for local farmers to call in reports to a New England broadcasting station.
Sloane also had a great interest in New England folk culture, Colonial daily life, and Americana. He wrote and illustrated scores of Colonial era books on tools, architecture, farming techniques, folklore, and rural wisdom. Every book included detailed illustrations, hand lettered titles, and his characteristic folksy wit and observations. He developed an impressive collection of historic tools which became the nucleus of the collection in the Sloane-Stanley Tool Museum in Kent, Connecticut.
Sloane died in New York in 1985, while walking down the street to a luncheon held in his honor.
Sloane's best known books are A Reverence for Wood, which examines the history and tools of woodworking, as well as the philosophy of the woodworker; The Cracker Barrel, which is a compendium of folk wit and wisdom; and Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake-1805, based on a diary he discovered at a local library book sale. His most famous painted work is probably the skyscape mural, Earth Flight Environment, which is still on display in the Independence Avenue Lobby in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.
Eric Sloane was born in New York City. As a child, he was a neighbor of noted sign painter and type designer Frederick W. Goudy. Sloane studied art and lettering with Goudy. While he attended the Art Students League of New York City, he changed his name because George Luks and John French Sloan suggested that young students should paint under an assumed name so that early inferior works would not be attached to them. He took the name Eric from the middle letters of America and Sloane from his mentor's name.
In the summer of 1925, Sloane ran away from home, working his way across the country as a sign painter, creating advertisements for everything from Red Man Tobacco to Bull Durham. Unique hand calligraphy and lettering became a characteristic of his illustrated books.
Sloane eventually returned to New York and settled in Connecticut, where he began painting rustic landscapes in the tradition of the Hudson River School. In the 1950s, he began spending part of the year in Taos, New Mexico, where he painted western landscapes and particularly luminous depictions of the desert sky. In his career as a painter, he produced over 15,000 works. His fascination with the sky and weather led to commissions to paint works for the U.S. Air Force and the production of a number of illustrated works on meteorology and weather forecasting. Sloane is even credited with creating the first televised weather reporting network, by arranging for local farmers to call in reports to a New England broadcasting station.
Sloane also had a great interest in New England folk culture, Colonial daily life, and Americana. He wrote and illustrated scores of Colonial era books on tools, architecture, farming techniques, folklore, and rural wisdom. Every book included detailed illustrations, hand lettered titles, and his characteristic folksy wit and observations. He developed an impressive collection of historic tools which became the nucleus of the collection in the Sloane-Stanley Tool Museum in Kent, Connecticut.
Sloane died in New York in 1985, while walking down the street to a luncheon held in his honor.
Sloane's best known books are A Reverence for Wood, which examines the history and tools of woodworking, as well as the philosophy of the woodworker; The Cracker Barrel, which is a compendium of folk wit and wisdom; and Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake-1805, based on a diary he discovered at a local library book sale. His most famous painted work is probably the skyscape mural, Earth Flight Environment, which is still on display in the Independence Avenue Lobby in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 19, 2021
Interesting short book about schoolhouses and what the one room school house was all about. Very informative and a quick easy read.
December 10, 2015
I've been fascinated with the artwork of Eric Sloane since I was a child, and I picked up this paperback on a whim. Several decades later, would I still be intrigued with Sloane's work?
I'm more interested in it now than I was all those years ago. When I was a child, it was his art that fired my enthusiasm: early American buildings and tools. But when I paged through The Little Red Schoolhouse, I still drank in the art, but I also read every scrap of text.
Sloane was a passionate advocate of early American life and values, and you can see it in this book. Along with his evocative illustrations, he tells us how schoolhouse properties were set up, how they experimented with octagonal and circular buildings-- even how teachers were paid. Along the way he also shows us how times have changed: "Education, like modern everyday life, has suddenly become regarded as a means of making more money." Yes, education has much to do with earning a higher salary, but it can be so much more, and Sloane reminds us just what that "more" is.
If you're interested in early American history, life, and architecture, I highly recommend any of the books written and illustrated by Eric Sloane. He is a master.
I'm more interested in it now than I was all those years ago. When I was a child, it was his art that fired my enthusiasm: early American buildings and tools. But when I paged through The Little Red Schoolhouse, I still drank in the art, but I also read every scrap of text.
Sloane was a passionate advocate of early American life and values, and you can see it in this book. Along with his evocative illustrations, he tells us how schoolhouse properties were set up, how they experimented with octagonal and circular buildings-- even how teachers were paid. Along the way he also shows us how times have changed: "Education, like modern everyday life, has suddenly become regarded as a means of making more money." Yes, education has much to do with earning a higher salary, but it can be so much more, and Sloane reminds us just what that "more" is.
If you're interested in early American history, life, and architecture, I highly recommend any of the books written and illustrated by Eric Sloane. He is a master.
February 22, 2017
This short book is an illustrated demonstration of some of the very early school buildings and educational policies of the northern area of the British North American colony that became the United States. They were one-room schoolhouses with extra buildings outside for storing firewood and toilet functions. In that cold climate, the woodshed was often larger than the school building. The timeframe is the eighteenth century and the schools attended by some famous early Americans are described. One of the many interesting points is that the most famous American spy in history, Nathan Hale, worked as a schoolteacher.
Some of the images contain examples of the lessons the students labored over. One interesting architectural fact is that some buildings were built in octagonal form so that all students would be warmed by the stove in the middle. Wages for the teachers were often very little beyond room and board and what they did receive was often farm products such as grain, tobacco and animals. The teachers often auctioned this material off in order to have some spending money.
There is a lot of information packed into this book, it is entertaining and educational, a snapshot of education in the early American colonies.
Some of the images contain examples of the lessons the students labored over. One interesting architectural fact is that some buildings were built in octagonal form so that all students would be warmed by the stove in the middle. Wages for the teachers were often very little beyond room and board and what they did receive was often farm products such as grain, tobacco and animals. The teachers often auctioned this material off in order to have some spending money.
There is a lot of information packed into this book, it is entertaining and educational, a snapshot of education in the early American colonies.
June 21, 2014
The best description of this short, interesting read is the last paragraph:
Nostalgia has no place in today’s school: nostalgia is a kind of disease—a “dis-ease” with the present, and a desire to return into the past. But there were good things of the past which should be recognized and revived: this is not nostalgia.
Sloane, Eric (2012-11-13). The Little Red Schoolhouse (Dover Books on Americana) (Kindle Locations 362-364). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.
Nostalgia has no place in today’s school: nostalgia is a kind of disease—a “dis-ease” with the present, and a desire to return into the past. But there were good things of the past which should be recognized and revived: this is not nostalgia.
Sloane, Eric (2012-11-13). The Little Red Schoolhouse (Dover Books on Americana) (Kindle Locations 362-364). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.
September 2, 2021
Great Pre=Zinn, Pre-Dewey and Pre-CRT book on an institution that made the American experiment worth remembering and treasuring. Prob worth a look at combining this with some small house books and setting up alternatives to the Communist Public schools taking property taxes and making morons and nihilists rich off a a generation's humiliation.
February 5, 2025
Good for fun history and discussion with my kids. Not the most exciting book. Probably 3.5 starts
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews