Barnard, Henry

Barnard, Henry
born Jan. 24, 1811, Hartford, Conn., U.S.
died July 5, 1900, Hartford

U.S. educator.

He studied law and entered the state legislature, where he helped create a state board of education and the first teachers' institute (1839). With Horace Mann, he undertook to reform the country's common schools; he was an innovator in instituting school inspections, textbook reviews, and parent-teacher organizations. As Rhode Island's first commissioner of education (from 1845) he worked to raise teachers' wages, repair buildings, and obtain higher-education appropriations. In 1855 he helped found the American Journal of Education. He was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin (1858–61). In 1867 he became the first U.S. commissioner of education, in which post he established a federal agency to collect national educational data.

Henry Barnard, detail of a portrait by an unknown artist; in the University of Wisconsin ...

By courtesy of the University of Wisconsin, Madison

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▪ American educator
born Jan. 24, 1811, Hartford, Conn., U.S.
died July 5, 1900, Hartford

      educator, jurist, and the first U.S. commissioner of education (1867–70). With Horace Mann he shared early leadership in improving the U.S. educational system.

      Born into a wealthy family, Barnard graduated from Yale in 1830 and then studied law. As a Whig member of the Connecticut state legislature (1837–39), he was instrumental in legislation that created a state board of common schools. Serving as secretary of that board, he founded and edited the Connecticut Common School Journal and Annals of Education (1838–42) and established the first teachers' institute (1839).

      In 1843 Barnard was called to Rhode Island to make a study of that state's schools, and in 1845 he became the state's first commissioner of education. At his urging, appropriations were increased, teachers' wages were raised, buildings were repaired, and teaching and supervision were much improved. In 1849 he returned to Connecticut as state superintendent of education and principal of the normal school at New Britain. He instituted reforms similar to those in Rhode Island, but eventually the job proved too strenuous for him, and in 1855 he retired. In that same year he helped found the American Association for the Advancement of Education and the American Journal of Education. He edited 32 volumes of the Journal (1855–81), spending so much of his fortune that he died a virtual pauper.

      Barnard made several European tours to confer with writers and educators, among them William Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, and Thomas Carlyle. He was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1858–61), and president of St. John's College, Annapolis, Md. (1866–67).

Additional Reading
The scope of Barnard's activities and publications is shown in the brief work by Will S. Monroe, Bibliography of Henry Barnard (1897); and in Anna Lou Blair, Henry Barnard, School Administrator (1938).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Barnard, Henry — (24 ene. 1811, Hartford, Conn., EE.UU.–5 jul. 1900, Hartford). Educador estadounidense. Estudió derecho e ingresó al cuerpo legislativo del Estado, desde donde contribuyó a la creación de un consejo del Estado de educación y del primer instituto… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • BARNARD, HENRY —    American educationist, born in Connecticut, 1811 …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Barnard — Barnard, Christian Barnard, Edward Emerson * * * (as used in expressions) Barnard, Christiaan (Neethling) Barnard, estrella de Barnard, Henry …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Barnard [2] — Barnard, Henry, einer der berühmtesten Schulmänner in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, geb. 1811 zu Hartford im Staate Connecticut; bezog 1826 das Yale College, in welchem[336] er 1830 graduirt wurde, widmete sich dann dem Studium. der… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Barnard — /bahr nahrd, neuhrd/ for 1; /bahr neuhrd/ for 2 5, n. 1. Christiaan N(eethling) /kris tyahn nit ling/, born 1922, South African surgeon: performed first successful human heart transplant 1967. 2. Frederick Augustus Porter, 1809 89, U.S. educator… …   Universalium

  • henry — /hen ree/, n., pl. henries, henrys. Elect. the SI unit of inductance, formally defined to be the inductance of a closed circuit in which an electromotive force of one volt is produced when the electric current in the circuit varies uniformly at a …   Universalium

  • Henry — /hen ree/, n. 1. Joseph, 1797 1878, U.S. physicist. 2. O., pen name of William Sydney Porter. 3. Patrick, 1736 99, American patriot, orator, and statesman. 4. Cape, a cape in SE Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. 5. Fort. See …   Universalium

  • Henry — ► sustantivo masculino ELECTRICIDAD Denominación del henrio en la nomenclatura internacional. IRREG. plural henrys * * * henrio o henry (de J. Henry, físico inglés) m. Fís. Unidad de inductancia eléctrica en el Sistema Internacional. * * * …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • henry — ► sustantivo masculino ELECTRICIDAD Denominación del henrio en la nomenclatura internacional. IRREG. plural henrys * * * henrio o henry (de J. Henry, físico inglés) m. Fís. Unidad de inductancia eléctrica en el Sistema Internacional. * * * henry …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Barnard Block — Infobox nrhp | name =Barnard Block nrhp type = caption = location= Andover, Massachusetts lat degrees = 42 lat minutes = 39 lat seconds = 22 lat direction = N long degrees = 71 long minutes = 8 long seconds = 26 long direction = W locmapin =… …   Wikipedia

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