Portfolio of 10 linocuts printed in black and orange on cotton rag paper. Small folio (12 1/2 x 10 1/8 inches). Original yellow decorated wrappers with text printed in black and underlined in green. Extremely light dust-staining to top right corner of wrappers, linocuts bright and clean, excellent condition overall. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1925.

Founded in 1887, the Teachers College has been a part of Columbia University since 1898 and was the first graduate school in the United States to focus specifically on teacher education. Its roots are in the Kitchen Education Association, founded in 1880 with the goal of replacing miniature kitchen utensils for other toys appropriate for 5-year-old girls. In 1884, the name was changed to the Industrial Education Association and shifted its focus to include boys and parents. Three years later, it moved to University Place and founded the Horace Mann School. In 1887, William Vanderbilt Jr. made a large financial donation to the IEA and appointed Nicholas Murray Butler, future president of Columbia, as president of the IEA. The IEA decided to provide schooling for the teachers of New York City's poorest children, and the Teachers College was born. The move uptown came in 1890, and the official name change came in 1892.

From the beginning, the Teachers College included subjects such as educational psychology, educational sociology, the history of education, comparative education, and ethics. Other programs developed later in areas such as administration, economics, anthropology, clinical and counseling psychology, developmental psychology, curriculum development, media studies, and school health care.

According to an exhibition held at Columbia in 2024 on Printmaking at the Teachers College, "The history and development of printmaking at Teachers College dates back to the influence of Professor Arthur Wesley Dow...Dow was especially interested in Japanese prints and color woodblock, and by 1912 work in all media was organized around his progressive exercises in composition...Students first worked with Japanese brush and ink...Then they addressed value scales, patterns, and applications in landscape and lettering. In the second year, they began with wood block color printing and practical design work, followed by textile design, woodblock, book-illustration and illumination, and the decoration of covers. At the end of the two year sequence, they studied the special elements of color...After 1921, posters and color printing were integrated in lettering classes."

This portfolio of linocuts dates to 1925, and showcases the design work done in the lettering class. As indicated by the title, "Loco-Motion", all ten prints showcase movement or transportation in some way. There is an image of people riding a roller coaster, a man pulling a child in a wagon, a baby in a carriage, a hot air balloon, horses and donkeys, and early bicycles. Many of the prints incorporate lettering. None of the images are signed by the artists, although one appears to be initialed in the lower corner, and the members of the class are not identified. The images are bright and eye-catching, a wonderful example of 1920s printmaking and design.

Scarce; as of April 2025, OCLC locates only four holdings of this portfolio in North American institutions.

Book ID: 53479

Price: $1,850.00