from the archives
Curricular Innovations Over The Years by CHRIS HEATON
Change is the only constant. That’s certainly true as schools adjust their curriculum. As noted in this edition of the Newsletter, Roxbury Latin has adapted its courses over the centuries, and in this Ramblings I’ll highlight some courses that were introduced in the 19th century.
Moses Grant Daniell
While we don’t have course catalogues from the days when merry England was ablaze with civil war and the Cavaliers and Roundheads were at strife, we do have records from before our own Civil War. When the U.S. was nearing war with Great Britain over the Oregon Territory in 1844, Benedict Apthorp Gould, Jr. taught a course on astronomy. He had the scholarly and celestial chops: He was the first American to earn his PhD in that subject. Lofty pursuits were in his genes; his grandfather helped expose Benedict Arnold. Teaching was in his blood; his father was the principal at Boston Latin. Later, he headed the Dudley Observatory at Siena College in Albany, New York, and founded the Astronomical Journal.1 In September 1862, as the Union and Confederates battled at Antietam, the school hired Colonel Hobart Moore as “Instructor in Military Drill.” He went on to be appointed Brigadier General in Massachusetts.2 My current U.S. History students better remember that that battle gave Lincoln the moral victory needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation which took effect on January 1, 1863.3 That’s the year Moses Grant Daniell was hired as music teacher and assistant to Headmaster William Coe Collar. As another Eliot wrote, “April is the cruelest month,” and that was true for Daniell as his wife died during childbirth on April 19, 1865, four days after Lincoln’s death. Music wasn’t Daniell’s only gig; he helped Coe
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William Coe Collar
Collar write First Year Latin, a grammar and exercise textbook which was used at RL and throughout the country. In 1871, 150 years ago (a short time in RL years), Julius Eichberg, another instructor of music, was hired. That was four years after he allowed women to study music at the Boston Conservatory, which he had founded in 1867.4 5 Another staple of the Arts Department, drawing, was also added to the curriculum in 1871. The first teacher was Bostonbased artist Benjamin F. Nutting, whose works can be found in the Art Institute of Chicago and The Metropolitan Museum in New York. Like Coe Collar, he literally wrote the textbook: The Boys [sic] and Girls’ Self-Instructing Drawing Book, for Amusement and Recreation.6 Roxbury Latin published its first Catalogue the next year. The last boy listed under Classes I and II is Theodore Chickering Williams, the only alumnus to become headmaster. The first student listed is John King Berry, Class of 1872. He became a state senator. His son, Stanton King Berry, Class of 1907, died in Veaugues, France, on October 19, 1918 during the Great War.
