ERIC SLOANE
Eric Sloane (1905-1985), the great American artist and preservationist of early American material culture, was a profound influence on me. As a lad I became fascinated with tools and their meaning (both practical and philosophical) to the men and women and children who used them, created them, adapted them, and respected them from the colonial days to the days of mass reproduction and imports. Reading Sloane and studying his illustrations made me forever interested in local history, small-scale and regional and personal. We carry anything of his that is in print, hardcover and paperback when we can get it, and I recommend it all highly.
The Little Red Schoolhouse
The Little Red Schoolhouse
School days, like our everydays, have changed. But the obsolete world of the one-room schoolhouse filled with rough-hewn desks still lingers. The echoes of yesteryear live on in the old-fashioned classrooms that still stand today.
Harkening back to a time when the three Rs actually stood for reading, 'riting, and religion, Eric Sloane's sketchbook explores the history and spirit of early American schools. In this vivid slice of Americana, he tells of when paper was a precious commodity, explains the origins of words such as "blackboard" and "moonlighting," and offers evocative illustrations of New England's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century schoolhouses and their delightfully modest interiors. Filled with insight, warmth, and honest nostalgia, "The Little Red Schoolhouse" is an enchanting journey into a bygone past.