Josiah Holbrook

Josiah Holbrook , 1788-1854, American educator, founder of the lyceum movement, b. Derby, Conn., grad. Yale (1810). He experimented with various schools where manual training, farming, and formal instruction were combined. After the failure (1825) of his Agricultural Seminary, he began lecturing on popular scientific subjects. In 1826, at Millbury, Mass., he organized the first lyceum that became a part of a national system. He manufactured scientific apparatus for schools and lyceums and edited Scientific Tracts (1830-32) and The Family Lyceum (1832-33). In 1837, at Berea, Ohio, he established the Lyceum Village, which failed after a few years. He continued to promote the lyceum movement until his death.

Holbrook, Josiah (1788–1854), educational reformer, was born in Connecticut, graduated from Yale (1810), and founded an industrial school (1819) whose curriculum included manual training, farming, and scientific subjects. When this failed, he established an Agricultural Seminary (1824–25) and in 1826 founded the first American lyceum, at Millbury, Mass. He remained the leader of the lyceum movement, for which, beginning in 1830, he published a series of Scientific Tracts Designed for Instruction and Entertainment …, and edited a weekly newspaper, the Family Lyceum (1832).