The Rewards of merit collection consists of approximately 800 hand-illustrated and printed rewards of merit originating in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The collection includes rewards of merit decorated with ink, watercolor, and fraktur art as well as lithographic and chromolithographic rewards. The bulk of materials are dated between 1830 and 1900.
Series I of the collecton contains approximately 200 rewards of merit that are primarily grouped around specific students and teachers. Also present is a group 100 examples of early 19th century rewards acquired from dealer Alfred P. Malpa Ephemera.
Series I groupings:
- 1.1: Early 19th century rewards of merit, 100 items
- 1.2: Abbott, Carrie M. (student), 3 items
- 1.3: Adams, Priscilla (teacher), 4 items
- 1.4: Corbette, Edith (student), 4 items
- 1.5: Garretson family (students) and Smiley family (teachers), 13 items
- 1.6: Jones family (students), 6 items
- 1.7: Roberts, Charlie (student), 13 items
- 1.8: Shackford, Mabel (student) and Riley, Mary L. (teacher), 3 items
- 1.9: Sturtevant, Florence (student) and Lamb, Clara (teacher), 8 items
- 1.10: Thompson, Susan A. (student), 3 items
- 1.11: Thurley, Gertie (student), 4 items
- 1.12: Thurston family (students & teacher), 5 items
Series II contains approximately 600 19th century rewards of merit. Materials are organized roughly by size and include "small" and "large" groupings. Also present are two instructional cards for a rewards of merit system and blank uncut printed rewards of merit sheets.
Series II groupings:
- 2.1: Small miscellaneous rewards of merit
- 2.2: Large miscellaneous rewards of merit
- 2.3: Uncut rewards of merit
Also of note is a cylindrically-shaped paper reward of merit that is housed in its own separate box.
Other students and teachers represented in the collection include the following: O. C. E. Baker, Minnie Bates, Edgar Blanchard, Sarah Bods, Hiram Bradley, Lydia P. Burnham, Sallie Burnham, Eliza W. Burrage, Amelia Burt, Joseph Busk, Frances M. Caulkins, Anna Chamberlain, Eddie Clock, William Duncan, Annie Earle, Della L. Farwell, Leva Ferro, Frances F. Fitch, Abraham E. Fox, Clarissa French, Lillie Gerz, Aletta Green, Isaac Goodchild, Henry S. Gouver, Celia Griswold, L. Hasbrouck, Jane Hayden, Joseph Heaton, Flora Hemmings, George Hibbs, Janell M. Hopkins, Frank Houghton, Katie Houghton, Lydia C. Huntington, Chelsey Hutching, Ellen K. Kanchett, Sidney Keith, Lucy Kendall, Henry Kimball, Edith Konter, Lizzie Kraybill, Euphema J. Lament, Grace Laverny, Walter Leonard, Della Lewis, Bertha Lockwood, Bessie C. Lord, Lilly McDonnell, Maggie S. Mitchell, Lizzie Morse, Llewallyn Moulton, Jennie C. Perry, Hallie A. Purinton, Amanda Reed, John Reed, Mary E. Richardson, Eva H. Roberts, Abbie F. Rupell, W. H. Rutherford, Andy Salisbury, Adolphus Sayre, Ella Sherman, Mary E. Shipman, Emogene F. Spakin, Sophia Strong, Edward Van Soligen, Lizzie P. Whillemore, Cira B. Whitney, Emma Yeaton, Georgie Young, and James Young.
Educational institutions represented include Belknap School, Bennington (Vt.) Graded School District, D.C. Academy, Excelsior School System, Hartford Centre School, Kingston Grammar School, Marblehead Academy, Miss Sanders' Seminary, Mrs. Cranch's Academy, Pollsville Institute, and "Town School No. 12."
The practice of giving rewards of merit to school children and other young folk first began in the United States during the early 1600s. Handed out by instructors, these tokens encouraged school attendance, good behavior, and excellence in one’s studies. Rewards of merit at this time were largely handwritten and illustrated.
During the 1700s and on through the 1800s, Puritan religious ideas of infant depravity and repentance influenced the content included in rewards of merit. Many rewards of this era not only praised good behavior, but also warned of what might befall the recipient if they behaved poorly. Beginning in the early 1800s, rewards of merit began to be printed from type and woodcuts and often featured images of domestic and rural scenes as well as verses with religious or moral themes.
Joseph Lancaster’s pedagogical method of schooling (which emphasized memorization and repetition and allowing children to help teach each other) strongly emphasized the utility of rewards. The Lancaster method recommended giving out hundreds of merits each day which students could collect and turn in for a larger certificate or prize. As a result, cheap mass produced rewards of merit sold in large sheets which teachers could cut themselves became increasingly popular.
By the late 1800s, chromolithography enabled the printing of colorful and unique rewards of merit that often matched the size and designs of trade cards or even resembled currency. By this time visual themes had also become far more secular in nature while continuing to promote diligence, attention, and other elements of good behavior.
