Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-03-04
Travelling Pictures.

| The spirit of educative altruism, the
real essence of culture-sweetness and
| light-was so apparent to the thought
tul observer at the annual meeting Of
| the Wisconsin State Library association,
which has just adjourned, that do not
hesitate to ask your cooperation in an
effort to enlist the sympathetic interest
of your readers in but a single detail Of
that blessed practical philanthropy set
IN motion less than one year ago
Senator Stout's Travelling Libra
ries," which was the most interesting
topic of its many fruitful discussions.
l refer 10 the "Traveling Pictures"
which are sent upon their happy mis-
sion of identifying the walls and ideal
izino the life of isolated farm homes by
the students of the Stevens Point Nor
NAL school.
[ do not know whether they spell art
with sufficiently big GA" at that insti-
tuition to give it standing among the
worshipers of cart for its own sake"
But this | do know: it is no mere
grizzled theory ofselfcontenteda esthet-
icism; it is vitality vernal and verdant
like Goethe's Golden Tree of Life.
For | happen to recall Miss Tanner,
head of the art department of this
school, as she began her professional
career decade ago in MarInette, then
mere slip of girl; primarily ambi-
tious to earn her own living, but Incl
dentally filled with sincere desire TO
benefit the children entrusted to her
inexperienced care. In teaching this
young woman has found her true call
ing; and as a teacher Of teachers. she
| has become the radiant center Of most
benign influences and civilizing poten-
tialities. Under the infectious inspira-
ton and practical direction of Miss
Tanner, her Normal pupils are collect
ing and preparing for their ''errands Of
light" good prints, photographs and pro-
cess reproductions Of the worlds picto-
rial master works. What Jane Adams
working girls are doing for their neigh
bors in the Sums about Hull house in
Chicago, these pupil-teachers are seek
ing 10 do for those backwoods communi-
ties in northern Wisconsin for work in
whose schools they are conscientiously
preparing themselves. 1t is not the
munifcent salaries which they know
are in store for them, nor yet the social
and intellectual allurements that await
them in remotely isolated "districts, :"
that tempt these girls to "keep school, ;"
but rather, in many if not most in
stances, the knowledge that their work
is to be such as the state could least and
last of all afford to dispense with. And
such instructors as Mary Elizabeth Tan
ner not only prepare them for this work
with the technical experiences now more
and more insistently demanded of their
profession, but they Undue them also
and this is the essential thing-with the
profound conviction that all their peda-
gogic equipment will count for little or
naught unless their teaching shall be
instinct with those vital qualities which
unfailingly touch the human heart and
quicken the humane impulses of pupils
and parents alike, which make for the
upbuilding Of manly and womanly char
acter in the former, and for the uplift-
ing regeneration of the community itself
which clusters about their school, Such
are the convictions, such the spirit
which sends these pictures on their
travels, in conjunction with the ''Travel-
ing Libraries" now circulating from
Grand Rapids through the generosity
of J. D. Witter.
But these girls need help and, having
taken the pains to plan and figure a bit,
| find that one hundred such pictures,
embracing excellent reproductions of
genre, landscape and religious master
pieces in approximately equal numbers,
can be procured for about forty-fve
dollars. Those to whom this no less
ideal than practical phase of educa-
tional philanthropy appeals with suffi-
cient intensity, are invited to contribute
their share towards meeting this outlay.
| Subscriptions in any amount may be
sent in care of Durbin's Art gallery,
Milwaukee, addressed Travelling Pic
ture Fund"
The collection which 1t is proposed
to forward to Miss Tanner, either as a
| whole or in part, as may be warranted
by the response of art lovers and the
lovers Of their kind, to this appeal, are