The School Examination by John Rogers
date: label: date made
content: 1867-1895
name: label: Maker
content: Rogers, John
label: maker
content: Rogers, John
notes: label: Description
content: This is one of John Rogers’ multi-figure statuettes (called Rogers Groups), which was patented in 1867. These works were known for being relatively inexpensive art objects made of cast and painted plaster and popular decorative art for the period. This piece, entitled “The School Examination,” shows a young girl looking at a slate, while a seated man gestures at something on the slate. The female teacher is standing between them with one hand on the girl’s shoulder and a book in the other, peering at the student’s work. This scene depicts an examination at a rural school, with the man being a visitor from the School Committee. He appears to be calling attention to a mistake in the girl’s work. It should be noted that John Roger’s wife, Harriet (Hattie) Moore Francis, was a teacher prior to her marriage in 1865.
label: Description
content: John Rogers (1829–1904) was a famous American sculptor who produced very popular, inexpensive figurines. Instead of working in bronze and marble, he sculpted in more affordable plaster, painted the color of putty to hide dust. Rogers’ statuettes celebrated the lives and values of ordinary Americans. Through his Rogers Groups he offered a snapshot of the manners and customs of the period. Rogers sold rights to his factory and to the production of the Rogers Groups to his foreman William Brush inn 1893, who produced copies in the Rogers Statuette Co. until 1895.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Dr. Richard Lodish American School Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2017.0095.042
label: accession number
content: 2017.0095
label: catalog number
content: 2017.0095.042
objectType: label: Object Name
content: statue
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cast (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: painted (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: plaster (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: tan (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 20 in; 50.8 cm