Holbrook, Josiah

Related Category: Education: Biographies

(hōl´brk), 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.