Charles A. Bennett Collection

One of Bradley’s original faculty and a pioneer in the Industrial Arts Education Movement, Charles Alpheus Bennett also founded the Manual Arts Press, now part of Glencoe-McGraw Hill. In the late 1930s, Bennett donated his personal library of some 1,000 books and 6,000 pamphlets. These items are grouped in four categories: 1) materials acquired for research on Bennett’s two books (History of Manual and IndustrialEducation Up To 1870 and History of Manual and Industrial Education: 1870-1917 );

2) ephemera gathered during forty years as editor of Industrial Education magazine;

3) technical books and course outlines published during the early years of the Manual Training Movement in Sweden, England, France, Germany, and the United States; and

4) books on art instruction published in the first half of the nineteenth century. Within these categories, the collection also provides a good deal of information about Bennett and his activities in the Peoria area.