This book is a thematic history that puts art instruction during the 19th and early 20th centuries into educational, artistic, and social contexts. The book states that the stage on which many art teachers perform is the public school classroom. It explains that art education developed its professional practices in tandem with the development of publicly funded school systems in North America, the ascendancy and domination of modernism and formalism in the world of fine art, the recovery from a devastating U.S. Civil War, and subsequent efforts to build U.S. presence as an international economic and political power. Chapters in the book explore some of the changing ideas about art that led to conflicts among art educators; between art teachers and general educators; the impact on art production and instruction of technologies for image reproduction; and ways that modern social values affected art education. Following the "Introduction", the book is divided into six chapters: (1) "Anyone Can Learn to Draw"; (2) "Freeing the Child through Art"; (3) "Every Girl or Boy Wants Something to Do"; (4) "Every Day a Festival"; (5) "We Aim at Order and Hope for Beauty"; (6) "The Aesthetic Culture of Pupils". Chapters are concluded by an epilogue. Appendices are: "Roots of Art Education Practice: Scope and Sequence"; "Chronology"; and "Selected Resources for Doing Art Education History". (BT)