Designed to consolidate information about adult educational activities in colonial America, the publication covers self-directed learning, public lectures, apprenticeships and evening schools, education of women and girls, and leisure education. Advertisements and announcements from colonial newspapers published from 1765-1776 constituted the primary information source. Sources of assistance for self-directed learning activities included societies/associations, personal libraries and books, public libraries, newspapers, almanacs, and magazines. Self-directed learning was found to possess a rich heritage. An early form of continuing professional education was the college medical lectures. Also popular were the science lectures, with electricity being the most popular topic of the 18th century. Apprenticeships represented an adult education institution that provided an historical heritage; however, by 1700, a need for something else was recognized, and evening schools emerged to assist in "new world" adjustment. Although evidence of sex bias in the provision of formal education opportunities existed, formal educational opportunities appeared to be less important than informal opportunities. Differences in educational achievement may have been more economic than sex-biased. There was ample evidence of leisure-oriented education, as private masters in major cities offered instruction in foreign languages, painting, drawing and sketching, and needlework. (EA)