The purpose of this article has been to set the record straight as to the extent to which education of the mind and hands was prevalent in the United States prior to the 1880s. This effort is necessary since the proponents of the manual training curriculum that surfaced in the United States in the 1880s created a misperception that no prior form of education of the mind and hands had existed in the United States. Prior to the 1880s, manual training was primarily used by Americans to "civilize" non-white groups, including Native Americans, blacks, and Hawaiians. The introduction of a new form of manual training changed the focus for using manual training. The earlier use of manual training was experimental, rarely publicized, and used to mainly educate non-white students. The new use of manual training was systematic, had the support of prominent educators who wrote profusely about this curriculum, and was primarily designed for white students.