Dr. Otto L. Schmidt, of Chicago, a life member of the Society, has
presented an important collection of letters and documents received by
Dr. Azel Ladd while serving in 1851 and 1852 as state superintendent
of public instruction. For the most part they consist of appeals to
the state officer to interpret the school law for local communities,
and the resolving of disputes and difficulties between the teachers
and the officials. Many of the letters are requests for information
with regard to the allotments of school money, and a few have to do
with the lease or sale of school lands. A considerable number carry
the endorsement “Library returns.” These contain reports of the number
of books in the school libraries under the law requiring one-tenth of
the state allotments to be expended for books. Incidentally from these
letters much may be learned of the early educational history of our
state--the short terms of the schools, the qualifications and salaries
of the teachers, the number and conduct of the pupils. From some of
these letters may be seen the educational conditions among our foreign
immigrants. Complaints are frequent of teachers that cannot write or
speak English. One letter asks the question, later so pertinent in our
educational politics, whether the reading of the Bible constitutes a
breach of Section 3, Article 10 of the Wisconsin Constitution. Another
writer, defending the character of his daughter, a school teacher at
Moundville, sends the Superintendent a specimen of her efforts in
verse, which have been much admired. There are nearly a thousand
papers in the collection, which constitute an important guide to the
early history of education in Wisconsin. Practically all of the
letters belong to the years 1851 and 1852.