Old School Room Harrow c. 1883

Curator: Joseph Pennell's pencil drawing, "Old School Room Harrow," created around 1883 and currently held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, offers us a glimpse into a bygone era of education. Editor: The sketch has this ghostly quality, almost like peering through time. The stark contrast between the objects and their outlines makes the space feel abandoned, yet pregnant with echoes. Curator: Precisely. There's a tangible austerity in the scene. Look at the rough-hewn quality of the wooden chair and desk, juxtaposed against the inscription on the blackboard in, what appears to be, Greek. It’s quite beautiful how Pennell highlights labor through both subject and medium. Editor: It begs the question, who crafted these objects? Were these learning tools, created with pride for the future intellectuals, or simply churned out to fill schools and therefore orders? Curator: Considering Pennell's engagement with the Arts and Crafts movement, there is perhaps an intent to reflect the value of labor. Note the care in depicting each wooden joint, the visible craftsmanship… Editor: Yes, but there’s also this pervasive stillness that I find interesting, this weightiness. You know, a chair isn't just a chair, right? It is a container of bodies and learning and possibly restlessness! How did students actually experience this room? What were the lived realities within the structure itself? Curator: The blackboard acts as a focal point, the inscription an opaque window onto the minds trained within that room. The geometric window offers not a broad landscape, but constrained glimpses. It gives me pause to consider access to knowledge. What it meant in Pennell's time, and how material conditions dictated that access. Editor: I do feel compelled to reflect upon our era now with disposable technology versus the enduring handcraft of yesteryear; and it asks of us about consumption and wastefulness of material and knowledge too. Curator: "Old School Room Harrow" resonates far beyond its literal depiction; inviting meditations on history, materiality and access. Editor: Exactly. We can think about craftsmanship as its own intellectual pursuit, even if divorced from the literal Greek on the board. Thanks, Joseph Pennell, for making us pause and consider all that went into building—literally—a place of learning.