SCHOOL COLLECTION DONATED TO SMITHSONIAN

Lodish’s Bethesda living room was jammed with artifacts related to the history of education. So was his basement, and his dining room and his garage. Objects were piled on the floor, on tables and chairs, leaning against the walls, propped on the mantelpiece.

“Take everything!” Lodish joked that his wife might say. “And take my husband!”

Although they can’t take everything, the experts from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History have been sifting through Lodish’s astounding collection of school memorabilia for the best things.

“It’s a very big deal,” said Debbie Schaefer-Jacobs, the associate curator in the museum’s division of home and community life. The collection is so broad that it’s being distributed among several museum divisions.

The retired head of the Sidwell Friends Lower School, Lodish, 68, has been collecting for decades: desks, bells, spellers, readers, primers, blackboard slates, report cards, samplers, merit cards, police cutouts and outhouse seats.

Lodish had exhibited part of his collection at Sidwell’s upper school late last year and thought it would be a good idea to share with others.

“I just felt that many, many more people would be interested in what I’ve collected,” he said. “And I want more people to see it.”

“Especially kids,” he said. “I think they would be very interested if they’re, like, in the fourth, fifth or sixth grade” to see school life from 100 years ago.

The museum said it plans to take about 800 items, or two-thirds of the collection. Some items already have been transferred. But there is much more.

Lodish said he attended auctions, went to flea markets and kept an eye on eBay. Most of his items date from the 1800s and early 1900s.

He has already turned over to the museum some rare 18th-century “horn books” — small wooden paddles bearing tiny lessons on parchment covered with a transparent film of animal horn to protect them.

“It’s like having a baby that grows up,” he said of his treasures. “Now they’re on their own. I love this stuff. But I love much, much, much more that other people love it now.”

To read the complete article, see:
A is for abacus, O is for outhouse seat: Educator donates collection to Smithsonian (www.washingtonpost.com/local/from-a-living-room-to-the-smithsonian-a-vast-collection-of-rare-school-memorabilia/2014/11/02/22eec070-5dfc-11e4-8b9e-2ccdac31a031_story.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web