Conference Agenda

The objective of this chapter is to discuss the center-periphery relationship, within the scope of the history of education, problematizing the fixed places established for countries and subjects in dichotomous readings between dominant and dominated. Without denying the inequalities that mark the relations between countries and subjects, the methodological procedure consisted of investigating and tracing the nodes and links of human and non-human networks in the process of world diffusion of the modern school in the 19th century.
Therefore, the text is organized in two parts. In the first, it deals with the reverse circuit of the
school desk and the circulation of an American school desk model, not as a specific product,
but as a concept, an idea laden with meanings. In the second, it examines the re-export
movement of other school objects, such as materials for teaching natural sciences. As a result,
both the displacement of the idea-product and the re-export movement point to the directions
and polycentric relationships that marked the worldwide diffusion of the modern school and
its materiality.

O objetivo deste capítulo é discutir a relação centro-periferia, no âmbito da história da educação, problematizando os lugares fixos estabelecidos para países e sujeitos em leituras dicotômicas entre dominantes e dominados. Sem negar as desigualdades que marcam as relações entre países e sujeitos, o procedimento metodológico consistiu em investigar e traçar os nós e vínculos das redes humanas e não humanas no processo de difusão global da escola moderna no século XIX. Portanto, o texto está organizado em duas partes. Na primeira, trata do circuito reverso da carteira escolar e da circulação de um modelo de carteira escolar americana, não como um produto específico, mas como um conceito, uma ideia carregada de significados. Na segunda, examina o movimento de reexportação de outros objetos escolares, como materiais para o ensino de ciências naturais. Como resultado, tanto o deslocamento da ideia-produto quanto o movimento de reexportação apontam para os rumos e relações policêntricas que marcaram a difusão global da escola moderna e sua materialidade.

The gradual introduction in Europe of science education for all, from the second half of the 19th century, marked an unprecedented educational reform and represented a new, lucrative market for a very large number of French and foreign companies. They therefore developed school objects dedicated to the teaching of natural sciences, particularly zoology and botany. These objects are intended to illustrate the lessons of teachers, and to complete their demonstration based on intuitive observation, comparison and then widespread use, in the service of the development of a new pedagogy based on the objective aspect of things: the "object lesson", a lesson on things and through things. This teaching and learning method, which relied on a concrete object to introduce an abstract idea, quickly established itself in France in the education of very young children first of all. It then spread to all primary school students, eventually extending to secondary education and then university. Among the school objects used during the object lessons in the classroom, there were substitutes for nature that teachers and their students could study and manipulate at their leisure: dismantlable models called clastics. This European model of scientific pedagogy, based on the handling of nature in detached parts, was exhibited at the Universal Exhibitions, where many clastic models were presented and awarded prizes. The universality of these exhibitions resulted from the desire to stage all human activities and to familiarise an international audience with the latest progress made in all sectors of production, including school industries, since education and public schooling were an integral part of the programme of these exhibitions. These meetings therefore constituted privileged vectors of commercial diffusion for companies that presented these singular didactic objects, the clastic models, and thus participated in a form of colonisation, by these companies, of the territories of the world that were bereft of schooling mechanisms. Here there is particular focus on the influence of the French company of Dr Louis Auzoux, a champion of clastic anatomy. The latter, whom Emperor Don Pedro II of Brazil in 1873 named a Knight of his Order of the Rose, to thank him, thanks to his Grand Écorché, for being "the only man who taught [him] what little anatomy" he knew. Some of Dr Auzoux's clastic models, like the Complete man, are still visible in Brazilian institutions, such as the Medical Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and the Pharmacy Museum of the Federal University of Ouro Preto. It is therefore interesting to determine whether these models were suitable for the Brazilian public, whether the assembly instructions were translated into Portuguese, and whether a transit was operated via Portugal. It is also relevant to ask how these models could have been part of a form of imposition of the European educational principle of the object lesson within the Brazilian education system during the 19th century.

L’introduction progressive en Europe d’un enseignement scientifique pour tous, à partir de la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle, est le signe d’une réforme scolaire sans précédent et représente un nouveau marché lucratif pour un très grand nombre d’entreprises françaises et étrangères. Elles développent alors des objets scolaires dédiés à l’enseignement des sciences naturelles, notamment en zoologie et en botanique. Ces objets sont destinés à illustrer les leçons des professeurs, et à compléter leur démonstration basée sur l’observation intuitive, la comparaison puis la généralisation, au service du développement d’une pédagogie nouvelle fondée sur l’aspect objectif des choses : la « leçon de choses », une leçon sur les choses et par les choses. Cette méthode d’enseignement-apprentissage, qui s’appuie sur un objet concret pour se diriger vers une idée abstraite, s’impose rapidement en France dans l’éducation des très jeunes enfants tout d’abord. Elle se répand ensuite auprès des élèves du primaire tout entier, pour finir par gagner l’enseignement secondaire puis l’université. Parmi les objets scolaires utilisés lors des leçons de choses en classe, on trouve des substituts à la nature que les professeurs et leurs élèves pourront étudier et manipuler à loisir : des modèles démontables dits clastiques. Ce modèle européen d’une pédagogie des sciences, basée sur la manipulation d’une nature en pièces détachées, est exhibée lors des Expositions universelles où de nombreux modèles clastiques y sont montrés et primés. L’universalité de ces expositions résulte de la volonté de mettre en scène l’ensemble des activités humaines et de familiariser un public international avec les derniers progrès accomplis dans tous les secteurs de production, industries scolaires comprises, puisque l’éducation et l’instruction publique sont partie intégrante du programme de ces exhibitions. Ces rencontres constituent alors des vecteurs privilégiés de diffusion commerciale pour les entreprises qui présentent ces objets didactiques singuliers que sont les modèles clastiques, et participent ainsi à une forme de colonisation, par ces entreprises, des territoires du monde vierges de toutes industries scolaires. Un focus est ici donné sur le rayonnement de l’entreprise française du docteur Louis Auzoux, chantre de l’anatomie clastique. Celui que l’empereur Don Pedro II du Brésil nomme en 1873 chevalier de son Ordre de la rose pour le remercier, grâce à son Grand Écorché, d’être « le seul homme qui [lui] ait appris le peu d’anatomie » qu’il connaissait. Certains modèles clastiques du docteur Auzoux, dont l’Homme complet, sont encore visibles au sein d’institutions brésiliennes, comme par exemple le musée de la médecine de l’Université fédérale de Rio de Janeiro, et celui de la pharmacie de l’Université fédérale d’Ouro Preto. Il est alors intéressant de déterminer si ces modèles étaient adaptés au public brésilien, si les notices de montage étaient traduites en portugais, si un transit était opéré via le Portugal. Il est également pertinent de se poser la question de savoir en quoi ces modèles ont pu participer à une forme d’imposition du principe éducatif européen de la leçon de choses au sein du système éducatif brésilien au cours du XIXe siècle.

Towards the second half of 19 th century, along with the extension of the scientific teaching and access to Natural Science studies, both in Europe and America, companies dedicated to scientific material production nourished the cultural and consumption market of science with a plethora of objects. As regards botany, two-and three-dimensional elements were part of classrooms, laboratories, gardens, cabinets, and school museums and natural history museums. These elements comprised a huge array of resources, like dry and projected plants, drawings, printed wall charts, photographs and three-dimensional botanical models. These materials were accessed via catalogues, organized according to current classification schemes, with an offer according to their own practices and adapted to different needs. Through commercial catalogues it is possible to access detailed descriptions that, in turn, were offered as explanatory guides written by specialists who scientifically directed the productions. In this sense, it is of great interest to show the intrinsic link among scientists, drawers, craftsmen and businessmen who allowed the production, commerce and circulation at large scale of varied devices, thus tracing commercial circuits, and collaborative and scientific networks for their entrepreneurship success. In parallel, universal and international expositions were and important sounding board of the scientific and technological novelties of that time, which let certain companies have a
transcontinental geographic reach. In this work, attention will be drawn on the production and circulation of botanical models of the German company Robert Brendel, which achieved an outstanding commercial offer above their contemporaries. Initiated in 1866 by Robert Brendel (1821-1898) and continued by his son Reinhold Brendel (1861-1927), the company achieved an astonishing acceptance and amount of products, maintaining one of the biggest offer of botanical models that existed in the market at that time. It obtained support of the scientific world and a successful fast-response capacity to meet the demands that both the advancements and the teaching of that discipline required at that period. In early-1900, Botany study plans granted more space to the study of vegetal physiology and histology, with a significant increase in observation and experimentation exercises for the study of functions and microscopic anatomic structures. Given this, the technical capability of the Brendel firm to resolve the vegetal world diversity representation at different scales is, up to present time, one of the company’s most distinctive features, which makes it unique in its cultural and patrimonial value around the world.

Hacia la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, al ritmo de la ampliación de la enseñanza científica y el acceso a los estudios de las ciencias naturales, tanto en Europa como en América, empresas dedicadas a la producción de materiales científicos nutrieron al mercado cultural y de consumo de las ciencias con un sinfín de objetos. Para el caso de la botánica, elementos bí y tridimensionales formaron parte de aulas, laboratorios, jardines, gabinetes, museos escolares y museos de historia natural. Elementos que constituyeron una verdadera batería de recursos entre plantas secas y proyectadas, dibujos, ilustraciones impresas, fotografías y modelos botánicos tridimensionales. Estos materiales eran accesibles por catálogo, organizados según los esquemas de clasificación vigentes, con una oferta acorde a sus propias prácticas y adaptada a diferentes necesidades. A través de los catálogos comerciales es posible acceder a descripciones detalladas que, a su vez, se ofrecían con guías explicativas escritas por los especialistas que dirigían científicamente las producciones. En este sentido, es de interés mostrar la intrínseca relación entre científicos, dibujantes, artesanos y empresarios que permitieron la producción, comercio y circulación a gran escala de diversos dispositivos, trazando circuitos comerciales, redes científicas y de colaboración para el éxito de sus emprendimientos. A su vez, las exposiciones universales e internacionales fueron una importante caja de resonancia de las novedades científicas y tecnológicas de la época que permitieron a ciertas empresas tener un alcance geográfico transcontinental. En este trabajo nos detendremos en el caso de la producción y circulación de modelos botánicos de la empresa alemana Robert Brendel, que logró una oferta comercial destacada entre sus contemporáneos. Iniciada en 1866 por Robert Brendel (1821-1898) y continuada luego por su hijo Reinhold Brendel (1861-1927), en pocos años consiguió una asombrosa aceptación y masividad de sus productos, manteniendo una de las ofertas más amplias de modelos botánicos que existía en el mercado en ese momento. Obtuvo respaldo del mundo científico y una gran capacidad de responder rápidamente y de manera exitosa a las demandas que el avance de la disciplina exigía en esa época, así como su enseñanza. Hacia inicios del siglo XX, los programas educativos de Botánica fueron dando mayor espacio al estudio de la fisiología vegetal y la histología, con un incremento significativo de ejercicios de experimentación y observación para el estudio de las funciones y las estructuras anatómicas microscópicas. En este sentido, la capacidad técnica de la firma Brendel para resolver la representación de la diversidad del mundo vegetal y en diferentes escalas es hasta el día de hoy, una de sus características más distintivas, y que forma parte de su actual carácter de unicidad y valor cultural y patrimonial alrededor del mundo.