School Days, School Days, Happy Golden Rule Days

QUESTION: Not long ago, I began collecting little school awards cards. I also collect postcards and found several of these at a postcard show. Each seems to have been personalized for a particular student and covered a variety of topics. What can you tell me about these cards? Are they worth collecting? And how old might they be?

ANSWER: It’s that time of year when schools let out for summer vacation. It’s also the time when students receive awards for a variety of achievements. Today, only a select few receive awards, but in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, many students received them in the form of Reward of Merit cards.

As early as 1780, Robert Raikes , editor of the Gloucester Journal, opened his first Sunday school in Massachusetts. He began a reward of merit system to maintain discipline, appropriate behavior and good and punctual attendance.

Eighteenth-century hand drawn, colored and hand painted Reward of Merit cards from this early period are considered American folk art by many collectors. Earlier cards had religious subject matter, with poetry, sermons and verses from the Bible. Beginning in the early to mid-19th century, Rewards of Merit became less religious and pious in nature, gearing themselves more toward children's topics, games, child scenes, and patriotic flags and eagles, especially those printed at the time of the American Civil War.



The very earliest examples were simple hand-written notes of praise. Early printed cards were printed on thin pieces of paper with black ink. Most had had a fancy border and the words “Reward of Merit” printed on them. Some printers added illustrations copied from children's chapbooks or newspapers. Pictures often depicted patriotic and seasonal symbols, trains, ships, people and animals.

The top of the card usually read "Reward of Merit," with the well behaved students name written below, followed by the signature of the teacher who issued the reward. Teachers presented these Reward of Merit cards not only for academic achievement but also for punctuality, attendance, proper and good right conduct, and overall signs of improvement in early 19th century one-room schools. Victorian mothers often pasted these cards into scrapbooks to show a their child's achievement and performance at school.

In the 1850s, teachers began to add color to their merit cards by hand-tinting them. Some printers used the chromolithographic process popular in the greeting card industry. Side inscriptions might have included a full-length poem or a saying.

Rewards of Merit cards came in packs of 10 assorted cards, with four designs to the package. Prices varied depending on sizes and workmanship. Most were imported. The most expensive, 40 or 50 cents for 10, were the die-cut examples. Embossed groupings started at 8 cents a package and ran up to 30 cents.

Those teachers who didn’t want to select their own cards could use an optional selection service. The young ladies who did this had good taste and sent the best and prettiest they could for the money sent.



What were these rewards given for? Many came printed with their topic—Neatness in Writing, Correctness in Recitation, Diligence and Good Behavior, Correct.'Deportment, Never Absent-Never Irate. Others had lines for the teacher to fill in. It’s obvious when reading them that teachers often used Rewards of Merit as tokens of affection with inscriptions such as “A Fine Boy or Girl.”

Teachers never looked upon Reward of Merit cards as educational aids. They were gifts in return for something worth recognizing. Although some could be inscribed with such words as "best" in math or English or Latin, they were never part of the grading system. They were the way teachers could say, “You did a good job,” and “Thank you.”

Sunday School teachers also gave reward cards that usually featured scripture. Some were the same size as the Reward of Merit Cards, but many were stickers as small as postage stamps. Their messages reflect their theme—Live Like Jesus, Blessed Be God, Be Thou Faithful, My Hope is in Thee, Maintain Good Works, The Lord is With Thee.

Publishers began printing standardized mass produced rewards for the American public later in the 19th century. The teacher might simply fill in the name of the student, write a signature, and be done. The George P. Brown and Company School Supplies Catalog of the 1890s devoted the first three pages of Day-School Reward Cards.

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