e it. Peter was a wealthy woman of stature and decided to start this school in one of the rooms of her mansion and to hire a teacher to hold regular classes for women in art and design. (As a wonderful incentive for all women, tuition was free for the poor and the wealthy paid a very small sum.) Sarah Peter saw how truly poor the traditional education for women was and she strongly believed that every woman should “stand by her sex,” thus her reasoning for establishing this soon to become famous art school. As Peter saw it, she wished to give young women “some practical training,…should [they] so desire or the necessity arise, for well paying self support,” (qtd. in Philadelphia School of Design for Women 6). In addition to her personal feelings, she had a very specific reason for starting the Philadelphia school—train women to create designs for the city’s industrial lines, such as textiles, lithographing, wood engraving, floor coverings, and furniture. From this point on, Peter devoted the rest of her life to overseeing the School and also traveled around the U.S. to establish art schools, like the Philadelphia, in other cities (Philadelphia School of Design for Women 6-11).The Philadelphia School of Design for Women originally had three departments from which young women could take classes: drawing, industrial, and wood engravings/lithography.The majority of the women were instructed within the drawing department, in which pupils made copies of original compositions and applied coloring and shading. From here on, depending on the instructor, they would progress toward drawings from casts and life (Philadelphia School of Design for Women 23-24). The industrial department showed the women applications of drawing, shading, and coloring to the art of design. Surprisingly, these designs and patterns created by the women of the Philadelphia School were secured under copyright law for some...
