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Many schools went to great lengths to acquire blackboards. By mid-century, in an attempt to disseminate learning, school reformers such as Henry Barnard published instructions for easy and cheap blackboard construction. Barnard described a means of producing a substance to cover the board, and methods of application. He also endorsed the use of plaster blackboards, consisting of walls painted with a black substance, as an alternative to the more expensive slate. (Barnard, 245) Such notions increased demand for the boards, and education departments and manufacturers received numerous requests from across North America.

Movable frame blackboard, 1840s. From Henry Barnard. School Architecture. (New York: Teachers College Press, [1970] 1842.), 244.

The blackboard was a necessary feature for any reputable school, and a requirement to establish a good rapport with students. It represented school status but also firmly defined the authority of the teacher, even in less established school systems. At the beginning of the 19th century, pedagogical apparatus endowed the user with professional status. While its status became somewhat diminished, the blackboard continued as an important material element in communicating the authority of the teacher.

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