Wilbur S. Jackman

Who was Wilbur S. Jackman?

Wilbur Samuel Jackman was an American educator and one of the originators of the nature study movement. Shortly after he was born in Mechanicstown, Ohio, his family moved to California, Pennsylvania where he spent his boyhood growing up on a farm. It was his childhood experiences that engendered him with a love of the outdoors and all the plants and animals that live there.

Jackman continued his education at the California Normal School and graduated from there around age 20. He then continued his education at Harvard University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1884. On his way home after graduation he stopped in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he was promptly offered a job to teach natural science to high school students. It is while he is teaching high school in Pittsburgh that he formulates the nature-study idea.

He was found at the high school in Pittsburgh by Colonel Francis W. Parker in 1889. He was invited by Parker to join the faculty at the Cook County Normal School in Chicago, Illinois. In the fall of 1890, Jackman published bimonthly pamphlets that were 75 pages each titled "Outlines in Elementary Science". In the spring of 1891, these pamphlets were synthesized into the important book published that allowed the whole world to learn about nature-study in his book Nature-Study for Common Schools. After this, he continued to refine his ideas of nature-study in different publications.