19th Century Education:  Double desk, student desks, sewing display, pie safe, and graduation dress.

When the Nacogdoches University began in 1845, it was an institution of higher learning that also offered college preparatory courses.  After a hiatus during the Civil War, the institution resumed classes in 1869 and by the 1890s the trustees had added coursework for grammar students.  The double desk is original to the building.  Next are the student desks of the 1880s and 1890s.  Female students learned the usual reading, writing, and arithmetic, but they also were expected to learn fine needlework as demonstrated by the sewing display.  Many late-nineteenth students lived in a nearby dormitory and brought their meals upstairs and stored them in the pie safes.  The final display case includes students’ books and a graduation dress from the 1890s.