This study about the figure of Horace Manley Lane takes into account

the  struggles of  representations and the  formation of the  American

Schools  network in Brazil in the years 1885 to 1912.  Our objective is

to shed light on this person whose actions were marked by power dis-

putes, and to his educational and missionary practices.  Lane is tradi-

tionally known as a consultant for public education in São Paulo, but

as we shall see,  his actions go further than that which is presented in

the constructed representations in historiography and in the Brazilian

educational field.

 

As an educator, he was a defender of the American Presbyterian edu-

cational model.  In Brazil,  he prompted  the  circulation of some ele-

ments of what was then known as modern pedagogy. Moreover,  this

paper  discusses the fact that one of his  propositions to  disseminate

the American Presbyterianism culture and values ​​was the creation of

the  American  schools' network.  Our  hypothesis  is  that  among  his

practices as an educator there was the organization of schools, especially in cities where he could find the support of Masons, Presbyterians, Republicans; people who were linked to their personal network, thus configuring their power relations with social agents connected with the Masonry,

the education and the Presbyterianism.

 

As an educator, he organized the Mackenzie College, the first private institution of higher education in Brazil.  As a missionary, he presented no connection with the Brazilian Presbyterian field, nor did he attend religious services here. Therefore, he did not work with the first American Presbyterians, through direct evangelization, but rather through education as a way of indirect evangelization. As a missionary and an educator, I have built representations about Brazil, the local education, politics, and the catechism of the indigenous people. Those representations allow us to understand the representations and practices which are little known or worked on in historiography and on the perspective of the history of education. To a theoretical foundation, we bring representation concepts developed by Roger Chartier, the social place category, strategy and tactics in Michel de Certeau, the field concept in Bordieu, the society of ideas in Bastian, and the evidential paradigm in Ginzburg, among others. The research uses primary sources, such as, educational reports produced by Horace Lane, American Presbyterian Church reports, educational prospects, missionaries reports.

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(Translated from Portuguese)

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HORACIO MANLEY LANE – The Patron

 

Horace Manley Lane, baptized Horace Manley Lane, was born on the 29th of July, 1837, in the city of Readfield, Maine, in the United States of America.

 

Horácio Manley Lane himself defines his childhood in an account made to his friend Rangel Moreira. According to the same, his father imposed on him two obligations: reading the Bible and life in Washington. The worship of God and the Fatherland are two guiding aspects of the life and character of the School's Patron.

 

About the Bible, Lane defined: “The poetry that emanates from its pages is so intense, so new, so penetrating, that once it reaches our hearts it will never let go, we will never lose it, although we have those always open to the breath of a more human poetry”.

 

Barely out of adolescence, in 1856, Manley Lane landed in Brazil, when, as soon as he arrived in Rio de Janeiro, where he began teaching at Colégio João Kopke. However, Horacio was soon forced to abandon his educational vocation in order to enter commercial life. A man of unshakable energy, Lane made efforts in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and São Paulo, achieving success in commercial and agricultural undertakings. Owner of a warehouse of American products, domestic utensils and religious items on Rua Nova do Ouvidor, in the center of Rio de Janeiro.

 

Lane was a humanist and a great connoisseur of Brazil, in its most unknown places by the vast majority of its inhabitants, even a Brazilianist.

 

Manley Lane married Ellen Williams, a consortium in which he had the

following children: Dr. Fred S. Lane, dentist; Dr. Horacio Manley Lane

Junior, MD;  Dr. GW Lane, engineer;  Ms. Margaret E. Lane;  Fanny M.

Lane; Dr. Rufus King Lane (who would succeed him as director of Mac-

kenzie); Dr. L. Job Lane, MD; and, Ms. Susane S. Lane.

 

His  wife  having  died in 1879,  he returned  with his  children  to the

United States,  earning a  doctorate in Medicine.  After  the  death of

his wife in 1879, he returned to the United States with their five child-

ren, to later return to Brazil in 1883.

 

Although involved in commercial and agricultural activities, Horacio

Lane  continued to  devote  part of  his  time to  education.  Alread y a

renowned  physician  and  educator  by  vocation,  in 1884,  at the  re-

quest  of the  Reverend  Chamberlain,  he took  over  the  direction of

the  American  School,  which  would   later  receive  the  name  of

the Protestant  College,  later  Mackenzie College,  and later the  Mac-

kenzie Institute,  an entity of which he was one of the founders.  Two

years later he would become president of the institution.

 

His experience at the head of Mackenzie College was unanimously

recognized. So much so that in 1890, Bernardino de Campos, pres-

ident  of  the  State  of  São  Paulo,  together  with  Cezário  Motta,

secretary of Education, and Caetano de Campos decided to stream-

line  state  public  instruction,  organizing it  along  the lines  of the

modern  pedagogy  implemented  in  the American  School.  At  the

time, Lane was invited by Cezário Motta to occupy the post of Edu-

cational Consultant for Public Teaching, which he readily accepted.

Lane's contribution to public education in the State of São Paulo is

immeasurable  and  recognized  to this  day.  Horacio was  also

a member of the Historical Institute of São Paulo.

 

In spite of the genesis of Mackenzie being Presbyterian, Lane never

adopted a sectarian posture, he claimed to be an educator and not a

preacher.

 

At Mackenzie College, education was excellent and the treatment of students could not be more equal. In the words of Horácio Manley Lane, we find one of the most precise definitions of the school at the time:

 

“This is the only successful mixed school in the entire Empire and so the value and co-education is very strongly emphasized. Girls are more feminine and self-possessed; the most polite and polite boys. Educational and social values ​​cannot be exaggerated by acting on social changes in society here. In our school the baron's son sits on the same bench next to the baron's coachman's son or the baron's gardener. The president's children are confused with the children of immigrants with scholarships and they learn from them, in the same book, that all are equally children of our great Father and that the same Lord died to save them all.”

 

On October 28, 1912, in the city of São Paulo, the distinguished educator left for the Eternal East. Many were the expressions of grief in his honor. In compliance with his latest provisions, his coffin was carried by employees of his agricultural property and buried in the Protestant Cemetery of São Paulo.

 

Senator Freitas Valle, in the National Congress, after his death referred to the extinct one as “Great Brazilian”, due to the endless contributions to the educational system. Several honors were awarded to him. The Laboratory Building and the Mackenzie Academic Engineering Center are named after him. In the same institution, a bronze bust was erected in his honor in 1950. Also at the Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie, building 3 was named after him, in addition to the Horace Lane Aeronautical Club, and finally, the Horácio Manley Lane State School, in municipality of São Roque.

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Chácara Lane – property listed in 2004 by CONPRESP / Municipal Council for the Preservation of the Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the City of São Paulo – is a remnant of an old São Paulo farm built at the end of the 19th century and an important historical reference for the memory of the urban settlements in the city. At the end of the century, the wealthier residents had, in addition to their housing in the central urban core, farms located in areas close to the city center or on its outskirts for family leisure.

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It was the residence of the Reverend George W. Chamberlain and served as the seat of the American School, which gave rise to Mackenzie Presbyterian University. In 1906, Dr. Lauriston Job Lane acquired from the reverend's widow, Mary Amnesty Chamberlain, the farm located at Rua da Consolação 1024, comprising a house and improvements. Dr. Job Lane built on this land an office designed by architect Jorge Krug. In Brazil, the transition from the 19th to the 20th century was marked by changes in the economy, politics and society. The Republic, the end of slavery and the expansion of the coffee economy caused profound changes in the city of São Paulo, precisely at the time when the farms were divided into lots.

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The Chácara Lane, whose current address is Rua da Consolação, between Itambé and Piauí streets, however, remained as a farm until the 1940s, when it was bought by the city to open subdivisions on the site, which was not executed, as the technicians from that time they concluded that the streets would be too narrow and only small houses could be built.

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Chamberlain    https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A1cara_Lane

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https://www.mackenzie.br/en/the-institution/presidents-gallery/

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https://www.geni.com/people/Horace-Lane/6000000012364962318

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Horace Manley Lane

Birthdate:July 29, 1837

Birthplace:Redfield Hill, Mount Desert,

Hancock County, Maine, United States

Death:October 27, 1912 (75)
São Paulo, Brazil

Place of Burial:Sao Paulo, SP, Brasil

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Immediate Family:

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Son of Rufus King Lane and Electa Lane

Husband of Ellen Maria Williams Lane

Father of Frederick Sweetser Lane; Horace Manley Lane, Jr.; Giles Williams Lane; Margaret Electa Lane; Fanny Maria Lane; Rufus King Lane; Lauriston Job Lane and Suzie Lane Williams 

Brother of Frederick Hudgdon Lane; Greenleaf Davis Lane; Hiram Davis Lane; Charlotte Ann Lane; Abby Frances Lane; and Charles W Lane 

Half brother of Ann Mehitable Lane; Rufus William Vance Lane; Mary H Lane; James Vance Lane; Louisa Camilla Lane; and Ann Lane 

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Occupation:Founder of McKenzie College

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