Barnard, Henry (1811–1900)

US educator. Barnard did much to improve education at public schools in the state of Connecticut, and was later hired to institute similar reforms elsewhere in the USA. He was appointed the first US Commissioner of Education, 1867–70.

Barnard was born at Hartford, Connecticut, and educated at nearby Yale. He became a member of the Connecticut legislature; after reorganizing its state schools, 1837–42, he then reformed the education systems of Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Maryland. He was one of the pioneers of comparative education, and founded and edited the American Journal of Education, 1855–81. Together with Horace Mann, Barnard laid the foundations of public education in America.