Wilbur S. Jackman

Jackman was born in Mechanicstown, Ohio, and shortly after his birth the family moved to California, Pennsylvania, where he spent his boyhood growing up on a farm that his grandfather had obtained from the local Indians in exchange for a copper kettle.

On his way home after graduation he stopped at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was promptly offered a job to teach natural science to high school students.

Jackman was influenced by Johann Friedrich Herbart, Johann Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel and other European educators and believed that children's enthusiasm needed to be utilized to incorporate introductions to all subjects including mathematics, chemistry and biology within nature.

Colonel Francis W. Parker met him in 1889 and invited him 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".