Belfield, Henry H. (Henry Holmes), 1837-1912

Educator. A.B., Iowa College, 1858. A.M., Griswold College, 1861; and Iowa College, 1868. Ph. D., Iowa College, 1878. Principal and superintendent of public schools, Dubuque, Iowa. Principal at various public schools, Chicago. Director, Chicago Manual Training School, 1883-1903. Dean of Technology Course, University of Chicago Laboratory High School, 1903-1908.

Henry Holmes Belfield, educator, was born November 17, 1837, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family moved west in 1846, living in Iowa and Missouri. Belfield received an A.B. degree from Iowa College in 1858, A.M. degrees from Griswold College in 1861 and Iowa College in 1868, and a Ph.D. from Iowa College in 1878. Before moving to Chicago in 1866, he served as Principal and Superintendent of Public Schools in Dubuque, Iowa, and as an assistant adjutant general in the 8th Iowa Cavalry.

In Chicago, Belfield worked as Principal of Jones School, 1866-1868, Dore School, 1868-1876, and North Division High School, 1876-1883. In 1883 he was appointed as the first Director of the newly-formed Chicago Manual Training School. He and his family moved to Hyde Park the following year.

The Chicago Manual Training School was created by the Commercial Club of Chicago, its trustees included E. W. Blatchford, R. T. Crane, W. A. Fuller, Marshall Field, John Crerar, John W. Doane, W. K. Fairbank, Edson Keith, and George M. Pullman. It was conceived not as a trade school but as a high school that combined training in carpentry, drawing, and machine shopwork with mathematics, science, and language in a program of general education. The first of its kind in Chicago, it served as a model for the R. T. Crane Manual Training School and Armour Institute, as well as similar schools in other cities.

In 1897 the Commercial Club offered the school as a gift to the University of Chicago, and in 1903 it was merged with the South Side Academy to form the University High School. Belfield's title was changed to Dean of the Technological Course of the University High School, since the Manual Training School was technically dissolved. He served in that position until his retirement in 1908. Although he had recommended the acquisition of the school by the University, he felt that it was unfortunate that much of the school's identity and character were lost through the administrative changes. Belfield died June 5, 1912.