Main Index Page

Last updated 28/11/2025

x

This page is being used to collect information about the history of the educational paperfolding method known as Paper Sloyd. Please contact me if you know any of this information is incorrect or if you have any other information that should be added. Thank you.

Paper Sloyd is a designation used to describe an educational method that produces useful articles by Cardboard Modelling and other similar 'cut, fold and glue' or 'cut, fold and sew' techniques.

Paper Sloyd is derived from Sloyd proper, which is an educational method that uses woodworking to produce useful objects.

**********

1893

'Sloyd: Educational Manual Training' by Everett Schwartz was published by the Educational Publishing Company in Boston in 1893. It contains chapters on Paper Work and Cardboard Work. Apart from the material used, the difference between Paper Work and Cardboard Work designs is that the Paper Work designs are sewn together while the Cardboard Work designs are glued together using tabs. Both can be considered to be types of Cardboard Modelling.

The word 'Sloyd' is only used in the title of the book, in page and chapter headings throughout the work, and in the Contents ( where it is used as an alternative for wood-working). It is not used by the author in the Preface or elsewhere in the text. This suggests that, to the author, the description 'Sloyd' was only appropriate to wood-working and that the word 'Sloyd' may have been added to the title and chapter headings by the publisher, presumably because it was believed it would make the work more attractive to potential purchasers.

However, the content of Chapter 3: 'Advanced Cardboard-Modelling. Useful Articles' suggests that the principle of Sloyd proper, that the products of manual training should be useful articles, was influencing the way in which Cardboard Work was taught at this date.

**********