National Academy School of Fine Arts History When the Academy was founded, there were few public art galleries and no art schools in New York. The school's first classes in 1826 were located in the Old Alms House at City Hall Park. During its early years of operation, groups of young artists met with established professionals to draw from casts. Classes averaged about twenty-five pupils, but in later years that number doubled. A portion of the original educational program was devoted to lectures given by such distinguished men as William Cullen Bryant, Gulian C. Verplanck, and Alexander Jackson Davis, on topics that included anatomy, perspective, ancient history, architecture, and mythology. In 1837, the Academy added a Life School to its curriculum for advanced male students. A life class for women, however, was not instituted until 1857, even though women had always been allowed membership in the Academy and were relatively frequent contributors to its annual exhibitions. As early as 1831, in fact, the Council had opened the School of the Antique "for a class of ladies on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 12 to 3 o'clock." Classes for women were held sporadically from that time on until, in the 1870s, women constituted about one-third of the student body, a proportion that has increased still further during the last few decades. Academy members volunteered their services or were assigned as instructors in the school, following the practice of the British Royal Academy, after which the National Academy had been modeled. Lemuel Wilmarth was appointed the first full-time instructor in January 1870, by which time the school was located at Fourth Avenue and 23rd Street. Under Wilmarth's leadership, the number of classes and the enrollment increased, and new techniques such as the quick-sketch, were introduced in response to changing esthetic criteria. The school moved uptown to Amsterdam Avenue and 109th Street in the first decade of this century and to its present location in 1959. The Academy school introduced sculpture classes in 1886, a course in design and modeling of coins in 1893, an etching class the following year, a course in illustration in 1901, and mural painting in 1915. Throughout all the years and the shifts in taste and fashion the School has remained true to the standards of excellence as established by the founders.