author
George Alexander Ross
A practical early-20th-century teacher of woodwork, he wrote clear, hands-on manuals meant to guide students step by step at the bench and lathe. His books capture a time when manual training was becoming an important part of technical education in America.
1 Audiobook
About the author
George Alexander Ross was a woodworking instructor in Chicago and taught at the Lewis Institute, where he focused on woodwork and pattern making. His books were written for students in manual training, high schools, and technical schools, and they aim to make shop work orderly, approachable, and useful.
Ross is best known for Elementary Course in Woodwork (1901) and Wood Turning (1909). In these manuals, he laid out graduated exercises, practical shop methods, and close attention to tools and technique, reflecting the growing place of hands-on industrial education in the early 1900s.
He also wrote Old Glory: The Story of Our Country's Flag (1913), showing that his interests reached beyond the workshop. Today, his work remains valuable both as instruction and as a window into how woodworking and technical training were taught in his era.