New York College for the Training of Teachers, later known as Teachers College of Columbia University, was founded to provide leadership in industrial arts. Being the first college to offer professional coursework and industrial education programs solely to graduate students, the institution became the site of multiple and important curriculum projects.

Reverend James Russell established St. Paul School in Lawrenceville, Virginia. The manual labor trade school was the first to offer academic subjects only at night. St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School, along with Tuskegee and Hampton, were the three longest-lasting, African-American, industrial schools.

"James S. Russell was born a slave in 1857 on a Mecklenburg County, Virginia plantation. After Reconstruction, he attended the Hampton Institute and later the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Petersburg, Virginia. In 1882, he moved to Lawrenceville, Virginia to organize a congregation. Six years later, in 1888, Russell started a normal school, named St. Paul's, for the children of his congregation. In 1893, he also became the Archdeacon of Southern Virginia. In addition to his educational activities at St. Paul¼s, Russell also launched several progressive community programs, such as Rosenwald school-building projects and medical services. He retired in 1928 and was succeeded by his son, Rev. J. Alvin Russell."