n his "Outline of a Course of Architectural Instruction," and in an earlier letter to Professor John D. Runkle, Ware makes reference to various educational programs in England, including those established under the auspices of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Architectural Association, and the South Kensington School. Ware was particularly interested in the way these programs could be fused into a curriculum that combined architecture and the applied arts. Working drawings by practicing English architects provided exposure to current European office practice and technique for MIT students, many of whom were apprentices or draftsmen in architectural firms. The drawings and tracings were housed in loose portfolios in the library so students could browse through them at any time. Ware notes: "These books, as well as the photographs, prints, and drawings, which also have been largely added to from year to year, are at all times accessible to the students, and are freely used by them. It has not been found that this freedom has been abused to the injury of the collections, and the advantage to the school is so great that it is worthwhile to run a considerable risk, rather than limit their serviceableness." The surviving Study Collection drawings are primarily by British architects and they include projects by Alfred Waterhouse, Enoch Bassett Keeling, Thomas Little, and Robert Jewell Withers. Reflecting the highly-colored, Victorian-Gothic polychromy then in vogue, the drawings consist largely of ecclesiastic commissions. They also show the architects' interest in the use of new materials. For example, E. Bassett Keeling explored the application of cast iron in his church interiors, while Alfred Waterhouse frequently employed terra cotta in his work. Elevations were often shown on one half of the sheet with various sections, keyed in by numbers, on the other half. Details were either rendered on a large scale or with many drawings on a single sheet. Drawings in pen and ink, watercolor, and pencil on tracing paper or medium weight drawing paper are common in the Collection, and there are many pencil emendations and stray sketches on these pieces. Ware's letters of thanks to Keeling, Waterhouse, David Bryce, and Alexander Thomson for their gifts and hospitality reveal the strong impact his stay in Britain had on him. In the first decade of architectural instruction at MIT, Gothic and Classical precedents were give equal treatment in design problems, with the Gothic eventually being superseded by the Classical.