A paragraph added to the by-laws of the _Turnerbund_ at the Convention held in Pittsburgh September 1-5, 1856, provided that a school for the complete preparation of teachers in the theory and practice of physical training should be established in the city where the Executive Committee was located. This was almost five years before Dio Lewis opened his Normal Institute for Physical Education in Boston. The next September the Executive Committee, whose headquarters at that time were in Cincinnati, reported to the Detroit Convention that lack of means had prevented the carrying out of the provision. At the Rochester Convention in 1860 (July 30 to August 2) the Committee reaffirmed the necessity of establishing a central normal school, at the same time that it acknowledged the want of success which had hitherto attended its efforts. Soon after the reorganization of the _Turnerbund_ in 1865 the new Executive Committee, in New York City, took up the matter again, and worked out a plan to be laid before the next national convention. Resolutions adopted by a conference of teachers of gymnastics which followed the Cincinnati _Turnfest_ of 1865 also recommended that the step be taken. Both actions were reported to the St. Louis Convention of 1866 (April 1-4), and it was decided to open such an institution at once, with a one-year course which should include lectures on the history and aims of German _Turnen_, anatomy and aesthetics in their relation to gymnastics, and first aid, together with gymnastic nomenclature, the theory of the different systems, and practical instruction with special regard to the training of boys and girls. Only persons whose qualifications as teachers were attested by some _Turnverein_ were to be admitted, and certificates of attendance and proficiency were to be awarded to pupils who were successful in examinations given at the close of the course. The direction of instruction was entrusted to three persons to be appointed by the Executive Committee.