After completing Boy’s High in Brooklyn at the age of seventeen, Weber
entered the Normal or teacher training course in Manual Training at
Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Weber chose the teaching profession as a
respectable career as it did not interfere with the Saturday Sabbath.
At Pratt Weber studied with Arthur Wesley Dow, an eminent professor of
art who would leave a lasting impact on the young artist’s career.
Weber remained an additional year with Dow at Pratt after he graduated with a teaching certificate in 1900.
He then taught manual training and construction drawing at a high
school in Lynchburg, Virginia for two years, after which he was
offered a position at a college in Duluth, Minnesota. By 1905 Weber
had saved enough money to finance an extended stay in Paris, then the
epicenter of the art world, and in September he sailed to Europe. In
Paris he prepared himself for the art career that would establish him
as an artist of note.
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