In June 1869, a coalition of 12 individuals and two businesses presented the Massachusetts state legislature with a carefully crafted petition. This document called for lawmakers to take action in requesting that the State Board of Education develop a plan to initiate drawing instruction in Massachusetts public schools, or to establish educational institutions for teaching this subject of study in the larger municipalities of the state. The action of these 14 signatories appears to have been a first-of-its-kind lobbying effort by a special interest group directed toward a state legislature on behalf of visual arts education in the United States. Lawmakers responded quickly and positively to this petition, which led the following year to passage of the Massachusetts Drawing Act. This article is a discussion of 10 specific considerations drawn from studying the 1869 Massachusetts drawing education petition and its framers. Art educators are encouraged to examine and possibly employ these considerations in undertaking efforts to influence legislative processes and effect policy decisions that are pivotal to the current and future development of art education. (Contains 13 footnotes.)