CATHARINE BEECHER AND HER CONTRIBUTIONS TO HOME ECONOMICS

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COLORADO STATE COLLS(2) OF EDUCATION Greeley, Colorado The Graduate School

CATHARINE BEECHER AND HER CONTRIBUTIONS TO HOME ECONOMICS

Field Study Number 1

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Education in Colorado State College of Education Greeley, Colorado

Charlotte Elizabeth Biester

Division of Education June 3 0 , 1950

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THIS STUDY WAS SPONSORED BY

Research Professor

RESEARCH AND EXAMINATION COMMITTEE

XL

y\ v.—v

DIRECTOR OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

(?,X Examination oa^Fi.eld Study Number 1

Date S " '/" S o

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ABSTRACT Biester, Charlotte Elizabeth, Catharine Beecher and Her Contributions to Home Economics, Field Study No. 1, Unpublished Doctor’s Field Study, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado, 1950. This study of Catharine Beecher and her contributions to home economics describes her life and her part in the home economics movement.

Catharine Beecher was the eldest child of Dr. Lyman and

Roxanna Foote Beecher.

She was born September 6, 1800, at East

Hampton, Long Island, and died May 12, 1878, at Elmira, New York. Lyman and Roxanna Beecher were outstanding people and Catharine and her brothers and sisters also were remarkable in their development and individual attainments.

Seldom is it found that a father of the

repute of Lyman Beecher has children who also become outstanding leaders.

More than half of his eleven children who grew to maturity

became famous.

Two became pre-eminent; in fact, Harriet and Henry Ward

are the only two members from a single family who are recognized in the Hall of Fame.

Catharine Beecher, together with Emma Willard and Mary

Lyon, is considered to be one of the great personalities who promoted education for women in the nineteenth century.

Edward Beecher is

recalled as the founder of The Congregationalist and the first president of Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois.

Charles

Beecher, a teacher and clergyman, selected the music for the Plymouth Collection (1855), the first hymnal of the Congregational Church. Thomas Beecher’s conception of a church equipped with a gymnasium, a library, lecture rooms, and other provisions for social work, launched the "institutional" church movement.

Isabella Beecher was an

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ii

inveterate worker for woman’s suffrage, and due to her effort, the Community Property Rights Bill was passed by the Connecticut Legislature.

Lyman Beecher's children, like their father, were

courageous reformers. They revolted against the Calvinistic doctrines within their church; they crusaded for woman's suffrage; they worked for the abolition of slavery; they encouraged improvement in education. Catharine Beecher's philosophy and career are products of the society in which she lived.

She was born in the decade following the

ratification of the Declaration of Independence and the acceptance of the Bill of Rights.

It was a period when a new nationalism was

evolving in the United States and when a new system of education for women was developing.

In the eighteenth century, the state had made

little provision for schools for girls.

The Church, private agencies,

and the home usually assumed this responsibility. permitted, girls were sent to dame's schools.

If family finances

These often were

conducted in the home of the school mistress who divided her time between teaching and her housework.

In a majority of families, it was

customary for the mother to act as teacher.

Catharine Beecher's early

schooling followed this traditional practice; it was undertaken by her mother in their home. By the end of the eighteenth century, academies and seminaries were extending opportunities to girls for education beyond the gradeschool level.

Among the noteworthy academies of the period was the one

conducted by Miss Sarah Pierce at Litchfield, Connecticut, which was founded in 1792.

Catharine Beecher received her high school education

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at this school.

As the state provided no opportunity for the

preparation of teachers in 1818, -when Catharine Beecher decided to become a teacher, she returned to Miss Pierce's Female Academy where she acted as an assistant.

This experience made it possible for her to

qualify as a teacher of music, drawing, and painting in New London, Connecticut, in 1821. Catharine Beecher began her career in an era when women were gaining in recognition.

Their ability to develop organizations was

demonstrated by the success of the Female Cent Institution.

As workers

they moved from the home to the factory and thus became a part of the factory system.

Periodicals appeared which catered to women's needs and

the affairs of women.

Among those interested in improving their status

were women who sought political equality.

Catharine Beecher considered

women's need for equality to be not a matter of suffrage but opportunities for education.

She advocated that the state provide

training for girls equivalent to that provided for boys.

She also

believed that the development of education for girls at the elementary and secondary levels had reached a point where education at the college level was needed. An attempt to establish college training for women was made by Estima Millard in 1819 at Waterford, New York.

Two years later, in 1821,

Catharine Beecher opened the Hartford Female Seminary at Hartford, Connecticut.

It was the second institution in the United States to

offer higher education to girls.

Contemporary with these ventures of

Emma Willard and Catharine Beecher was the Ipswich Academy conducted by

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Zilpah Grant at Ipswich, Massachusetts, which opened in 1827.

These

three institutions served as models for Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, founded ten years later by Maiy Lyon. Catharine Beecher was doubtful concerning the success of her female seminary. age.

She was inexperienced and only twenty-two years of

Traditionally higher education was considered appropriate for men

only, and it was customary for the teaching to be done by a schoolmaster.

Had her enterprise been started in the I850*s rather

than in the 1820’s, she might have viewed her decision less skeptically, or she might have considered another type of profession.

The success

in the middle of the century of many of the eminent women who followed these leaders may be attributed largely to the foundations laid by Emma Millard, Catharine Beecher, and others who pioneered in higher education for women in the first decades of the period.

By 1850 the sphere of

the opportunities for women had changed and broadened; a certain measure of acceptance and recognition had been gained in social service, science, art and music, belles lettres and journalism, reform movements, and education. Throughout the decades when these younger women were being educated and gaining recognition in ‘their respective professions, Catharine Beecher continued to crusade for the education of women.

In

1838 Emma Millard retired from the active management of the Troy Female Seminary, and in the following year Zilpah Grant resigned from the Ipswich Academy and married.

Mary Lyon lived only twelve years after

she had established Mount Holyoke Seminary.

On the other hand,

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Catharine Beecher never retired.

With an invincible spirit, she

continued to promote the movement for the education of women.

Much of

the credit for the introduction of home economics, for higher education for women, and for the fact that these movements did not lose momentum during the middle nineteenth century, may be accredited to her leadership. Catharine Beecher was by no means the first person to evolve a philosophy of education in which women as homemakers had a part. Aristotle had argued that the home was the woman’s sphere.

Plato had

proposed that girls have training comparable to that provided for boys. Xenophon's classic, QEconomicus, or The Management of a Farm and Household, publicized Socrates' plan for a home economy which provided for the operation of the family as a democratic unit, and the need of scientific training for homemaking.

Erasmus, Vives, and Luther

encouraged education for home and family living in the next centuiy. Their views were supported by Comenius, who vigorously refuted the statements of his predecessors concerning women's inability to learn. Fenelon's TraitI de l 1Education des Filles. written in 1687, like Xenophon's CEconomicus. seems to provide a basis for some of Catharine Beecher's work.

Fenelon prescribed a broad scope of subject matter

which he considered essential to home economics education.

Both

Xenophon's and Fenelon's ideas relative to home economics are reflected in Catharine Beecher's nineteenth-century books.

Her concepts of

subject matter have much in common with the thinkers who lived before and during the early part of the seventeenth century.

However, her

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------------------------------------------------------------------- ad. ideas for presenting subject matter coincided with those of Rousseau, Herbart, and Pestalozzi. In the nineteenth century, many eminent statesmen, journalists, clergymen, and educators were in agreement with Catharine Beecher’s philosophy concerning heme economics.

Some gave her courage through

the prestige which their support contributed, while others, like Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, and Thomas Gallaudet, were wholeheartedly in accord with her proposals for home economics as a part of education for women. In 1831, when Lyman Beecher moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, Catharine Beecher announced that Thomas H. Gallaudet would be in charge of the Hartford Female Semi nary, and accompanied her father to Ohio.

Planning

a program for the Western Female Institute at Cincinnati was Catharine Beecher's next educational venture.

The institute was to prepare

teachers and serve as a distribution center for teachers from the East who wished to go west.

When that school closed because of inadequate

funds, she conceived a definite plan for permanently endowed institutions of higher learning for girls and found supporters for the establishment of female institutes and high schools in the Mississippi Valley.

An outgrowth of this activity was the American Woman's

Education Association, which was organized by Catharine Beecher in New York to support her plan and to sponsor endowments for women's colleges. As a result of Catharine Beecher's work, normal Institutes were started at Burlington and Dubuque, Iowa; Quincy, Illinois; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee-Downer College in the latter city is the only

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— ■ -________________________________________________ 20JL one which survived, and is a monument to this program. Catharine Beecher included the teaching of home economics in her plan for endowed institutions.

Mhen she first proposed the subject

she called, it "domestic economy."

Later, as the knowledge of science

developed, she adopted the term "domestic science."

This plan for home

economics, which Catharine Beecher presented a century ago, included suggestions for adequate staff and space, both of which she considered essential.

She advocated that a separate classroom, a home management

house, and at least two instructors for this department, be provided. Theory and basic science were to be taught in the classroom, while the home management house would afford opportunity for the application of the art and science of homemaking in a life situation.

The recruitment

of teachers, which also was a phase of the "Beecher education plan," included a training school systea which Catharine

Beecher felt would

add to the competence of teachers coming from the

East to teach in the

West.

Among the topics which she discussed in this series of lectures,

were the methods and procedures for teaching certain aspects of hone economics.

Catharine Beecher maintained thatscience was basic to an

intelligent study of the problems of the home

andthat an application

of science was essential to good teaching in heme economics.

She

disagreed with Mary Lyon, who held that domestic science consisted of the performance of household tasks about the seminary.

She considered

such a plan to be only a method of lessening expenses and unworthy of the title.

According to Catharine Beecher’s conception of the subject,

home economics could be taught both in theory and practice as a system

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viii of principles logically arranged.

Isabel Bevier, home economics leader

in the twentieth century, considered that the emphasis on scientific background which Catharine Beecher gave to home economics was her most important contribution to the field. Catharine Beecher did not wholly originate the idea of home economics as a subject-matter field.

It had been proposed by Buma

Willard in 1819, when she presented her plan for the improvement of higher education for women in American education.

However, she believed

that a course in home economics could not be introduced until suitable textbooks were available.

When Emma Willard retired in 1838, Catharine

Beecher was preparing a general home economics textbook which appeared in 1841 as A Treatise on Domestic Economy. In the following year Miss Beecher1s Domestic Receipt Book was published as a laboratory manual. Thus in the early 1340's Catharine Beecher supplied the fundamental material which made a course in home economics a possibility. A Treatise on Domestic Economy was circulated widely, having been printed eleven times between 1841, the date of its first appearance, and 1869.

In that year, with the help of her sister Harriet Beecher

Stowe, it was revised and the title was changed to The American Woman1s Home. The adoption of A Treatise on Domestic Economy by the critical members of the Massachusetts Board of Education was a great achievement. This was the first book on home economics to be recognized officially by the educational profession.

Other noteworthy home economics books

for which Catharine Beecher was responsible were Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper, The Principles of Domestic Science. and

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ix The New Housekeeper* s Manual. Although Harriet Beecher Stowe collaborated as author of the two latter texts, the subject matter was essentially a revision of A Treatise on Domestic Economy. As time • progressed, the subject of suffrage for women became an important issue in the women's movement.

While her contemporaries were making plans for

the Women's Rights Convention in 1848, Catharine Beecher increased her efforts to publicize her plan for education.

She appealed to American

women to consider education instead of the vote and again seized the opportunity for bringing home economics as women's true profession to the attention of the public.

She cited a type of course vhich would

enable girls to become competent homemakers, suggesting as topics management of resources, foods, health, clothing, housing and furnishings.

She also included family relationships and child care as a

part of professional training in homemaking for women.

Although the

teaching of home economics in higher education had been her greatest concern up to this time, she now suggested that the subject be adapted to elementary and secondary levels. Numerous contributions and a long list of thirty-three books, appearing from 1827 to 1874, are testimonies to Catharine Beecher's ability as a writer.

Her titles were varied as to subject, but a unity

of purpose gives continuity to her work.

One of the outstanding aspects

of her propaganda was her persistent plea for the adoption of domestic economy as an area of instruction in female seminaries.

Apparently she

never wrote an article or a book which did not in some way refer to this idea.

Despite the fact that the titles of her writings might seem to

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have no connection with home economics, she found some provocation for digressing to this subject in the course of the discussion. Catharine Beecher was the outstanding exponent of home economics for more than two-thirds of the nineteenth century.

According to Ellen

H. Richards, who assumed leadership for the home economics movement in 1899, Catharine Beecher is the founder of the home economics movement. Her numerous publications provide detailed information concerning the contributions which Catharine Beecher made to current home economics programs.

Her philosophy pertaining to the subject is sound.

Nearly a

century ago she propounded the home to be the most important institution in democracy.

She considered the homemaker to be a professional person

who was a producer, a consumer, and a co-ordinator of heme and community life.

Combined with these responsibilities was the obligation

for the rearing of children so that they might be worthy citizens in a democracy.

Catharine Beecher's broad conception of the scope of

essential subject matter which should be included in home economics gave direction to the heme economics movement. Catharine Beecher's home economics textbooks, which contributed to the accomplishments of the Lake Placid Conferences on Home Economics, and later to the American Home Economics Association, were organized in a scholarly fashion. specialist.

Catharine Beecher was a general hone economics

Her concern was to provide women, not merely with

information about foods and housing, but with a body of knowledge which recognized all areas of homemaking.

The subdivisions of subject matter

to be found in her books are foods and nutrition; family economics and

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home management; family relationships and child development; health; housing, equipment, and furnishings; and textiles, clothing, and applied arts.

With the extensive developments in research and in -the

information available for the teaching and practice of home economics, the subdivisions once included in a single volume on the subject are now represented by subject-matter areas in departments or colleges of home economics.

The relative emphasis given to some of these areas

by Catharine Beecher does not differ widely from the emphasis on comparable areas in current curricula planned for majors in general home economics. During a century when democracy was in its infancy, and the movemeit for the education of women needed help from women themselves, Catharine Beecher supplied the needed leadership.

Early in her career

she became an active proponent of home economics.

From 182? to 1878,

during a crucial time when most of the policies governing present-day education were being formulated, Catharine Beecher continuously advocated the inclusion of home economics in higher education.

Her

concept of the place of home economics in a liberal education was invaluable to future leaders in the field.

Her philosophy for home

economics was so broad and inclusive that it served as a foundation for the work of the members of the Lake Placid Conference in 1899, and ten years later for the initial vrork of the American Heme Economics Association.

Catharine Beecher gave impetus to the home economics

movement by providing practical and useful concepts of subject matter. In her textbook, A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841), and in her

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201

later publications which she used as a means of introducing home economics to the public, she recognized the significance of science in the teaching and practice of homemaking.

Some of the methods for •

teaching the subject which she advocated, and the subdivisions of the field of home economics which were suggested in Catharine Beecher’s textbooks, are commonly accepted and may be recognized in current home economics programs. Ellen H. Richards, eminent for the leadership which she gave to home economics in her time, took little credit for organizing the heme economics movement.

She ascribed its true beginning to Catharine

Beecher and her booksc With Xenophon's QSconomicus and Fenelon’s Trait^ de 1 ’Education des Filles, Catharine Beecher's Treatise on Domestic Economy takes its place as a classic in home economics literature.

Catharine Beecher was more than a pioneer in the movement

for the education of women and in home economics.

She was the founder

of home economics.

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PREFACE

The name of Catharine Beecher commonly is associated with the ' history of women's education.

Both Dr. Isabel Bevier and Dr. Benjamin

R. Andrews have commended highly Catharine Beecher's pioneer work in home economics.

Study with these two teachers at the University of

Illinois and Columbia University has led to a keen interest in the life and work of Catharine Beecher. Too little recognition has been given to Catharine Beecher's contributions to home economics.

As founder of the home economics

movement, she provided a basis for the development of this field of subject matter.

Ellen H. Richards and her associates, two generations

later, built on this foundation and developed a permanent organization. In turn, as a result of the work of Dr. Bevier, Dr. Andrews, and many leaders in the twentieth century, the home economics movement has been extended nationally and internationally. ¥idely scattered source materials have been brought together in this study.

The assistance of many persons in collecting these

materials is gratefully acknowledged. have been shared freely.

The facilities of many libraries

These include the Henry E. Huntington Library,

San Marino, California; the John Crerar Library, Chicago, Illinois; the James Jerome Hill Library, and the library of the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Additional reference material has been

provided by the libraries of the Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado; the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois; Iowa

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State College, Ames, Iowa; Kansas State College, Manhattan, Kansas; the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon; and the Santa Barbara College, University of California, Santa Barbara, California. Many persons have given encouragement, suggestions, criticism, and other help in the preparation of this manuscript, all of which has been sincerely appreciated.

Dean Arthur F. Zimmerman, research professor,

Dr. Earle U. Rugg, and Professor Vera Newburn, of the Colorado State College of Education, have generously given counsel and guidance. Professor Ethel L. Phelps and Professor Alice Biester, of the University of Minnesota, have read and criticised the manuscript.

To

all of these, for their kindness and patience, a debt of gratitude is freely acknowledged.

C. E. B.

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w TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT.................................................... P R E F A C E .................................................. CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND ITS TREATMENT

. .

CHAPTER 17.

CHAPTER V.

xiii 1

Statement of the P r o b l e m ................... Need for the S t u d y ......................... Scope of the S t u d y ......................... Methods of Investigation ................... Limitations of the S t u d y ................... Organization..............................

1 1 2 3 3 4

REVIEW OF RELATED M A T E R I A L .................

5

Professional M a g a z i n e s ..................... B o o k s ...................... ............... Theses .................................... Summary.................................... CHAPTER III.

■i

THE CHANGING STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH C E N T U R I E S ...................

5

6 7

8 9

Impact of Contemporary Life on Catharine Beecher Inequality of W o m e n ......................... Changing Status of Equality . ............. Status of Education for G i r l s ............... Economic Status of W o m e n ................... Sectionalism in the United States........... Summary...........

9 9 11 16 23 24 27

THE EARLY LIFE OF CATHARINE BEECHER...........

29

The Renovmed Beecher Family................. Childhood.................................. G i r l h o o d .................................. Suumary....................................

29 34 3® 40

CATHARINE BEECHER, THE CAREER W O M A N .........

42

Decision Concerning a Career ............... Catharine Beecher’s Contemporaries in Art, Letters, and S c i e n c e ..................... Catharine Beecher's Contemporaries in Education Summary....................................

42

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xvx TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED) Page

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CATHARINE BEECHER, PIONEER EDUCATOR IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY .........................

.60

The Hartford Female S e m i n a r y ............. The Western Female Institute and Domestic Economy Texts ......................... Education for the Western F r o n t i e r ........ Female High Schools with Normal Departments . Summary..................................

60

86

CATHARINE BEECHER, WRITER ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY

89

Proposal of a Program..................... Propaganda for the P r o g r a m ............... Writings Concerning Domestic Economy . . . . Summary..................................

89 90 92 110

CATHARINE BEECHER'S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION FOR W O M E N ................................

114

66 68

76

Exponent of Domestic E c o n o m y ............. Influence of Greek and Roman Writers . . . . Influence of Humanist Writers and Other ................. European Educators Influence of American Leaders ............. Influence of American Educators........... Summary..................................

120 137 140 146

CATHARINE BEECHER’S CONTRIBUTION TO HOME ECONOMICS SUBJECT M A T T E R .................

149

114 115

Science in Catharine Beecher's Books . . . . Ellen Richards' Recognition of Catharine Beecher's W o r k ......................... The Character of Catharine Beecher's Books . The Content of Catharine Beecher's Books . . Catharine Beecher's Work and the 1913 Syllabus of Home E c o n o m i c s ............. Catharine Beecher's Work and the Present-Day Curriculum ............................ Summary..................................

161 I64

SUMMARY..................................

167

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149 150 152 155 158

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED) Page ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................. Books and M a g a z i n e s ........................... Secondary Source Materials......................

173 174 182

APPENDIX...............................................

196

A List of Books Writtenby Catharine Beecher . . .

197

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xviii LIST OF TABLES Page TABLE I.

TABLE II.

TABLE III.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SUBJECT MATTER ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY USED BY CATHARINE BEECHER IN HER ‘'COMPOSITE" B O O K ...............

154

THE DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIAL USED BY CATHARINE BEECHER AMONG THE MAJOR SUBJECT-MATTER AREAS OF HOME ECONOMICS . .

156

A COMPARISON OF THE RELATIVE EMPHASIS GIVEN TO SUBJECT MATTER IN CATHARINE BEECHER’S "COMPOSITE" BOOK AND THE PERCENTAGE OF CREDITS IN THE SAME REQUIRED BY THREE LAND GRANT COLLEGES FOR A MAJOR IN GENERAL HOME ECONOMICS ............................

162

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CHAPTER I.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND ITS TREATMENT

1. Statement of the Problem This study aims to discover the contributions which Catharine Beecher made to home economics.

Benjamin R. Andrews refers to her

as the most farsighted pioneer in the home economics movement during the early nineteenth century.'*' Isabel Bevier, In Home Economics in Education, indicates that Catharine 3eecher’s concept of this subject was invaluable to her successors.

2

Although neither writer has

exhaustively developed his premise, their statements have been accepted, 3 because of their eminence in home economics, by most leaders in this field.

An exhaustive study is proposed in order to determine why

Catharine Beecher’s contributions to home economics were so recognized.

2.

Need for the Study

Home economics, as a subject-matter field, is of relatively recent origin.

Some work was offered before 1880.

By 1924 a home

economics major was available in forty-four Land-Grant Colleges.^ This fairly slow development was combined with the necessity for a scientific basis for the subject matter involved, which likewise

"^Andrews, Benjamin R., "Miss Catharine E. Beecher, the Pioneer in Home Economics," Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 4 (June 1912), pp. 211-222. ^Bevier, Isabel, Home Economics in Education, p. 77^Benjamin R. Andrews was the first secretary of the American Home Economics Association and Isabel Bevier was Director of Home Economics, University of Illinois, from 1900 to 19244 Bevier, Isabel, o£. cit., p. 128.

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required development.

The pressure for the solution of contemporary

problems in foods and nutrition, textiles and clothing, home management, family relationships, child care, housing and furnishings, institutional management, and home economics education, has left little time for historical research in this field. Usually literature concerning the early history of home economics considers its development in the light of Ellen K. Richards' leadership, beginning with the first Lake Placid conference in 1899*

Catharine

Beecher’s contribution to heme economics began at least seventy-five years earlier and information concerning it has not been readily available.

Home economists desiring to learn more about the early

history of the movement are confronted with a scarcity of both materials and information*

Therefore ample justification exists for a study of

Catharine Beecher's life and of her work in domestic economy, a field which was later known as domestic science, and which today is called home economics.

3. Scope' of the Study In order to picture the contributions to home economics which were made by Catharine Beecher, it is necessary to determine vhat philosophy she may have developed for her subject; to what exfcent she had "staked out" the field; what major subdivisions of subject matter she may have outlined; what plans she may have evolved for teaching this subject as an aspect of education for women; what provision she made for suitable textbook material; and how the content of her writings coupares with present day, concepts of a broad understanding of home economics._______

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4. Methods of Investigation The primary source materials for such a study are the books ■written by Catharine Beecher.

Those which deal with home economics are:

A Treatise on Domestic Economy .(1841); Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book (1842); Letters to Persons Engaged in Domestic Service (1842); Letters to People on Health and Happiness (1855); The American Woman *s Home (1869); The Principles of Domestic Science (1870); Woman1s Profession as Mother and Educator (1372); The Hew Housekeeper1s Manual (1873); and Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions (1874) • Other available publications by Catharine Beecher constitute additional sources of information concerning her life and efforts in behalf of home economics.

The relationship between Catharine Beecher's work and

that of her successors can be shown by comparisons with selected later publications.

5. Limitations of the Study The study of Catharine Beecher's contributions to home economics excludes consideration of other unrelated interests to which she devoted time and effort.

The report of a committee on the syllabus in

home economics vras made to the American Home Economics Association in 1913*

Current college catalogs outline the courses required in a

curriculum in general home economics.

These can constitute selected

sources of home economics material which is suitable for comparison with Catharine Beecher's work. The inaccessibility of other primary source material to be found in newspapersj lettersT diaries, or educational documents, precludes

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the use of such information as might be found therein.

6 . Organization Catharine Beecher’s contribution to home economics and a review of the various factors which contributed to her work in this field are the subjects of this research.

The report is divided into ten chapters.

These deal with the problem to be investigated; the nature of related material; the status of women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: Catharine Beecher's early life; her career; her role as a pioneer educator in domestic economy; her writings on the subject; her philosopt$of education for women; her contribution to the curriculum; and a summary with conclusions and recommendations.

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CHAPTER II.

RSVISV; OF RELATED MATERIAL

The literature relating to Catharine Beecher's contribution to home economics is not extensive. professional magazines.

She has not been highly featured in

References to her work in the history of

education are brief, and in theses which deal with programs to which Catharine Beecher made contributions, her work is treated as incidental to the total problem. 1.

Professional Magazines

Noteworthy among the articles which are available is "Miss Catharine E. Beecher, the Pioneer in Home Economics," which appeared in the Journal of Home Economics in 1912.^

Following a biographical

sketch, Dr. Benjamin R. Andrews, the author, gave a detailed commentary on the first three chapters of Catharine Beecher's Treatise on Domestic Economy. The space allowed did not permit an elaboration of the remaining chapters of the book.

A listing of the remaining chapter

titles gives the reader an overall view of the vision vhich Catharine Beecher had for domestic economy as a field of study.

Andrews makes

one aware of the author's prolific writings as he mentions her books: Letters to People on Health and Happiness, Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families, Principles of Domestic Science, and Miss Beecher*s Receipt (sic) Book. The American Noman's Education

-^-Andrews, Benjamin R., "Miss Catharine E. Beecher, the Pioneer in Home Economics," Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 4 (June 1912), pp. 211-222.

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Association which was sponsored by Catharine Beecher in behalf of education for girls and women is reviewed in the remainder of his narrative. Hazel T. Craig sketched "The History of Home Economics" in a series of articles for Practical Home Economics which have recently appeared as a brochure.

She mentions Catharine Beecher’s Treatise on Domestic

Economy in a few short paragraphs.

Obviously she has rephrased

Andrews’ work. 3

Recently, Dr. Flora Rose published Pioneers in Home Economics. Although the title might indicate that Catharine Beecher would be included, Rose dates her reminiscences from 1899.

Recognition of Ellen

Richards as an early pioneer is established, but the program which Catharine Beecher projected a half century earlier is not mentioned. In "Catharine Beecher, Pioneer,” proof is presented showing that Fannie Farmer, frequently heralded as the "Mother of Measurements," was not the first to condemn the statement to "take a pinch of this and a handful of that," in food preparation.

4

The standard for writing

cookery books with specific directions was outlined a generation before Fannie Farmer in Miss Beecher *s Domestic Receipt Book. 2. Books Only two books have been published on the evolution of home

2

Craig, Hazel T., The History of Home Economics, passim.

^Rose, Flora, Pioneers in Home Economics, passim. ^Biester, Charlotte, "Catharine Beecher, Pioneer," Journal of Home Economics. Vol. 41 (May 1949), pp. 259-260.

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economics.

In 1906 the first, a sixty-four page monograph entitled The

Home Economics Movement. was written by Isabel Bevier and Susannah Usher.'*

They devoted a portion of a chapter to Catharine Beecher’s

work, her proposal for the inclusion of domestic economy in the curriculum, and her suggestions for the improvement of cookery books. In Home Economics in Education. written by Isabel Bevier eighteen years later, no additional information is offered concerning Catharine Beecher.

6

The author recognized Catharine Beecher’s emphasis on

science as a basis for the intelligent study of home economics as her most significant contribution to the program.

She has quoted Andrews

throughout the chapter. Many scattered references to Catharine Beecher are made by Thomas Woody in his two volumes on the History of Education for Women in the

7

United States.

He considers her as a dynamic leader whose varied

interests and constant endeavors were not restricted to one field of woman's education.

He regards her pioneer thinking in many of the

phases of education for women as very significant.

Thus he views

domestic economy as only one of the outstanding contributions made by her to the education of women.

3. Theses Dr. Mae Harveson's published thesis, Catharine Esther Beecher.

5Bevier, Isabel, and Usher, Susannah, The Home Economics Movement. pp. 4t 10. °Bevier, Isabel, Home Economics in Education. pp. 109-110. 7woody, Thomas, History of Education for Women in the United States, Vol. 1-2, passim.

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_8l g

Pioneer Educator, is an outstanding biography.

Except in the chapter

on Catharine Beecher as an author, she has not made the reader particularly aware of Catharine Beecher’s contributions to home economics.

In discussing A Treatise on Domestic Economy, she, too, has

relied on Andrews.

Her comments on Letters to Persons Engaged in

Domestic Service are made not in light of a curriculum program but in terms of a social philosophy.

She indicates that the American Woman1s

Home, one of the last books which Catharine Beecher had written, was an enlarged edition of the Treatise on Domestic Economy, but fails to tell how homemaking had changed or what had been added to bring the book up to date. Dr. Maude Williamson has devoted a chapter in her unpublished thesis, Homemaking Education 1819-1919. to Catharine Beecher.^

In it

she quotes Harveson, Bevier, and Bevier and Usher, saying that other primary source material was not available for further study. 4* Summary Dr. Benjamin R. Andrews' original research on "Miss Catharine E. Beecher, the Pioneer in Home Economics" has been widely quoted by succeeding authors.

All of the literature relating to Catharine

Beecher is of a general type.

Aside from Andrews' paper, no one has

made an exhaustive study of Catharine Beecher's contribution to home economics.

Harveson, Mae Elizabeth, Catharine Esther Beecher, Pioneer Educator, pp. 172-177. %illiamson, Maude, The Evolution of Homemaking Education, Unpublished Doctor's Thesis, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 1943.

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CHAPTER III THE CHANGING STATUS OF WOMEN IK THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES 1.

Impact of Contemporary Life on Catharine Beecher

Catharine Beecher's philosophy and career are products of the society in -which she lived.

Each historical period is characterized by

certain important and significant movements which in turn are related to preceding events.

In evolving a philosophy each generation also

makes use of the mores and achievements of their predecessors.

Thus,

our contemporary culture is the product of a social process in which the ideals of one generation are the foundations for the policies of the next. Like every leader in the woman's movement, Catharine Beecher regarded women as an effective force in the evolution of society.

As a

basis for the program which she conceived and promoted to elevate the status of women, she utilized the heritage of socioeconomic thought from the past.

The history and contemporary culture which have been

fundamental in the development of our society also were factors which contributed to Catharine Beecher's work and philosophy.

Therefore, in

order to understand the various enterprises in vhich she was a leader, it is desirable to appraise some of the attitudes and to review some of the events which are associated with the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. 2.

Inequality of Women

Both economic and social pressures promoted the colonization

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movement during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Beecher's forefathers participated in these.^

Catharine

In its early stages

American society began as an outpost of European culture.

The first

early settlers, in spite of their freedom from religious oppression and economic limitations, reproduced the social and religious attitudes and the characteristic institutions of their European prototypes.

A great

majority of the men and women throughout the colonies also accepted, without question, the laws and customs -which sanctioned the unequal status of women.

Their complacency was strengthened by the current

interpretations of religious organizations.

For centuries, the church

had been a highly recognized and a most influential institution in all social and political matters. The women of New England, thus hopelessly bound in the theological entanglements of Saint Paul's letters and teachings, which did not accord women a place of equality with men, accepted their subjection as the supreme will of an all-wise God.

Like contemporary European women

of the middle class, not only did colonial women occupy a subordinate position in the family, but the rigors and dangers to which the early settlers were exposed also tended to make the new country a man's world.

2

The old English common law continued to be used for interpreting the property rights of the married woman.

Only a single woman had

^Beecher, Charles (ed.), Lyman Beecher Autobiography and Correspondence. Vol. 1, pp. 17, 53* ^Groves, Ernest R., The American Woman, pp. 13-14o

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11 legal status.

Mien a woman married, she surrendered her legal identity

to her husband and was no longer an independent person in the eyes of the law.

If she was involved in legal difficulties her husband

represented her in courts.

She could not make a will, or enter into a

contract, or bring suit for the protection of her interests,

hot only

were all these rights vested in her husband, but the law entitled him to the sole rights of guardianship of their children.

3

Similarly, woman’s economic position was markedly inferior.

At

marriage she surrendered all right to administer her real and personal property.

Her husband could enjoy the income realized from it without

being compelled by law to give an account of his stewardship.

With the

exception of her personal clothing, her husband owned all her property and if he chose he could squander it or use it for his personal interests.

4

3.

Changing Status of Equality

In spite of the fact that social prestige and political power were accorded to colonial men while the women appeared to have no voice in affairs, the women made contributions to the developmait of the new frontier which are important in retrospect.

The typical woman of the

colonial period has been recognized for the part she has played in the colonization of America.

She contributed goods and services to the

household and demonstrated that she could share the intellectual concerns;

^Goodsell, Wiilystine, Pioneers of Woman ’s Education in the United States, p. 1.

4Ibid., p. 2 .

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of her time. Although the church and social customs took woman's inferiority for granted, -with the kind of economic and social life men and women •were sharing in a new country, the necessity for male predominance was growing less and less.

The important and invaluable contributions

being made by women were rapidly elevating their position to one cf esteem and recognition.

As time progressed, women's prestige gathered

additional momentum. During the controversies between the English settlements in America and the mother country vhich led to the American Revolutionary War and finally to the organization of the United States, women were active in public affairs.

The war was supported by women as well as

the men.

The Sons of Liberty had its counterpart in the Daughters of

Liberty.

Both boycotted British merchandise and both men and women

increased their efforts to produce domestic goods to supply markets closed to i m p o r t s ¥ o m e n collected money for relief, equipment, and supplies of clothing for soldiers. their husbands were at war. sensationally publicized.

They kept the farms producing while

The role which women had assumed was When the conflict was over a woman,

Clementine Reid, editor of the Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, Virginia, r

was reputed to be the first to publish the Declaration of Independence.' When John Adams was attending the Continental Congress, in which

?Beard, Mary R., America Through Women1s Eyes, p. 11. ^Ibid., pp. 54, 55'Irwin, Inez Haynes, Angels and Amazons, p. 8.

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11 the Bill of Rights was formulated., his wife, Abigail, tactfully and earnestly urged him. to raise women from their subordinate position to one of equality with men.

She wrote him as follows:

"I long to hear you have declared an independency, and by the way, in the new code of laws, which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husband. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention are not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound to obey any laws in which we have no voice nor representation.” Nothing in the Bill of Rights indicated that John Adams and his colleagues had heeded Abigail Adams’ admonition; women were given no status in the new republic. Catharine Beecher was bora in the decade following the ratification of the Declaration of Independence and the acceptance of the Bill of Rights.

It was a time when the atmosphere was charged with

widespread social and intellectual ferment.

A zeal for political,

social, and humanitarian reforms virtually affected every phase of American life.

In this period when many of the older citizens were

content to retain the traditional old world pattern, many of the young men and women were attempting to develop a new republic and formulate a new type of nationalism. They regarded themselves as a people possessing needs and goals

ft

Adams, Charles Francis (ed.), Familiar Letters of John Adams and His '■•life Abigail Adams During the Revolution. pp. 149-150.

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apart from the mother country.

It was inevitable that the women who had

participated in the war activities would not be content to relinquish their interest in public affairs.

9

When they were given no recognition

in the Bill of Eights, a flurry of rebellious thought resulted.

Thomas

Paine, in his Pennsylvania Gazette. denounced the injustice from which women suffered.

Priscilla Mason, the young salutatorian of the Academy

for Young Ladies at Philadelphia, delivered a stirring commencement speech in 1793 on "The Wrongs of Women."^

Although she was too young

to influence the public greatly, she undoubtedly reflected the attitudes of contemporary women, for Philadelphia was the home of Quakers who believed in the equality of men and women. These protests were typical of the indication that the woman’s movement was on its way.

The capable women who had been leaders during

the war were anxious to continue a program in public affairs.

However,

the fact that they had worked as individuals and were not a unified group, was a handicap.

An organization which could foster concerted

action in the promotion and execution of reform was needed.

With the

founding of the Female Cent Institution, this opportunity came in disguise.

The Men's Missionary Society, conceived by Lyman Beecher, had

been organized to further the program of the church women had been excluded from membership.

Naturally the

However, they did not accept

^Adams, James Truslow (ed.), Dictionary of American History. Vol. 2. p. 265. ■^Graham, Abbie, Ladies in Revolt, p. 23. Hjohnson, Allen (ed.), Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 2, p. 136.

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wholly the discrimination.

They appeased their desire by the formation

of a counter group, The Female Cent Institution. Mien first organized, among the chief objectives of the Female Cent Institution was the support of the activities of the Men's Missionary Society.

One of the policies which gained great favor for

their group in the eyes of the clergy, was the requirement that each member pay a cent a week into the treasury. the treasurer of the men's society.

This in turn was given to

The organization grew rapidly.

Soon, they were not confining their discussions to the problems of the church.

The Female Cent Institution demonstrated to women the power of

cooperation and organization; it became an underground movement for sponsoring women's rights.^ In 1826, with the appearance of monthly periodicals devoted exclusively to the current trends and issues pertinent to the ladies, additional impetus was gained for the program.

There was the weekly,

Philadelphia Album and Ladies' Literary Gazette, and the monthly, Ladies Magazine, edited by Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale.13

The success of

these two women's publications encouraged the printing of a third magazine, Ladies' Miscellany, first issued in 1828.14

Innumerable

discussions resulted from the propaganda circulated by these magazines. Secondary education, too, was improving, and with it the education of women.

More women were becoming better qualified for their reform

■^Graham, Abbie, op. cit., p. 27. 13in 1830 the Ladies Magazine was combined with Godey's Lady's Book with Mrs. Hale as editor. ^Thompson, Eleanor, Education for Ladies, 1830-1860, pp. 147-149.

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16_. work.

It was not until 1830, however, that Abigail Adams' prediction

came true. public.

In that year Sarah and Angelina Grimke began to speak in

Since platform appearances were almost unheard of outside-of

the Quaker meeting, the two young women were censured severely for their boldness and unwomanliness. who was also an active feminist.

Soon, they were joined by Lucy Stone, Among other leaders who made

outstanding contributions to the woman's movement were Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady.-^5 Together these women stimulated sufficient interest to warrant an assemblage of women for the discussion of their status.

At the first meeting, known as the Women's Rights Convention,

held in July 1848, at Seneca Falls, New York, discriminations against women were reviewed and discussed.

Among the outstanding issues

brought before the assembly were these five problems:

(l) Lack of

educational and occupational opportunities for women; (2) inequality in suffrage; (3 ) taxation without a voice in the government; (4 ) partiality of divorce laws towards men; and (5) recognition of real and personal property rights.^

Thus, the equal suffrage movanent was

launched. 4.

Status of Education for Girls

Simultaneously with the advancement of the woman's rights movement, there occurred an increase in public sentiment for improving the education of girls.

One of Catharine Beecher's great concerns was the

Adams, James Truslow (ed.), op. cit., Vol. 5? P® 477* l6Ibid., p. 477.

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--------------limited education available to girls.I?

1Z The colonial leaders were

satisfied with the idea that woman's sphere was in the home and that the preparation for her life work was obtained through apprenticeship to her mother in the home; it precluded any attention to more formal schooling. That the education of their daughters was unimportant, was a viewpoint which was sanctioned by the church and the mother country. It was another old world pattern which had been retained by the early settlers.

Traditionally it was felt that girls had inferior minds and

that only boys were endowed with mental capacities essential for learning.

Consequently the latter were eligible for education and all

possible advantages were afforded them.l® The educational opportunities were aptly described by Abigail Adams.

Although she never attended schools, her informative series cf

letters serves as an excellent anecdotal record of the general status of education in the last half of the eighteenth century. " . . . in this country, you need not be told how much female education is neglected, nor how fashionable it has been to ridicule female learning; though I acknowledge it my happiness to be connected with a person of more generous sentiments . . . . Intelligent pursuits for girls, even in the best families went no farther than writing and arithmetic, in some few rare instances music and drawing were included in the instruction."19

■^Beecher, Catharine E., "Female Education," American Journal of Education. Vol. 2, Part 1 (April 1827), pp. 219-223; Vol. 2, Part 2 (May 1827), pp. 264-269. l^Adams, James Truslow (ed.), o£. cit.. Vol. 5* p. 339. 19Adams, Charles Francis (ed.), op. cit., p. xi.

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18. In this period of educational history the church, private agencies, or the home were responsible for the education of girls,

hath the

exception of the State of Connecticut, which permitted girls to attend public elementary schools in 1771, “town schools" excluded them.

The

daughters of families who could afford a private education for their daughters were sent to dames schools.

The dame school was usually

taught in the home of the school mistress who divided her time between teaching the children and her housework. girls of poor financial circumstances.

20

Little provision -was made for In a majority of families,

the home served as a training school with the mother acting as the teacher.

Notable among the denominational groups who provided

educational programs and facilities for girls was the Moravian church. Consistent with their belief in education -for girls as well as for boys, as early as 1742 they established a school in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and in 1749 one in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.^The Latin-grammar school, the successor to the dame school, did not admit girls.

However, at the time this type of school was in vogue,

girls' private day or boarding schools, as they were sometimes called, were introduced.

00

In the meantime, sex differences had proved tobe

less significant in the education of boys and girls than had been supposed.

In 1779, Boston admitted girls to the public schools with

the stipulation that they might have instruction from five to seven ^Goodsell, Willystine, pp. cit.. p. 5. 2-4foody, Thomas, Woman* s Sducation in the United States, Vol. 1, p

*

Goodsell, Willystine, op. cit., p. 7.

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1£

o'clock when the boys were not using the school building At the secondary level, the academy and seminary followed the Latin-grammar school.

Although in most cases separate academies or

seminaries were conducted for boys and girls, some were coeducational institutions.

For the first time, education was being extended to

girls beyond the elementary level.

The Female Academy at Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania, founded in 1787 and chartered in 1792, was the first woman's academy to receive special sanction from the state.

Among

other noteworthy academies of the period was Miss Pierce's Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut, which was founded in 1792.

Catharine Beecher

received her secondary education in this school.^1" The development of education for girls, first on the elementary and then on the secondary level, had reached the point where education at the college level was needed.

Attempts to establish this type of

curriculum were made by Emma Millard in 1819 at the Troy Seminary, at Troy, New York; at the Hartford Female Seminaiy, at Hartford, Connecticut, opened in 1821 by Catharine Beecher; and at Zilpah Grant's Female Seminary, at Ipswich, Massachusetts, which was established in 1826.

¥omen were admitted on an equal basis with men when Oberlin

College, at Oberlin, Ohio, opened in 1833*

In 1837 Mary Lyon founded

Mount Holyoke College; it was the first girls' school in the country to own its own buildings and equipment. The University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, set a precedent for other state universities when 23

woody, Thomas, op. cit., p. 144. 24lbid., pp. 333, 340.

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20__

.

it permitted women as well as men to matriculate.

These institutions

laid the foundations for the women’s colleges which continued to be established throughout the century.

The isolated programs at elementary, secondary, and college levels were a means of developing public sentiment for a state and national system of education.

They were forerunners of a movement in which the

home, church, and private agencies were to occupy a less important role. Although the United States Constitution did not specifically mention the word education, the Northwest Ordinance, written in 1787, was a high point in the national program for education.

"Schools and

the means of education shall be forever encouraged;” with this keynote sentence, education became a program of national concern.

Further

provision was made for the establishment of public schools by the Enabling Act, passed in 1803, when Ohio was admitted as a state.

In

this Act, Congress gave the sixteenth section of land in each township to the people for schools.

Eventually, local and state systems of

education were organized.26 With the establishment of public schools, competent teachers, adequate school plants and equipment, and suitable textbooks were needed throughout the nation. were:

Among the very few textbooks available

The New England Primer, Lindley Murray’s Grammar, Noah Webster's

American Spelli ng Book, and Nicolas Pike’s A New and Complete Arithmetic Composed for the Citizens of the United States. These were added to the

% b i d . , p. 301. 2°Cubberly, Ellwood P., The History of Education. p. 677*

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21 Psalter, the Catechism, the Horn Book, the New Testament, and the Bible, which were universally used in elementary schools.^

The number of

textbooks available strictly for schools of a secondary or higher grade was negligible.

Most of these textbooks were in the classics.28

Not only were school facilities inadequate, but there was need of a policy for levying taxes to finance schools and administering school business.

Of equal importance was the increased need for people to

prepare for the teaching profession and for provision for teacher education.

No agencies vhich were willing and able to undertake this

phase of education were in existence.29

in many districts, the

Lancastrian or monitorial system, in which older children were trained in the management and instruction of younger children, was a solution. It was reported that by means of this method one teacher was enabled to instruct 500 or even 1000 children at a cost of one dollar per pupil per year. 30 Although no curriculum for the preparation of teachers was provided by any of the systems of higher education until the third decade of the nineteenth century, the movement for the professional education of teachers was being advocated by various educators. Catharine Beecher.3^

Among these was

No attempt was made to provide such an institution

•until 1823, when Samuel R. Hall established his model school in Concord,

^Dexter, Erwin R., History of Education in the United States. p. 210. 28Ibid.. p. 210. 29Adams, James Truslow (ed.), op. cit. , Vol. 5j p. 234* 3°Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 186. 3lDexter, Erwin R., op. cit., pp. 371-377.

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22 Vermont.

Having refused to remain on his assignment if he was not

allowed to maintain a practice school, he launched a unique program for instructing teacher pupils.

Many of the methods which were used in- this

school were retained in the normal schools and later in teachers colleges.32

in 1829 he published Lectures on School Keeping, and

subsequently, Lectures to Female Teachers. Later he became principal of Homes Plymouth Academy, which was one of the few teachers' seminaries for men and women.

The male department offered a four-year, and the

female department, a three-year course.33 In the meantime, state grants established in New York in 1837, and in Massachusetts in 1839, enabled the educational leaders of those states to establish teacher education programs.

From this beginning

five classes of institutions have developed, all specializing in some aspect of training for the teaching profession:

state and private

normal schools, city training schools, pedagogical departments in colleges and universities, and teachers colleges.

There had long been

a need for some national agency which would act in an advisory capacity to the schools of the country, collect statistics, and serve as an educational clearing house.

In I 867 this was achieved, through a bill

creating a Federal Department of Education.

Henry Barnard was chosen

as the first Commissioner of Education.3^-

■^Siloody, Thomas, pp. cit., Vol. 1, p. 469* 33Dexter, Erwin R., pp. cit., p. 377. 3%bid., p. 377.

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---------------------------------------------------------- 23—j 5. Economic Status of IJomen Although the rise of woman in the economic system was less rapid than her advancement in the social world, nevertheless it too was • progressing.

Among the long term economic trends which affected

woman's status was the movement of industry from the home to the factory.

During the latter part of the eighteenth century a long-time

shift from an agrarian society to an industrial society began. Parallel with this trend was the improvement of all communication.

types of

It was not only steamboats and railroads that seemed

to open a new era of expansion; there were continuous advances in science, technology, and invention. Before 1840, only a few hundred patents had been taken out.

After

1850, the annual number steadily rose above 1000, until in I 860, 4778 were issued.

35

The industrial revolution which had

begun in Englandin

the latter part of the eighteenth century swept theUnited States first half of the nineteenth century.

in the

Miereas the typical family in

1800 had been both producer and consumer, by 1820 the Northeast had turned rapidly to industrial production with power-operated machinery. The development of the factory system had a profound influence on women as workers and as homemakers.

Because of their adeptness in

acquiring the necessary skills, work in the textile factories was well suited to women workers.

They comprised from two-thirds to nine-tenths

of the total number of such workers.

The textile mills opened the door

35 Adams, James Truslow, March of Democracy, p. 344*

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-------------------------------------------------------------24 for opportunities in other industries which were rapidly increasing. Not only was the household losing traditional activities, but industry, for the first time in our history, began to leave its mark on the family unit.

Women were leaving home for gainful employment.3^

One of the reasons for the subordinate position of women was the fact that the husband was the breadwinner, and consequently the wife was dependent upon him.

Now, there appeared the first evidences that

new methods of production were destined to modify profoundly the structure of society.

It was demonstrated that women could be

economically independent.

6.

Sectionalism in the United States

The growth of sectionalism and westward migration are among the other social trends which influenced Catharine Beecher's activities. Tensions existed in the early days of the oolonies which ultimately terminated in the secession of the southern states in I 863. At that time physiographical conditions, economic interests, and political ideals divided the colonial population into three areas.

The

settlements from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania constituted one of the divisions; the communities from Maryland to Georgia formed another; and the third was comprised of the vast frontier west of the Appalachian Mountains known as the Northwest Territory.37 Commerce with Europe and the other states was the dcminating

3^Truxal, Andrew G., and Merrill, Francis E., The Family in American Culture, p. 182. 3^Schlesinger, Arthur M., New Viewpoints in American History. p. 165.

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25. economic interest of the colonies -within the first area.

Trading -with

England and shipbuilding had developed Boston, New York, and Philadelphia into thriving shipping centers.

In these port towns, •

families interested in the mercantile business were keenly aware of the lucrative benefits which membership in the British mercantile fleet had always provided.

In the days following the close of the war in 1776,

they viewed the growth of nationalism with no small concern, for the withdrawal from the British Empire meant the loss of vital business connections which they had established. In the tidewater region of the South, British capital was almost exclusively invested in plantation production.

Their commerce was

carried on chiefly by English mercantile houses and their American agents.

Since many of the planters had become financially involved and

were seeking means to be freed from their obligation to England’s houses of credit, they envisioned an independent republic as a potential means of release from insolvency. The diversity of interests of these two sections was very apparent when the confederation of states was proposed to the Continental Congress.

The loss of import and export business caused certain groups

in the northeastern section to be averse to independence.

"That all

men are created free and equal" was a phrase which brought opposition from the southern colonies.

The frontier group were rapidly settling

the country along the Ohio Biver and the Great Lakes vicinity and were revelling in their freedom.

Seemingly their wholehearted support was

given to the proposals in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill

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26. of Rights.38 Meantime an unparalleled expansion was taking place in the Northwest.

There were no official stations on the frontier to record

the number of immigrants who entered this area during the early nineteenth century, but travelers of the time record that every road was crowded.39

In the first census, taken in 1790 under the new

constitution, there were approximately four million people in the whole country.

In the three decades that followed the first census, the

population had quadrupled; more than four fifths of this increase occurred in the Northwest Territory.

By 1630 the population in the

Mississippi Valley had increased by 100 to 150 per cent, while in the New England states, the population had remained almost stationary.

The

westward movement of peoples continued beyond the Mississippi River < o the plains, the mountains, the desert region, and finally to the Pacific Coast. The new frontier was a melting pot of people.

There were

adventurers, restless wanderers, seekers of a new Utopia; there were hunters and many farmers. adventurers.

The migration was not confined to

Professional men, Lyman Beecher for example, were

intrigued by the "Great Nest."

In his famous "Plea for the West," he

prophesied that "the ¥est is destined to be the great central power of the nation; the Nest is a young empire of mind and power, wealth and

38Ibid.. p. 166. 39Ibid., p. 9 . 4°Ibid., p. 9-

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free institutions."^- He envisioned this country as a fertile field ■which would provide for an expansion of his social reforms and a territory in which all his children would find opportunities for service.^2 The route and means by which the Beecher family traveled was typical of the settlement of the Ifest.

Starting from New York October

18, 1831, they journeyed to Philadelphia. via the famous Cumberland Pass.

The mountains were crossed

By November 15, they had arrived at

Cincinnati, "The Gateway of the ¥est."^3 7. Summary The era in which Catharine Beecher lived was a century characterized by widespread social, economic, and intellectual ferment. It was a period when the people felt impelled to substitute a democratic program for the traditional.autocratic form of government from which they had been released when the Declaration of Independence had been signed. It was a period of reform.

Miile being exponents and crusaders of

their own programs, the leaders usually were interested in the reforms of others.

Among the traditional patterns of the European culture

which were transplanted from the old world into the life of the early colonists was the one concerning inequality of women. Married women had no independent status economically or

^Beecher, Charles (ed.), 0£. cit., Vol. 2, p. 224.

42Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 224. 43Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 277-280.

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2a politically.

Since women had little work requiring a formal education,

such was deemed -unnecessary.

As nationalism evolved in the United

States, women rebelled at the injustice of their status.

They contaidec.

that democracy should become a practice as well as a theory. strove for this recognition in public affairs.

¥omen

They were active in

social developments; they contributed to economic projects; they were concerned about civic matters and political problems; they joined their husbands in forwarding territorial expansion. The period of nationalism was one in which educational developments were far reaching.

The common school and public high schools for girls

and boys, normal schools for teacher education, and the establishment of professional colleges in every section of the country, were phases of the educational expansion program.

In spite of discrimination, the

educational facilities for women were accorded a status which outranked any precedent that ever had been known abroad. Associated with the development of the new republic are the names of pioneers whose farsightedness, persistent agitation, and constructive thinking made the democracy live.

Among those whose

conception of woman’s education has gained recognition through the years, is Catharine Beecher.

From 1821 to 1878, she crusaded

continually for this phase of the woman's movement.

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CHAPTER 17 THE EARLY LIFE OF CATHARINE BEECHER 1.

The Renowned Beecher Family

Catharine Beecher was the eldest child of Dr. Lyman and Roxana Foote Beecher.^

She was b o m September 6, 1800, at East Hampton, Long

Island, and died May 12, 1878, at Elmira, New York.

2

Both the Foote and Beecher families were of old New England stock. In 1637 John Beecher came to this country from England and helped to establish New Haven, Connecticut.

3

Blacksmithing was the vocation of

Lyman Beecher's grandfather and father.

His mother boarded a number of

boys who were attending Yale College, an institution of higher learning established in New Haven in 1701.

L

Through contacts with these students^

Lyman Beecher became interested in studying at Yale.

In 1797 he

graduated from this college, and remained to complete his preparation for the ministry.

Two years later he accepted a call to the

Presbyterian church at East Hampton, Long Island, where he was ordained. On September 19, 1799, he married Roxana Foote, to whom he had been introduced by a Yale College classmate. for the next ten years.

They resided in East Hampton

5

•^Beecher, Charles (ed.), Lyman Beecher, Autobiography and Correspondence, Vol. 1, p. 125. ^Stowe, Harriet Beecher, "Catharine Beecher," in Our Famous Nomen. p. 92. •^Beecher, Charles (ed.), op. cit.. Vol. 1, p. 17. 4lbid., p. 19. 5Johnson, Allen (ed.), Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. 2, p. 135.

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Lyman Beecher was a man of keen intellect, great moral courage, and devotion.

He not only possessed an unwavering faith in himself and

his beliefs but also taught his sons and daughters to face realities and have courage in spite of skepticism.

Being a member of the new

school of Calvinism, he carried on a continuous revival stressing the freedom of human will.

He was instrumental in the establishment of the

American Bible Society.

He took a prominent part in the organization

of a Domestic Missionary Society for the education of young men for the ministry.

He was the founder and a regular contributor to the

"Connecticut Observer."

He was influential in persuading the General

Assembly of Connecticut to adopt drastic recommendations regarding temperance.

He is famous in the ecclesiastical annals of the

Presbyterian Church because of the educational program which he projected while acting as the first president of the Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio.

For his efforts in social reform and for

his promotion of philanthropic enterprises, he was known as one of the outstanding leaders of the nineteenth century.^ Roxana Foote Beecher, too, came from an old substantial New 7 England family. Her father was educated for the bar. Her grandfather, Andrew Mard, with whom the family lived after her father died, was a g

Lieutenant-Colonel in the Continental Army.

Roxana, like other girls

of this period, was taught art and literature in the home; but unlike

6Ibid., p. 136. ^Beecher, Charles (ed.), op. cit., p. 54. % b i d . , p. 54.

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most girls of the era, her education was not confined to literature and belles lettres.

Under the tutorage of her father and grandfather, she

was taught science, mathematics, physics, and chemistry.^ Catharine Beecher, in recalling her home life and her admiration fa i her mother, describes her mother's interest and competence in intellectual and artistic pursuits.

She was adept in needlework and

peinting; she had an appreciation for literature; she found science challenging.^

Catharine remembered her mother's and aunts' discussions

of literary and scientific topics. Lavoisier's chemistry."^

Her mother and her Aunt Mary studied

Frequently his most recent discoveries were

applied to practical tests and experiments in the Beecher kitchen.

12

Chemistry, at this time, was a new science which was constantly under discussion. She recalled that her mother had a natural disposition towards profound investigation, how with no aid but a small encyclopedia, she made some remarkable mathematical calculations where her father was helpless.

In spite of the fact that she had not graduated from Yale

and had none of the advantages of formal education, Catharine remarked: "by common school, by domestic duties, by English literature, and by the sciences studied in one small encyclopedia and two or three other scientific books, my mother was, if not superior, fully equal to my father in mental power and culture."13 ?Ibid.. p. $4 . ~^Ibid., p. 141 -^Ibid., p. 141. 12geecher, Catharine, Homan Suffrage and Homan's Profession. p. 128. 1 3 Ibid., p. 67.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3.2L Obviously Roxana Foote Beecher was an unusually capable person, far superior in achievement to the average ■woman of her period.

Not

only was she a person of poise and culture, but she had practical ability and resourcefulness which were of great advantage to the poorly paid Congregational minister, and which were later greatly appreciated by Catharine as she contemplated the need for education for women. Lyman and Roxana Beecher were outstanding people.

B o m of such

parents, and living in such an atmosphere, it is not surprising to learn that Catharine and her brothers and sisters were also remarkable in their development and individual attainment.

Moreover, seldom is it

found that a father of the repute of Lyman Beecher has children who also become extraordinary leaders.

More than half of his eleven

children who grew to maturity became famous.

Two became preeminent; in

fact, Harriet and Henry ¥ard are the only two members from a single family who are recognized in the Hall of Fame.^

Harriet Beecher

Stowe's name has been immortalized through Uncle Tom*s Cabin, which has found its way around the world, and has been translated into thirtyseven languages.

Henry ¥ard, as anti-slavery leader, statesman,

citizen, and preacher, was an outstanding leader of his time. Catharine Beecher, along with Bnma Millard and Mary Lyon, is considered as one of the great personalities promoting education for women in the nineteenth century.^

Edward Beecher is recalled as the

^•Johnson, Allen (ed.), op. cit., p. 135. ^Koody, Thomas, History of Homan1s Education in the United States, Vol. 1, p. 301.

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founder of the "Congregationalist,: and pioneered in education as the first president of Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois.^ Recognition -was given to Charles Beecher, who was also a teacher and clergyman.

His love for music resulted in his writing several hymns

and making the selection of music for the Plymouth Collection. Published in 1855, this was the first hymnal of the Congregational Church.^

The "institutional" church movement was one of Thomas

Beecher's important contributions which has influenced succeeding church programs.

"A New Beecher Church," described by Mark Twain in

A Curious Dream, was an edifice, one of the first of its kind, equipped with gymnasium, library, lecture rooms, and other provisions for social work.

18

Isabella Beecher, an inveterate worker for Woman's Suffrage,

gave impetus to the movement when she organized a convention at her own expense in its behalf.

Due to her effort, the Community Property

Rights Bill was passed by the Connecticut State Legislature.^ Lyman Beecher's children, like their father, were courageous reformers.

They revolted against the Calvinistic doctrines within

their church and promoted reforms5 they crusaded for woman's suffrage; they worked for the abolition of slavery; they encouraged improvement in education.

The versatility of the Beecher family enterprises caused

Rose Terry Cooke to write: and the Beechers."

"In this world there are the good, the bad,

20

^Johnson, Allen (ed.), op. cit., p. 128. 17Ibid., pp. 126-127. ISlbid., p. 1 3 7 -L'Stowe, Lyman Beecher, Saints, Sinners and Beechers, pp. 348-350. ZOr.nnlrtZj Bnss Terry, "Harriet Beecher St,owe," Our Famous ¥omen,p.33.9

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31

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2. Childhood The first nine years of Catharine Beecher's life were spent uneventfully in East Hampton, Long Island.

21

At that time, the total

22 population of the village numbered only 150 families.

Typical of the

mores of the period, the church was the source of the social life of the people.

There were no stores; shopping was done via a small

schooner which made weekly trips between New York and East Hampton.

23

The community activities vhich were attractive to children were few.

However, as her father's eldest child, Catharine received much of

his attention.

Frequently, she accompanied him on his missionary

visitations among the Muntock Indians and the settlement of "free blacks" located on Long Island. ^

Thus, at an early age, Catharine

Beecher became acquainted with some of the minority groups whose cause she later championed. The development of an interest and an appreciation for literature was among Catharine 3eecher's happy recollections.

In one instance she

tells of the pleasures experienced from having Aunt Mary (Foote) read aloud to her; in another recollection she relates that visits from her Uncle Samuel Foote were always an anticipated pleasure.

He was a

sailor on a merchant ship and when he returned from England, he came to visit the Beechers and always brought the latest books.

It was

^Beecher, Charles (ed.), op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 125. ^Harveson, Mae Elizabeth, Catharine Esther Beecher, Fioneer Educator, p. 3* 23Beecher, Charles (ed.), op. cit., p. 130. ^■Stowe, Harriet 3eecher, pp. cit., p. 76,

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25__

customary, when she went to her Grandfather Foote's home, for her to read in his well-stocked library.

25

Writing about controversial issues was habitual with Lyman Beecher. Catharine Beecher recalled that he was never satisfied with his work until he had read and discussed the problem with Roxana Beecher, Mary Foote, and Esther Beecher.

As she grew older, Catharine Beecher was

encouraged to join the group.

"By this intellectual companionship, our

house became in reality a school of the highest kind, in which he was all the while exerting a powerful influence upon the mind and character."2^1 The rapport which resulted from the companionship of father and daughter was notable.

Seemingly from the deep and abounding devotion

of early childhood days, there developed a deep appreciation and mutual understanding which continued to be a source of strength and happiness to both throughout their lives.

27

Catharine had a wholesome zest for play.

Her lack of interest in

study and her indifference to household tasks which she was ejected to perform before she could play, was one of the disciplinary problems of the Beecher household. mother.

28

Nevertheless, Catharine adored her patient

In her Reminiscences. she makes frequent references to the

importance of Roxana 3eecher's influence upon her daughter's life. ^^Beecher, Catharine, Woman's Profession as Educator and Mother, p. 127. 2^Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. P. 149. 2?Stowe, Harriet Beecher, op. cit., p. 76. 28Ibid.. p. 76.

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26 Among the commendations which she pays to her mother is this tribute: "Much of my success in after life has been ovdng to certain traits in my Mother’s character and their influence in my early training. These were of high ideal of excellence in whatever she attempted, a habit of regarding all knowledge with reference to its practical usefulness and remarkable perseverance in holding on persistently till the object sought was attained. ”29 Undoubtedly, many of the practices in home and family living which Catharine Beecher advocated in her Treatise on Domestic Economy and other publications resulted from the observation of good management principles in her own home during her childhood days.

The stipend for

the minister in East Hampton was only $400. Resourcefully, the Beechers raised the level of living by a more effective use of their resources. The dooryard was planted with flowers and shrubs which were a source of beauty and pleasure.

Also fruit trees, which soon were a partial

source of food supply, were planted.

30

Roxana Beecher applied her

artistic abilities to the problems of interior decoration, thereby creating a home which was above the average standard of the day. I«hile a majority of the homes of the period had plain wooden chairs and sanded floors, it was due to Roxana’s efforts that the Beecher home was not barren in appearance. added artistic gilt decorations.

She painted the chairs and

Uhen Lyman brought home a huge bale

of cotton on which he had impulsively bid at an auction, Roxana was not dismayed; she cleaned, spun, dyed, and wove the cotton into a rug for

29 Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, p. 10. 30Beecher. Charles (ed.). op. cit.. Vol. 1. o. 129._______________

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21 the parlor.3-*-

For this worldliness she was criticized by some of the

members of the session.-^2 However, thrifty habits in management were not sufficient to meet the increasing needs of the family.

Catharine's brothers, ¥illiam,

Edward, and George, and her sister Mary, joined the family during the first eight years of life at East Hampton.

After looking to other

resources to supplement the meager $400 minister's salary, it seamed that a dames' school or a select school xvas a possible solution. Without consulting the congregation, Lyman Beecher advertised for scholars5 replies came from the adjoining towns and the middle island^ Harriet Foote, Roxana's sister, who made her home with the Beechers, joined them in the enterprise.^

Roxana taught French, "high English,"

drawing, painting, and embroidery, while Lyman Beecher assumed the responsibility of teaching some of the English composition.35 Catharine joined the group of children who attended the school. • Previous to this time, Catharine's early schooling had been undertaken by her mother and her aunt.

The practice of educating girls

in the home, ■which was customary when the Foote sisters were reared, still prevailed in the early 1800's.

Roxana Beecher describes the

education which seems indicative of an average school day under this informal regime:

31Ibid., p. 32Ibid., p. 33ibid., p. 34ibid.. p. 35ibid., p.

124. 125. 141. 136. 184.

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2£_

"Catharine continues to study at home. . . . She is busily engaged in painting some flowers for her work basket; she learns her geography in the morning, and finishes her knitting in the evening in order to save time in the afternoon for her painting. She is I hope, improving in knowledge."3o 3. Girlhood Catharine Beecher was ten years old when Judge Topping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School, invited her father to become the minister of the Congregational church at Litchfield, Connecticut.-^

To

the Beecher family, this opportunity was particularly advantageous. Not only was the charge more lucrative, but the move afforded Catharine the opportunity to continue her school work.

Here was located the

famous girls’ school known as the Miss Sarah Pierce Female Seminary which had been established in 1792.^ The first years at Litchfield were unusually happy ones for all of the members of the Beecher family. refinement.

Litchfield was a town of great

It was a center of culture; the Litchfield Law School

attracted young men from leading families throughout the nation.

The

town was famous for its educational facilities and as a place of residence of prominent wealthy families.39

The Beechers had no wealth

but were accepted whole-heartedly because of their mental and social capacities. Catharine Beecher was developing an unusually attractive

■^ X b i d ., p. 184. 3'/Johnson, Allen (ed.), op. cit., p. 136. ^^TrJoody, Thomas, pp. cit., Vol. 1, p. 340. ^B e e cher, Charles (ed.), pp. cit., Vol. 1, p. 209.

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22

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personality.

Her sister Harriet recalls her as an exuberant person

with perfect health; she seemed to abound in energy and have a vigorous enthusiasm for living.

These traits, combined with a sense of humor,

friendliness, and cheerfulness, made her a universal favorite with the teachers and the younger set.^

In school she demonstrated ability in

literature, poetry, painting, and music.

Soon she learned to play the

piano and sing a repertoire of songs and ballads then in vogue. townspeople invited her to perform in public.

The

Many of the parties of

young people were enlivened by her witty extemporaneous poetry.

She

was regarded as one of the gayest, kindest, and merriest persons, always bubbling with animation. The continuous frolic of picnics, promenades, and pleasure parties in which Catharine had been a promoting spirit suddenly came to a close. After a short illness, her mother died.

Catharine was -only sixteen,

but as the eldest of eight children whose ages ranged from babyhood to the teens, she assumed the management of the household with the assistance of Lyman Beecher's sister Esther, whose household activities exemplified all the principles of system and order. ;o was abandoned. •+ Porter.

Temporarily school

In the following year her father married Harriet

Catharine Beecher was greatly impressed by her stepmother's

homemaking ability.

Before long two babies were added to the family

of eight stepchildren.

Instead of the chaos and confusion which

^Stowe, Harriet Beecher, ojo. cit., p. 77* ^Ibid., p. 77. ^Beecher, Catharine, Ifoman1s Profession as Mother and Educator, p. 66.

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"What she achieved for our family

in preserving punctuality, order and neatness, with a husband and • several children whose habits in this respect were directly contrary to her own, was a marvel."^

Later, when Catharine Beecher became a

writer, she never tired of discussing the "habits of system, order and punctuality" which she acquired during her girlhood. 4. Summary Catharine Beecher gives her personal evaluation of her early home life in Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. A happy, simple, and unpretentious home with parents devoted to each other and to a large family of children, is a composite picture of her childhood and girlhood background.

She speaks appreciatively and affectionately of

her father and mother whose personalities seemingly were complementary.^ Her father was trained as a dialectician and felt that he excelled in argumentation.

Her mother, without any such training, was the only

person whom he felt was fully his equal in an argument.

While her

father was imaginative, impulsive, and averse to hard study, her mother was calm, self-poised, and reveled in mental gymnastics.^

In spite

of their meager circumstances, Catharine had been given all available educational advantages.

She had gained an appreciation for the

^Beecher, Catharine, "Catharine E. Beecher - Autobiography,11 Barnard’s Journal of Education. Vol. 28 (June 18?8), pp. 67-68. ^Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. p. 15* 45Ibid.. p. 15.

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ill artistic and the practical; she had been encouraged to be original in thought and courageous in action, and to develop a critical mind in controversial issues.^

Hers was a type of home background -which •

stimulates and oromotes leadershiD.

46Ibid.. p. 19

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CHAPTER V CATHARINE BEECHER, THE CAREER H M A N 1. Decision Concerning a Career Lyman Beecher had remarried.

No longer needed at home, Catharine

Beecher felt that her obligation to the family was to become selfsupporting.

Vocational opportunities for lucrative positions -which were

open to women and girls in the first quarter of the nineteenth century were limited to but a few types of work:

domestic employment, work in

a textile factory, sewing, and teaching.

Catharine chose to prepare for

teaching. Undoubtedly, this decision was influenced by her early childhood contacts with the select school which had been conducted by her parents, and which had given her some insight into the management of a school. Also, her father's and mother's venture had proved successful as a source of income.

From her recent experiences in the management of the

eight brothers and sisters, Catharine Beecher was aware of the critical condition of the family budget."'" Teaching school seemed a logical method of solving the problem. Teacher preparation in 1818 was accomplished through an apprenticeship system.

2

Fortunately, Catharine was able to return to

Miss Pierce’s Female Academy where she acted as an assistant.

This

■'"Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. p. 19.

y-Joody, Thomas, History of ".■voman1s Education in the United States, Vol. 1, p. 466.

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43

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experience made it possible for her to qualify as a teacher of music, drawing, and painting in New London, Connecticut, where she taught in 1821.

Seemingly, practices in teacher-community relationships in that

century were not unlike those of the present day.

As a part of the 3 contract, Catharine was to play the organ in the Episcopal Church. In the meantime she had become engaged to Professor Alexander Fisher of Yale.

Within a year, however, it was necessary to abandon

her marriage plans; her fiance had been drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Ireland.^

It was difficult for Catharine Beecher to become

reconciled to Alexander Fisher’s death.

Not only was the dream of her

own home shattered, but the fact that her fiance had never been converted and consequently was forever doomed to hell was of greatest concern to the daughter of deeply-grounded Calvinistic faith. Henry Ward Beecher was only a boy of ten at the time of the tragedy, yet in later years he vividly recalled his sister’s dilemma. He had always admired Catharine greatly; her carefree, jovial, funloving, and exuberant manner had tremendous appeal for him. seemed, she could find no relief for her despondency.

Now, it

Even her father,

who had always been her closest, dearest companion and the greatest influence in her life, was unable to offer consolation.'* While most women of her day would have followed the prevailing

^Beecher, Catharine, op. cit., p. 2?. ^•Stowe, Harriet Beecher, ’’Catharine Beecher,” in Our Famous Women. p. 82. ^Derby, J. C., Fifty Years Among Authors, Books, and Publishers. p. 448.

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----------- — -------------------------------------------------- U],— custom considered becoming to a gentlewoman of that period and gone intc mourning and retirement permanently, Catharine -was not so inclined.

She

•was a Beecher; she had been nurtured in an atmosphere in which she -had learned to think independently.

Ultimately, she came to the conclusion £ that she would save her life by doing good. Again, she turned to the teaching profession.

Apparently, she did not regard it as a field with

much of, a future for she wrote her father: "There seems to be no very extensive sphere of usefulness for a single woman but that which can be found in the limits of a school room; but there have been instances in which women of a superior mind and acquirements have risen to a more enlarged and comprehensive boundry and by their talents and influence have accomplished what in a more circumstanced sphere of action would have been impossible. My employments have led to the inquiry whether there is not a course . . . leading to a more extended usefulness. "7 Hartford Female Seminary, a school of higher education for girls over twelve years of age, which she then established, was Catharine g

Beecher’s first attempt at "extended usefulness."

As she contemplated

the project she was aware that a majority of schools for girls had been 9 short lived. Higher education was considered appropriate only for men and it was conceded that the teaching should be done by the schoolmaster.^

Had the time been in the 1850’s rather than the 1820's,

she would have viewed the wisdom of her decision less skeptically or

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, op. cit., p. 86. 7Beecher, Charles (ed.), Lyman Beecher, Autobiography and Correspondence, Vol. 1, p. 1+95. sBeecher, Catharine, op. cit.. pp. 30, 33* 9Ibid., p. 79. lOlbid., p. 275

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-----------------------she might have considered another type of profession.

45By 1850 women

had been recognized in many areas. 2. Catharine Beecher’s Contemporaries in Art, Letters, and Science The Female Cent Institution had demonstrated the power of organization and had opened the way for philanthropic undertakings in which Catharine Beecher's contemporaries were leaders.

Isabella Graham,

noted for her activities in benevolent enterprizes, organized in New York in 1806 a society for the establishment of an orphan asylum.’*''*' Later she was president of the board of women who superintended the Magdalen Asylum, a society founded for the promotion of industry among 1O

the poor.

Margaret Prior, another person who was deeply interested

in social problems, was one of the managers of the New York Orphan Asylum.

13

In 1824, Charity Rodman proved herself worthy of her name,

by establishing a fund of $20,000, which was used in the founding of a farm at Massillon, Ohio, where orphan children could be trained in habits of industry. ^ Lydia Maria Child contributed to this movement through her writings.

15

The North American Jxeview, then considered the highest

literary authority in the country, said of her, "Me are not sure that any woman of our country could outrank Mrs. Child; few female writers,

^-Hanaford, Phebe, Daughters of America, p. 132. Ibid., p. 132. 13Ibid., pp. 133-134. 12hLbid. , pp. 146-147. -^Coolidge, Susan, "Lydia Maria Child," in Our Famous LTomen, p. 232.

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IA

if any, have done more or better things for our literature in the lighter or graver departments."^1 Many of Mrs. Child’s articles dealt with aspects of the program of the Anti-Slavery Society which was started at a convention held in Philadelphia. championed the anti-slavery movement.

17

■

Harriet Beecher also

1A

The neglect of the insane was the concern of Dorothea Dix.

She

wrote and lectured, striving to influence the public to extend aid to this particular group.

She was instrumental in founding state

hospitals for the mentally ill in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Indiana, Louisiana, and North Carolina.^ Some of Catharine Beecher's contemporaries were interested in the woman’s suiirage movement, in which Lucretia Coffin Mott was a leader.

20

During the Mar of 1S12, Lucretia Mott had replenished the family trea­ sury by conducting a school in Philadelphia, the Quaker city.

She was

a member of the Quaker church which sanctioned equality between men and

21 women„ Mhen twenty-five years of age she gave up school teaching to engage in the ministry in the Society of Friends.

The Quaker Ministry

led her into the consideration of public questions, one of which was the woman’s suffrage problem vfaich was gaining momentum rapidly.

By the

middle of the century, she was joined by Mary Ann McClintock, Jane Hunt, ^ I b i d ., p. 232. " 'Ibid., p. 233. Cooke, Rose Terry, "Harriet Beecher Stowe,” in Our Famous Women, pp. 591-592. ^Hanaford, Phebe, 0£. cit., p. 156. Clemmer, Mary, "Lucretia Coffin Mott," in Our Famous Women, pp. 473-478. 2"! ■'■Graham, Abbie, Ladies in Revolt, p. 23. 22Ibid., p. 42.

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------------------------------------------------------4Z_ Martha C. ¥right, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and later, by Susan B. Anthony, Angelina and Sarah Grimk^, and Lucy Stone. Catharine Beecher's contemporaries of the middle nineteenth century were gaining recognition in a variety of professions.

The

number of newspapers and magazines was increasing, but many of these publications were short-lived.

However, the Godey1s Ladies Book, under

the editorship of Sarah Josepha Hale, was meeting continued success.

24

Margaret Fuller, at the invitation of Horace Greeley, was contributing 25 regularly to The Hew York Tribune. J

Among the successful associate

editors of the Hearth and Home was Mary Mapes Dodge.

26

Later, when

Scribner decided to put a juvenile magazine cn the market, she became 27 the editor of the publication, St. Nicholas. Among the poets who were recognized were Alice and Phoebe Cary, Julia Hard Howe, and Lydia H. Sigourney.

28

Catherine Sedgwick, Harriet

Beecher Stowe, Eliza Leslie, Alice and Phoebe Cary, and Phebe Hanaford were the outstanding authors who had many books to their credit.

29

Thus by the middle of the nineteenth century, American women had distinguished themselves in the belles lettres group. In this decade, it is noted that women were successfully

^Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Eighty Years and More, p. 148. ^Hanaford, Phebe, op. cit., p. 208. ^Thompson, Eleanor, Education for Ladies, 1830-1860. p. 16. 2%unkle, Lucia Gilbert, "Mary Mapes Dodge," in Our Famous women, p. 287. ^Ibid., p. 287. ^Hanaford, Phebe, op. cit., pp. 214, 229-230. 29Ibid., pp. 196, 207, 214, 222.

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pioneering in other cultural areas.

A typical example is the actress,

Charlotte Cushman, who in 1842 entered a business venture considered exceedingly bold and daring to the opposite sex; she undertook the • management of the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-^ About the same time Clara Louise Kellogg was gaining eminence as a singer both in the opera and in concert.

The most sensational event of

her career was her appearance as Violetta in nLa Traviata."

On this

occasion, it was necessary for Miss Kellogg to respond to five curtain calls.

She was immediately proclaimed as the first American prima donna

by the musical critics.

When the opera season was concluded, she made

a trip abroad where further honors were bestowed on her.

She alternated

with Patti and Lucca during the opera season at Covent Garden By the middle of the nineteenth century, there was an infiltration of women into seme of the professions which theretofore had been limited to men.

This discrimination had been made on the basis that

the intellectual and social attributes required for success in these occupations were possessed only by the men.

Maria Mitchell was among a

group of women whose members were not to be intimidated by this hypothesis; they pursued careers designated as "men’s vocations" in spite of tradition. Maria Mitchell was born on Nantucket Island, off the coast of Massachusetts.

For more than a century, Nantucket had been the

80 ^ Whitney, Lillian, "Charlotte Cushman," in Our Famous Women, p. 214. ^Spafford, Harriett Prescott, "Clara Louise Kellogg," in Our Famous Women. p. 360.

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principal center of the whaling industry.

Her father's business was

rating chronometers which brought him in contact with the navigation problems of the ship captains and sailors.

Having noted her keen ■

interest in the technical aspects of his work, her father allowed Maria Mitchell to assist him about the shop.

From the date of her tenth

birthday, she aided her father in keeping a continuous log of the sky. It was through this work that Maria Mitchell developed an insight into mathematics and other aspects of astronomy.3^ In the meantime, Frederick VI, King of Denmark, in an endeavor to stimulate a greater interest in astronomy, had offered a gold medal to the man who should discover a comet previously unknown.

Maria Mitchell,

in 1847j did discover a new comet and was the recipient of the award. For this and other unusual achievements, she later was elected to membership in several learned societies, among them the American Academy of Arts and Science.

In 1922, a bust of Maria Mitchell was

unveiled in the Hall of Fame of New York University.^ During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, throughout the country, a flourishing guild of ignorant and poorly educated women misused the title of doctor in their practices.

Elizabeth Blackwell,

in protest against this group, sought admittance to the Philadelphia Medical School.

At the outset, her petition was rejected; the

physicians who were in charge of the school were shocked at the

32 Dumas, Malone (ed.), Dictionary of American Biography. Vol» 13, p. 58. 33Ibid., p. 58.

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indelicacy of her application.

50

Later, when her request was

reconsidered, one reservation was made lest the staff of the institution be embarrassed by a woman's name appearing on the record.

She would be

entered and known as "Number 417•” When the diplomas were presented at the Philadelphia Medical School Commencement in 1049# Elizabeth Blackwell responded to "417," the identification which appeared on her diploma.^ 3. Catharine Beecher's Contemporaries in Education The success of the eminent women of the period, according to their biographers, may be attributed largely to the increasing number of opportunities afforded them in higher education.

Had Catharine Beecher

and her contemporaries, Fknma Willard, Zilpah Grant, and Mary Lyon, not pioneered in this particular phase of education in the first decades of the nineteenth century, it is doubtful whether the woman's movement would have made such phenomenal progress in the middle and latter periods of the nineteenth century. Mrs. Emma Willard conducted a girls* school in Miaalebury, Vermont. Here she proved to her own satisfaction that young ladies were able to master such subjects as mathematics and philosophy.

From this

observation she was convinced that a curriculum in higher education should be available to young women as well as to young men.

Also, she

believed firmly that the state should provide the same educational

^^Runkle, Lucia Gilbert, "Elizabeth Blackwell," in Our Famous Women, pp. 140-144.

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-------------------------------------------- : _______________ 51 facilities for the young women as for the young men.

These ideas were

incorporated into her "Plan for Improving Female Education," which has been called the Magna Carta of woman's education.^ Under the title, An Address to the Public. particularly to the Members of the Legislature, proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education (sic), she discussed'the weaknesses of the educational facilities available to girls.

She claimed that the education of

females was directed to “fit them for displaying to advantage the charms of youth and beauty;" and that its first object was to provide girls with social skills.

She would improve the education of girls

so that they, as mothers, might improve the next generation of men. To achieve these objectives, Emma willard proposed that suit able instruction be given -in four areas which she described as religious, moral, literary, ornamental and domestic.^ Referring to the latter program, she comments: "It is believed that housewifery might be greatly improved by being taught, not only in practise but theory, why may it not be reduced to a system as well as the arts? There are right ways of performing its various operations; and there are reasons why those ways are right; and why may not rules be formed, their reasons collected, and the whole be digested in a system to guide the learners practise."38 The consideration of domestic affairs as an important course in the curriculum was proposed.

It was to be organized under an

35 'Willard, Suma, An Address to the Public, pp. 1-14. ^ Ibid.. p. 32. 3VIbid., p. 16. 38Ibid.. p. 29.

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$2. instructor "experienced in the best methods of housewifery and acquainted with propriety of dress and manners. "39

Another requisite

for such a course was a textbook which would provide a systematic treatise on housewifery.

To her knowledge a textbook meeting this

requirement had never been published. Included in her reform was a plea for the endowment of public seminaries for girls. educated.

At that time only one half of society was being

Male education flourished because of the "guardian care of

the legislature."

The prosperity of the country would depend on the

character of its citizens.

"The characters of these will be formed

by their mothers; and it is through the mothers, that the government can control the characters of its future citizens."^

Tftnrna Willard

appealed to the legislators to "begin now to form the characters of our next generation, by controlling that of the females who are to be their mothers, while it is yet with them a season of improvement«" ^ Since she anticipated moving to Waterford, Mew York, General Van Schoonhoven, an influential citizen of that city, offered to bring Mrs. Millard's "Plan" before Governor Detatt Clinton.^

Governor

Clinton was favorable to the idea of using state aid in founding girls’ schools.

However, when he brought the proposal before the state

legislature, while a few of the members recognized the justice and wisdom of his recommendations, a majority of the lawmakers opposed the

•^Ibid., p. ^°Ibid.. p. ^Ibid., p. ^Goodsell,

30. 19. 16. Willystine, o£. cit., p. 22.

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petition on the basis that it interfered with God's will for women. ^ Emma Willard established her school in Waterford without state aid in 1819.

Two years later, the aggressive citizens of Troy, New York,

passed a resolution to raise money for a female academy through taxation. to Troy.

They invited Mrs. Willard to move her seminary from ¥aterforc Encouraged by the promise of permanent financial assistance,

she accepted the offer and in 1821 the Troy Female Seminary was opened. As a school of higher education, it grew in popularity and influence; it was regarded as a model both in the United States and in Europe.44 The more advanced subjects such as history, science, and philosophy were added to the curriculum.

Since Emma 'Willard could not,

at first, afford to employ additional instructors to teach these subjects, she studied and taught them herself.

A long list of

publications designed to improve methods of teaching was a result of her experiences in more efficient classroom management

Before she

retired from the active management of the Troy Female Seminary in 1838, she had established a noteworthy program for the preparation of teachers.^

Her greatest contribution to the movement for woman's

education was to lead a generation to think favorably of permanent institutions for the education of women. In the meantime a Connecticut woman, Zilpah Grant, had gained a reputation from her twelve years' successful teaching experience in 43Ibid., pp. 22, 25-26. ^Ibid., pp. 35-36. ^5Ibid., pp. 29-31. l6Ibid., p. 33-

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Norfolk and vicinity.

She, too, was interested in higher education for

girls and was debating the wisdom of using the fifty dollars which she had saved to enable her to carry out her ideas.

On the advice of the

Reverend Ralph lialdo Fkerson, then pastor of her church, she decided to use her savings for further education at Byfield Seminary at Saugus, Massachusetts This school was conducted by Ralph ¥aldo Ekerson's brother, the Reverend Joseph Emerson, who had become intensely interested in the improvement of education for experienced teachers.

Byfield Seminary

was one of the few institutions in the country where the curriculum included courses which would prepare for teaching subjects in higher education.^ Upon the completion of her work at Byfield Seminary, Zilpah Grant taught a select school for young ladies at ¥insted, Massachusetts.

Two

years later, she became the principal of Adams Female Academy at Derry, New Hampshire, which she transformed into a first class school for g i r l s . T h e Adams Female Academy appears to have been a school which was unique in the second decade of the nineteenth century. was given the academy building without charge. to have been the firstgirls'seminary

Miss Grant

Too, the school seems

to be created through abequest.

Joseph Adams was the d o n o r . I n this enterprise,Mary Lyon, with

^Johnson, Allen (ed.), op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 576. 48Ibid., p. 576. 49Ibid.. p. 576. ^Sioody, Thomas, pp. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 347-346.

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whom

_____________________________________________ :_________________ i£ Zilpah Grant had formed a close friendship at the Byfield Seminary, became the assistant teacher.'*'*’ The school progressed.

After four successful years, Zilpah Grant

was invited to take charge of Ipswich Academy, a boarding school for girls in Ipswich, Massachusetts. her as an assistant teacher.

Again, Mary Lyon was associated with

They envisioned the Ipswich Academy as

an institution with great potentialities.

They had been informed by

the Board of Trustees that the academy was to be a permanently endowed school.

The Trustees also desired that the academy be one recognized

for its standards in higher education.

52

Accordingly the admission requirements restricted the enrollment to girls over fourteen years of age.

Those girls without previous

education were disqualified from entering the school.

A status as an

institution of higher education was gained by means of an "advanced curriculum."

At Ipswich Academy, the subjects which were included in

the prescribed program concentrated on an English education (sic), foreign languages, and music; the customary feminine courses in needle­ work (sic) were omitted.

As at the Troy Female Seminary, a curriculum

intended to prepare assistant teachers for a future career was offered. In spite of the scholastic requirements and the limitations imposed by a restriction of courses, Ipswich Academy became one of the most popular and renowned girls' boarding schools in New EngLand.

In 1831, a total

of 198 students was admitted; the enrollment represented almost every

^Johnson, Allen (ed.), ojo. cit., Vol. 1, p. 576. ^Goodsell, Willystine, o£. cit., p. 236.

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2k state in the union. ^ Mary Lyon remained with Zilpah Grant until 1834, when she ventured to establish an endowed seminary modeled after the Ipswich Academy.-

The

new school was built around a social philosophy which she had evolved, and which was concerned with means by which a higher education for women could best serve the nation.

She was unsympathetic to the

"stratification" which existed with reference to girls' higher education.

In opposition to the practice that only the daughters of

people in affluent circumstances could attend an academy, she would organize a new type of seminary.

The primary objective of the endowed

school which she contemplated was to provide an opportunity for capable girls who, like herself, were worthy of a higher education but had limited financial resources.

If the building were provided, she

calculated that the entire expense, board, room, and tuition, could be fixed at sixty-four dollars a year.

She would balance the budget by

means of low pay for teachers and two hours of domestic labor which each student would contribute daily. ^ For four years Mary Lyon continually campaigned for the endowment funds which she estimated were necessary for the proposed building and grounds.

During this interim, she visited many towns in Massachusetts

and Connecticut.

The house to house canvass which she made proved to

be an effective method of soliciting funds.

She also was successful in

securing the cooperation and support of many professional men as well as

53Ibid.. p. 236. % b i d . , pp. 234-235, 237, 242.

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57 that of men of social position. in getting subscriptions.

In turn, many of these men collaborated

This concerted effort resulted in sufficient

fluids to -warrant the purchase of fifteen acres of land and the erection of a building.^ On February 10, 1836, a charter -was granted to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and a tract of land between Northampton and Andover, Massachusetts, was purchased.

In the fall of the following year the

institution, which Mary Lyon had envisioned, began its long career and a new standard of permanency for institutions of higher education for women was established.

The school building, the library, and the

equipment were pledged as enduring contributions to the cause of female education.^ Mary Lyon lived only twelve years after she organized Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.

Nevertheless, she was able to develop an outstanding

curriculum quite similar to the program offered at the neighboring men’s college in Amherst.

In fact, the regular courses in which women were

instructors frequently were supplemented by lectures given by members of the faculties of the nearby men's colleges, Williams and Amherst. Unquestionably, the foundation of Smith and Wellesley colleges for women received stimulus from the pioneer female seminary of their state. ^ 4. Summary "When Catharine Beecher entered the teaching profession in 1818, she viewed it as a desirable means of rendering financial assistance to her 55Ibid.. pp. 239-241. 56Ibid.. pp. 238-242. 57 Whitney, Lillian, "Mary Lyon," in Our Famous Women, p. 214. -

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family.

Four years later -when her fiance, Professor Alexander Fisher,

was drowned and it became necessary for her to make a vocational choice, she chose the teaching profession as a career which would contribute to the improvement of education for women.

She felt great insecurity in

contemplating the establishment of the Hartford Female Seminary in 1823. Higher education was considered appropriate only for men and it was conceded generally that all teaching at this level should be done by schoolmasters.

To establish a high school for girls was considered a

radical enterprise and there were few successful precedents which could be used as models. Had she been choosing a life work in the 1850* s rather than in the 1820‘s, she might have considered another type of profession.

By 1850

the sphere of opportunities for women had changed and broadened; a certain measure of acceptance and recognition had been gained in social service, science, art and music, belles lettres, and journalism; reform movements, and education. The success of the eminent women of the middle of the century may be attributed largely to the foundations laid by Eknma Willard, Catharine Beecher, Zilpah Grant, and Mary Lyon, who pioneered in the movement for higher education for women in the first decades of the period.

Although

each of these leaders made a unique contribution to the program, there seemed to be agreement concerning certain requisites which were considered indispensable for the permanency of the project.

They felt

that it was their mission to do something for the improvement of women's education at the higher-education level; all were concerned that women

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----------------------------------------------------------- 5 2 _ be given status in the teaching profession; there was unity in the belief that the permanency of female education depended in a large degree upon adequate public or private support, and they endeavored to create favorable opinion for the endowment of higher education for women.

All were concerned with domestic economy and its professional

status.

As far as resources would permit, each institution which was

established was a demonstration of the respective educator’s philosophy of higher education,

ahile Emma Hillard, Zilpah Grant, and Mary Lyon

confined their endeavors to their schools in Hew EngLand, Catharine Beecher, after gaining experience in establishing the Hartford Female Seminary at Hartford, Connecticut, devoted her life to a nation-wide program which she envisioned as a solution for the "evils of women.”

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CHAPTER VI CATHARINE BEECHER, PIONEER EDUCATOR IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY

lo The Hartford Female Seminary The temporary status of schools for girls in the eighteenth century had been one of the obstacles to the progress of women’s education.

Permanency was not achieved until the next century when the

female seminary evolved as the first extension of training for girls beyond the elementary grades.

Much of the credit for the establishment

of such a program, and the fact that the movement for higher education did not lose momentum, may be given to Catharine Beecher. The Hartford Female Seminary, her first contribution to the movement, was founded in 1823.

The school was contemporary with the

noteworthy achievements of Emma Willard at the Troy Female Seminary and Zilpah. Grant at the Ipswich Academy.

It was one of the institutions

which served as a model for Mount Holyoke Seminary which Mary Lyon established in 1837*

In 1838, when Emma Millard was fifty-one years of

age, she retired from the active management of the Troy Female Seminary. Zilpah Grant, in the following year, resigned from the Ipswich Academy and married William. B. Banister.

Mary Lyon lived only twelve years

after she had established Mount Holyoke Seminary.

Catharine Beecher not

only outlived all of the members of this eminoat group, but it will be noted that she promoted the women’s educational movement with an invincible spirit throughout her life; she never retired.^-

-'-Goodsell, Killystine, Pioneers of Woman’s Education, passim.

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£L She firmly believed that there must not be discrimination between the sexes in the educational policies of a genuine democracy, and that "no educational question is of such vital importance as the appropriate education of women for the Duties of the Family State" (sic.); that woman’s true profession should be recognized in a curriculum for liberal education.

2

her program. publicity.

Obviously propaganda was an important phase of strategy in However, her energies and efforts were not confined to Constantly, she endeavored to stimulate interest in the

building of institutions which would incorporate her plans and her philosophy. and

That they would serve as prototypes for many other schools

colleges, was one

of hergreatest ambitions.

Hartford Female Seminary, Catharine Beecher’s first conception of an institution of higher learning, opened in the Spring of 1823. According to Dr. Mae Elizabeth Harveson, the three Hartford, Connecticutj papers, The American Mercury. The Connecticut Courant, and The Connecticut Mirror, carried an announcement concerning the new seminary: ". . . a school intended exclusively for those who wish to pursue the higher branches of female education. It is hoped that those who attend, will feel disposed to acquire a thorough knowledge of the most necessary parts of education, such as Geography, Grammar, Rhetoric, etc., and will afterward advance to a higher and more extended knowledge of science and literature. None will be admitted under the age of 12 unless unusually advanced in their education. Terms for tuition, $6 per quarter. Lessons will be given in music at $10 per quarter and in drawing at $2 per quarter. The term will commence May 20, 1823."-' ^Beecher, Catharine, "Catharine E. Beecher, Autobiography," Barnard’s American Journal of Education, Vol. 28 (June 1878), p. 93» ^Harveson, Mae Elizabeth, Catharine Esther Beecher. Pioneer Educator, p. 35« _________________________________________________ _

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62 Hartford Female Seminary was an ambitious project for Catharine Beecher.

She -was only twenty-two years old, and it was an era when

women were not allowed to prepare for educational careers.

In her -

autobiography she relates how she began teaching with less education than was available to boys in preparatory schools.^

She had heard of

the schools conducted by Emma Ifillard and other women but, lacking means of communication, she had no opportunity to become familiar with their programs.'*

In her usual forthright manner, she allowed nothing

to interfere with her plans; she opened her school and taught her teachers as well as herself.^ The initial enrollment at Hartford Female Seminary consisted of seven pupils.

By 1826, the number of girls had increased to eighty.

To accommodate the group, the seminary was moved frcm a second-story room over a harness shop to the basement of a church.

7

Assured that

her educational enterprise had developed into a permanent institution, Catharine Beecher petitioned the state legislature for incorporation papers.

During the next four years, until her health failed, she

worked untiringly to improve her school.

She experimented in guidance

and in diverse ways to improve the administration of the school, its curriculum, its classroom methods and procedures. Her foresight in school management and her comprehension of the

^Beecher, Catharine, op. pit., p. 81. 5Ibid.. p. 81. llbid., p. 83. 'Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. p. 30.

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needs of students in an era -when a formal type of education was a universal practice, are commendable.

One innovation among her

administrative procedures was the distribution of personnel and the use of the teacher's time.

Each teacher was assigned to only two or three

classes, while the "brightest and best" scholars in each class were made the "assistant pupils."

"I trained the teachers, they repeated

the same drill to the 'assistant pupils,' who thus were prepared to become teachers," wrote Catharine Beecher in her autobiography: in this manner each group of eight or ten girls had assistance from an 8 "instructor." She saw no justification for the custom of using a well-prepared teacher's time for the performance of routine tasks such as "enforcing the laws of order and neatness in the building," keeping school journals, or being responsible for such details as excuses, permissions, and "acknowledgements."

Conservation of the teacher's time was

accomplished by the appointment of a "Governess" who performed these

9 duties. Today such terms as remedial, integration, and guidance would be used to describe Catharine Beecher's teaching methods.

The literature

of her day did not afford a Dictionary of Education: she was cognizant of methods as means of interpreting and solving the students' needs g

Beecher, Catharine, "Catharine S. Beecher, Autobiography," Barnard's American Journal of Education, Vol. 28 (June 1878), p. 73. ^Ibid.. p. 76. ^ T h e first Dictionary of Education was published in 1945 by McGraw-Hill Book Company under the auspices of Phi Delta Kappa, Carter V. Good, editor.

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Professional terminology was of little concern to her. She was convinced that one of the practical and permanent aime of all educators should be to attempt to remedy "defects of mind, body, and habits." She had a student who could not understand the "reasoning process in a proposition in Euclid but showed a competency in learning letters." The teacher substituted letters for figures.

Not only was the process

learned but eventually this girl became one of the best mathematics "assistant pupils" in the school.11 Another pupil had great difficulty with the appreciation of poetry and "fine writing."

Various methods were used to remedy the deficiency

and by the end of the year her poetry was read at the public examinations as an illustration of one of the best selections in the class.12 Catharine 3eecher regarded rote memory, -which was commonly used in teaching in that era, as a very undesirable type of learning.

She

described her attempts to "excite an interest for discovery" by new methods in the use of textbooks.

For example, the geometry class was

told that there was more than one method for "demonstrating the 47th Prop, of Euclid" (sic) and was encouraged to find different ways for solving the problem. ^

In the presentation of subject matter, "kindred

and connected branches were associated" in such a manner that the lessons in geography and history would be "connected with simultaneous

^Beecher, Catharine, op. cit., pp. 75-76. ^Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. Catharine. "Catharine Ji. ceecner,.Autobiography," can .Troirnai nf Education. Vol. 28J(June 1S73T: p? 73.

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65

periods in polite literature and the history of civilization, and the exercises in composition would sometimes be arranged with these same subjects."^Aspects of guidance were also incorporated into the Hartford Female Seminary program.

Frequently, at meetings of the teachers and

"assistant pupils," the names of all of the pupils would be read, and suggestions would be sought concerning the individual needs of each student.

"Those requiring most attention were committed to the special

love and care of the one best qualified to aid.""'* Although many of her concepts of education and her classroom methods were considered revolutionary, the effectiveness of the program could not be denied.

At the request of the Trustees of the Hartford

Female Seminary she wrote Suggestions Respecting Improvements in Education.

In this article, Catharine Beecher made public her

philosophy concerning a practical education for girls and some ways of achieving this objective, and offered constructive suggestions for a program of expansion in women's education."^*

Wide publicity was given

to this article; it appeared in the North American Review, then the chief American periodical, and also in the Revue Encyclopedique, the leading literary publication in Europe.

17

Catharine Beecher had worked continuously for the improvement of J J M . , p. 73. jjlbid., p. 77Beecher, Catharine, Suggestions Respecting Improvements in Education, passim. T7— ----'Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. p. 34.

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66 the Hartford Female Seminary.

She had expanded the curriculum into a

three-year program which ranked favorably with those at the Troy Female Seminary and the Ipswich Academy.

For eight years she had had the •

entire responsibility for the management of the school.

She had

worked in the capacity of business manager, superintendent of grounds, registrar and recorder, head teacher and tutor of other teachers. had also found time to write textbooks. taxed her physical capacities heavily.

She

These strenuous activities In 1831 she became ill and 1 C>

relinquished her active supervision of the school.

During the

following spring The American Annals of Education printed an announcement from the trustees of the institution which indicated that the Reverend T. H. C-allaudet would be in charge of the "course of instruction and government of the pupils during the ensuing term. "Kith the change in administration, the Hartford Female Seminary declined and never again gained the status which it had achieved under Catharine Beecher's leadership.

20

2. The Western Female Institute and Domestic Economy Texts The education-minded citizens of Cincinnati welcomed Catharine Beecherj they were desirous that she organize a girls’ school of higher education in that city.

Although she was unable to assume

responsibility for the general supervision of the school, she did

18Ibid., p. 61. 19--7American Annals of Education, "Hartford .female Seminary," Vol. 2 (April 1832), p. 255. 20 Beecher, Catharine, ojd. cit., p. 79.

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_________________________________________________ £z_ accept the opportunity to act in an advisory capacity and to plan a program for the Western Female Institute.

It -would enable her to

utilize her past experiences in a new situation and to expand her . theories concerning the elevation of woman's position through 01

education.

Accordingly, she planned a twofold objective for the Western Female Institute.

It would offer the regular academic work and in

addition emphasis would be given to courses which would enable women to qualify for teaching positions in the new schools on the western frontier.

In conjunction with the latter aim, a placement service for

teachers would be organized.

This would serve not only the graduates

of the Western Female Institute, but would function as a distribution center for capable teachers from the East who were desirous of positions in the West.

22

The teacher-preparation-placement program which she had conceived for the Western Female Institute was not an innovation; it was a plan which Catharine Beecher had considered while at the Hartford Female Seminary.*^

She had written to Mary Lyon soliciting her cooperation in

developing some standard system for preparing women for teaching and "stationing them in their appropriate fields of labor."

She felt that

many of the intelligent unemployed women in the East could render society a great service if they would become proficient teachers and go

Slbid., P.

82.

Woody, Thomas, History of Woman1s Education in the United States. Vol. 2. p. 321. Harveson, Mae Elizabeth, op. cit., p. 81.

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6S. West 'where two million children were starving for an education.

Lacking

faculty leadership and adequate financial support, the Western Female Institute existed only four years she suggested that

domestic economy was a subject which was adaptable to elementary and high school levels as well as to the teaching of adults.

In her la-st

book, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, she reiterated her belief that the family is the most important and influential of all institutions.

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U4

CHAPTER VIII CATHARINE BEECHER'S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION FOR MQMEN

1.

Exponent of Domestic Economy

Catharine Beecher was the outstanding exponent of domestic economy for more than two thirds of the nineteenth century.

Much of her success

may be attributed to the sound philosophy which she formulated with reference to the education of women.

She presented domestic economy

from a woman's •viewpoint and argued that it had a place in higher education.

As a substitute for the superficial accomplishments which

were included in the curricula of a majority of female seminaries, she offered a professional course in domestic economy. Not only was her philosophy concerning domestic economy expressed in a definite manner, but she possessed the ability to defend her ideals and beliefs.

By means of her Treatise on Domestic Economy and other

writings, she furnished the next generation of leaders with a wellrounded philosophy on the subject.

Catharine Beecher’s broad conception

of the field of domestic economy is commendable.

Her progressive ideas

concerning education for girls were influenced by the predominating social and economic concepts of her times.

In addition, her method of

teaching and her policies in school administration embraced many principles which were recognized by eminent educators of the era. How Catharine Beecher evolved her philosophy of domestic economy is difficult to ascertain.

Her autobiography is not an adequate source

of information concerning the forces which stimulated her thinking.

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— 1.11

However, a careful analysis of her writings reveals some of these influences.

From these writings is gained an insight into many of the

factors which contributed to her philosophy.

Apparently she read ■

widely, for she was acquainted with the work of contemporary thinkers. She had the spirit of the pioneer, which gave her courage to think independently; and, having once established her aims and objectives, she felt empowered to break with tradition and attempt to improve education for women.

Also she lived and worked during an era which the

noted nineteenth-century historian, Henry Adams, called "the formative years," when a ferment of ideas was stimulating the development of a new type of nationalism of which democracy was to become the predominating philo sophy.

2. Influence of Greek and Roman Writers Although Catharine Beecher was the most important leader in the home economics movement in the early and middle periods of the nineteenth century, she was by no means the first person to evolve a philosophy of education in which women as homemakers had a part.

The

history of education shows some of the foundation stones of the philosophy to be the social, political, and economic beliefs of the people of ancient Greece, when women were considered socially a necessity, economically an asset, but politically incompetent. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) considered the home to be the natural sphere of woman's activities.

He recognized that by nature woman had her own

■'"Adams, Henry, The Formative Years, Vols. 1 ana 2, 1067 pages.

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116 peculiar virtues and duties.

However, she was considered to be inferior

to manj and because of this fact, to the husband was conceded the right of complete authority in regulating the life of his wife.

2

Centuries

later, -when Catharine Beecher described woman *s status as a homemaker, although she disagreed with Aristotle concerning the inferiority of women, she also argued that the home was woman's sphere.

Further,

because of the variety of problems, the number of demands, and the difficulties involved in the management of the home, she would elevate homemaking to a professional status which was not contanplated in Aristotle's plan.

Plato (428-348 B.C.) also contributed to the

philosophy which appears in some of Catharine Beecher's writings.

In

The Republic, in which his code of ethics is described as being based on worth, wisdom, service, and political leadership, he claimed the development of virtuous citizens to be the highest duty of the state. As a means of achieving this objective he proposed that girls have training like that provided for boys.

4

"The American people are to be

educated for their high duties,11 declared Catharine Beecher in The Duty of American Women to their Country.^

As if she might have found her

inspiration from Plato's writings, she continued: "The children who, ere long, are to decide whether we shall have tariff or no tariff, bank

^Woody, Thomas, The History of Woman's Education in the United States, Vol. 1, p. 13* ^Beecher, Catharine, Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper, pp. 127-132. 4-Ulich, Robert, History of Educational Thought, pp. 15-22. ^Beecher, Catharine, The Duty of American Women to their Country. p. 67.

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117 or no bank, slavery or no slavery . . . must be trained so that they cannot be duped and excited by the demagogues . . . . They must be trained to read, and think and decide intelligently on all matters. . . . The young daughters of this nation, too, must be trained to become the ^ educators of all the future statesmen. . . . " The OSconomicus, a treatise on the management of a farm and household by the Greek writer, Xenophon, was written in the fourth century B.C., and is another source which may have contributed to 7

Catharine Beecher’s work. philosophy of Socrates.

In this treatise Xenophon transmits the Written in dialogue form, the characters in

The OSconomicus are a teacher and his pupil who are conversing on the subject of the instruction of the young wife. customary duty of the husband.

Socrates was given the part of the

teacher and Critobulus, the pupil. Critobulus.

In that era, this was a

"What does one teach?" inquired

"I will tell you how my friend Ischomachus taught his

wife," was Socrates’ answer; and he proceeded to outline a program on household economy which he believed fundamental to a happy partnership. Socrates explained the peculiar position which woman occupied in society; she had been equipped with special talents so that she would be capable of doing the indoor work, whereas man had been endowed with physical prowess which would enable him to assume the responsibilities for the outdoor work. household.

Together they would plan the management of their

The services which the husband and wife contributed would

make one complementary to the other.

The wife would prepare food from

^Ibid., pp. 67-68. 'Watson, Rev. J. S. K., Xenophon’s Minor Works, pp. 71-147-

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118 the crops ■which the husband had produced; she would make cloth from the wool sheared from his sheep.

They would use an inventory system and

carefully keep records as a means of controlling household planning, storing, and supplies. accommodate their needs.

Together they would plan a house which would It would provide a place for everything so

that everything might be kept in its place.

Among the special duties

in which the wife would need instruction were economy, neatness, and order.

She would need to be qualified to direct the servants and

supervise the health of the family.

As they planned to rear their

family, they would realize their responsibility to their children and teach them the value of sharing and working.

They would so nurture

their children that they in turn would feel their responsibility to their parents, especially in their old age.

*

Thus, in an early epoch,

Xenophon publicized Socrates' plan for domestic economy which provided for the operation of a family as a democratic unit where a successful, happy life was shared equally by the husband and wife.

The Roman writer

Cicero was so impressed by Xenophon's treatise that he translated The QSoanomicus into Latin and made it available to his people.

9

The cooperative family which is emphasized in The CEconomicus is also a subject prominently discussed in all of Catharine Beecher's texts on home economics.

In A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841), she

points to the home as the basis of democratic living. Family,

"The Christian

chapter in The American ¥oman* s Home (1869), proposes a plan

®Ibid., pp. 96-114• •Jlbid., p. 72. -^Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, pp. 3-38.

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119

for family cooperation and emphasizes its influence in the community.^" Although present-day home economics texts usually devote little space to the problems concerning older people -which arise in many families, Catharine Beecher, like the ancient Greeks, had noted a need for information on this topic.

Attention -was called to the necessity for

care of the aged, and the responsibilities of the younger generation for the older members of the family were discussed in The American

12

Women's Home

13

and Principles of Domestic Science.

Again in Miss

Beecher* s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper (1373) 3 a. chapter on "Needful Scientific Training for the Family State" so closely follows the philosophy outlined in The (Economicus that it -would almost seem as though the latter had been used as a guide.^

All of the topics

suggested in it for the instruction of women are included in Catharine Beecher’s domestic economy books for "young ladies at home and at school."

At the same time, while Socrates planned for the education

of women which would be given at home, Catharine Beecher staunchly advocated formal instruction in these subjects and public recognition of their importance. The ideal home manager, as a worthy woman of this early period, is realistically described in the last chapter of The Book of Proverbs:

"'"''Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The American Woman1s Home, pp. 17-23. ^Ibid., pp. 303-306. ^Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Principles of Domestic Science, pp. 263-266. ■^Beecher, Catharine, Miss Beecher*s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. pp. 127-133.

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120 "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies . . . . She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands, she planteth a vineyard. . . . She perceiveth that her merchandise is good. . . . She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. . . . She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. . . . She maketh fine linen and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. . . . She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." Catharine Beecher was well versed in the Bible, which leads to the supposition that she found such passages to be stimulating as she contemplated the problems of "domestic business." 3.

Influence of Humanist Writers and Other European Educators

In the early centuries of the middle ages, women were subjected to the will and treatment of their husbands.

Families were large and

women struggled to maintain the home and the fields while the men crusaded.

Later women gained the power in their homes.

In this era

both the church and the aristocracy defined the position of woman. Powers reports that "women found themselves perpetually oscillating between superiority and inferiority."

One group was teaching about

woman's inability while the other was acclaiming her talents.^

About

1392-1394, Menagier de Paris offered a book dealing with the education

^Powers, Eileen, "The Position of Women," in G» C. Crump and E. F. Jacob, The Legacy of the Middle Ages, pp. 406-407.

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121 of the haute bourgeoisie class.

One section dealt -with household

management, another with the best treatment of servants, and a third with the care of clothing and furs.

The selection and preparation-of

food was the subject of greatest emphasis.

As sovereign mistress, a

woman should be familiar with the preparation of menus.

She should be

acquainted with ordering of dinners, suppers, have a knowledge of meat and spices and the art of gardening.^ 'The emphasis which was given to the problem of education for women by the humanists during the Reformation would indicate that the leaders of this period were opposed to the subjection and class distinction which had dominated many classes of women in the middle ages.

Among

the men in the sixteenth century who promoted this new educational movement were Erasmus of Rotterdam (1166-1536), Juan Luis Vives (14921540), and Martin Luther (1483-1546).

In the seventeenth century, the

philosophy of Johann Comenius (1592-1670) was an important contribution to the advancement of education for women. Vives was convinced that the education of women would have a national significance.

17 Encouraged by Queen Isabella ' and Sir Thomas

More, who shared a similar belief, Vives in 1523 wrote De Institution Feminae Christianae. This book, after being translated into English by Richard Hyrde in 1540, became the leading theoretical manual on women's

16Ibid., pp. 424-425. Queen Isabella was interested that her daughters have a formal education. Two of them later became Queens of Portugal, a third the Queen of Spain, and Catharine the Queen of King Henry VIII Qf England.

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...122 education of the sixteenth century. England but throughout Europe.

18

It was influential not only in

Vives would educate a woman to know

"what manner of diet is good or bad."

He suggested that she read books

written to meet her special needs and that she not learn from "some great volume of physics."

Home management and a skill in needlework and

weaving -were among the other areas of instruction which he included in a curric:fLum of education for girls.

19

In agreement with Vives, Erasmus

three years later included an extensive chapter on the education of

20 Luther, in an endeavor to

girls in matrimonii Christiani Institutio.

release the people from medieval suppression, advocated coeducation as a means of effecting his reform. good men was his aim.

To make good citizens as well as

Luther recognized and emphasized the value of

education in household activities and believed that women should be educated so that they might instruct their children.

He would have the

state rather than the Church provide education for children,

fthether

they were boys or girls, rich or poor, all should be compelled to attend school.

21

Luther's vievrs on the education of women were supported by Comenius, an outstanding philosopher of the next era.

However,

Comenius refuted the earlier contention concerning women's mental

18

Ifatson, Foster, Luis Vives, 1492-1540, pp. 53-57. 19jJatson, Foster, Vives and the Renascence Education of 4omen, pp. 25, 46, 120. 2%lich, Robert, op. cit., p. 140.

21

Cubberley, Ellwood P., The History of Education. p. 312.

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123 capability, saying that he saw no satisfactory reason why women should be called the weaker sex; often they were endowed with minds more alert and capable than those of men.

Like Luther, he urged that the state

provide coeducational schools; furthermore, he would have the state provide textbooks.

The Great Didactic, one of his most famous books,

urged that "the youth of both sexes, without exception, should be instructed in science, improved in their morals, filled with piety, and in suchwise be equipped in early days for all that belongs to life here and beyond."

Because of his great interest in the development of

children, he outlined principles of teaching which took into consideration the abilities and interests of the child. divide the period of schooling into four distinct grades:

Comenius would first, for

infancy, at the mother's knee; second, for childhood, in the vernacular school; third, for boyhood, in the Latin school or gymnasium; and fourth, for youth, in the university and in travel.

23

Catharine Beecher's adoption of some of the philosophies of this group of humanists, who were leaders throughout the Reformation, is suggested in similar theories which she proposes in A Treatise on Domestic Economy and An Essay on the Educati on of Female Teachers. The context of the latter book also revolves about the problem of securing permanent education. Luther and Comenius had advocated that the state provide institutions for coeducation and Catharine Beecher had adapted the idea

22

Keatinge, M. LT., The Great Didactic of John Comenius, op. 67-68. 23 Ibid., p. 111.

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12L to the problem of higher education for women of her generation, and advocated that there should be educational facilities of a permanent nature for both women teachers and students.

"We need institutions

endowed at public expense, and so constituted that, while those who are able to pay shall pay full value of their privileges, those who have not the ability shall be furnished gratuitously with what they cannot purchase." ^ for girls.

She, too, was eager for a nationwide program of education

She would have the leading female institutions combine to

establish a regular course of study.

"These measures vd.ll have the

same effect on female education, as medical and theological schools have upon these professions."^

she approved the system of education

vdiich had been permanently established in Prussia according to Luther’s ideas: " . . . Prussia with a system of education unequalled in the records of time, requiring by law that all the children in the nation be sent to school, from the first day they are seven years of age, till the day they are fourteen, with a regular course of literary and scientific instruction, and every teacher required to spend three years in preparing for such duties . . ."26 In A Treatise on Domestic Economy, Catharine Beecher suggests that the teaching of domestic economy be started at home by mothers.

Her

whole plan is similar to Comenius’ idea of an education at four levels. She says:

Beecher, Catharine, An Essay on the Education of Female Teachers, pp. 20-21. 25Ibid., p. 52^Ibid., p. 15.

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125 " . . . domestic education of daughters should occupy the principal attention of the mothers, in childhood . . . at five or six years of age a little girl might begin to assist her mother; by the time she is ten, she can render essential aid. From this time until she is fourteen or fifteen, it should be the principal object of her education to secure . . . a thorough practical knowledge of all kinds of domestic employments."27 At the seminary level Catharine Beecher suggests, "their mornings might be occupied with domestic exercise."

In the latter instruction, she

would raise the "science and the practice of Domestic Economy to its appropriate place as a regular study in female seminaries."

28

A Traite de 1*Education des Filles, which was written by Archbishop I-i. F^nelon and printed in 1687, seems to have had as profound an influence on the evolution of a philosophy for domestic economy as did

29 Xenophon's The CEconomicus.

At the request of "A Lady" it was

translated into the English language by George Hickes in 1750.

30

According to C-ood, Benjamin Rush, a noted doctor and an influential man in education, based his "Thoughts on Female Education" upon Fenelon's * ' 31 Traite de 1'Education des Filles. Rush is said to have first presented his treatise as a commencement address in 1787, the address later

^Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, po. 48-50. 2SIbid.,9 A p. 50. Q Q ^ ~F£nelon, Frangois de Salignac de la Kothe, Traite de l 1Education des Filles, as translated in 1750 by George Hickes and entitled Instructions for the Education of Daughters, pp. 1-190. 30Rickes, George, Instructions for the Education of Daughters, title page. 31 ^ Good, Harry J., Benjamin Rush and His Services to American Education, pp. 226-234*

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126 appearing as a book in 1 8 0 6 . ^

Two additional translations have

qI

been noted. For ten years Fenelon had been principal of a French school for young girls who had renounced the Protestant faith. he wrote the famous treatise.

During this time

Fenelon argued that women should not be

expected to carry on military policies and other affairs of the government.

Even if women were physically and mentally weaker than

men, he claimed there was justification for providing them with many educational opportunities, since their duties "lie at the foundation of all society," and he thought that they needed preparation to be successful in this responsibility. In the Traite de l 1Education des Filles, Fenelon devotes two chapters, "Housewifery and keatness" and "Duties and Accomplishment," to the discussion of his views respecting an adequate curriculum in home e c o n o m y H e calls the success of "old Greeks and Romans" to the attention of those who would minimize the value of a study of housekeeping and were opposed to spending time on it.

He reminds his

readers that these peoples were skillful and refined because they composed books and instructed themselves on the subject.

Fenelon

charges the housewife with her responsibility in "regulating domestic 32 Rush, Benjamon, "Thoughts on Female Education," in Good, Harry J., Benjamin Rush and His Services to American Education, p. 22o. 33 Although Good's research shows a very definite relationship between the two writings, Rush gave no credit to Fenelon. 3A* f Dibbden, T. F., Education for Daughters i.translation), 1806; and Lupton, Kate, The Education of Girls (translation), 1891. 35 Hickes, George, op. cit., pp. 146-170.

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127 concerns ,n promoting the happiness of her husband, and educating their children.

Ke emphasizes the need for the mother to understand the

"nature of every one of her children, to find out the manner of behaving herself with them . . . an understandirg which is ripe, stayed, industrious, and experienced for government."

In addition, he points

out that she is to have charge of domestics and to offer charity to the poor.

To help solve these problems in the management of the home,

Fenelon prescribes courses in the care of children; the preparation and conservation of food; the construction of cloth and clothing; housewifery and neatness; household accounting; and sufficient instruction in land management so that unscrupulous agents could not take undue advantage of the homemaker.

To this instruction, he would

add writing, history, poetry, accounts, music, and painting Catharine Beecher may not have had an opportunity to read Fenelon* s / ✓ Traite de 1*Education des Filles; or perhaps, finding that she agreed with his philosophy, she concluded that a recognition of Fenelon*s contributions to her 'work was not essential.

In any event, it would be

possible to take many of Fenelon*s seventeenth-century ideas and find them reiterated in Catharine Beecher's nineteenth-century books.

She,

too, would convince her readers that housework is not degrading; that it is only due to ignorance that women do not recognize domestic economy as an art and s c i e n c e . I n Ifoman Suffrage and Woman's Profession, she

36Ibid., pp. 170-172. 37 Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, pp. 37,

61-62.

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128 asserts that domestic enterprise can develop the intellect; then she cites the use of domestic chemistry in the kitchen and the need for a "good system of calculations" for purchasing goods and planning for their use.

38

Although no chapter on the subject of accounts is found

in any of her books, she has not failed to include this phase of home economy that was suggested in both Xenophon's and Fenelon's works.

In

the chapters "On Giving In Charity," and "On Economy of Time and Expenses," which appear in A Treatise o n Domestic Economy,39

and in The

American Woman1s Home, she has included details for keeping records and planning for expenditures.

40

Likewise "The Care of Infants" and "The

Management of Young Children" are two chapters which consistently appear in all of her books concerning homemaking; and the problems of housewifery, habits of system and order, and health also are considered in these texts. Although she planned for its inclusion in a school curriculum while many of them were advocating instruction at home, Catharine Beecher's philosophy concerning the content of a course in domestic economy had much in common with the beliefs of thinkers who lived before and during the early part of the seventeenth century.

The

education of children was a problem to which Friedrich Froebel and

38

J Beecher, Catharine, Yoman Suffrage and Woman's Profession, p. 125-

^^Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, po. 173-175. 185-192. ^■Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The American Woman's Home, pp. 239-241. 41jbid., pp. 213-234, 263-286; Beecher, Catharine, Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper, pp. 401-414.

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129 Johann Pestalozzi devoted their attention during the latter part of the eighteenth, and the early part of the nineteenth centuries. Beecher also was concerned with the welfare of children.

Catharine

She was in

agreement with Froebel's system for kindergarten education which "cultivates taste, ingenuity, contrivance and skill in the use of the hand and eye . . . before book knowledge is sought."42

Her interests

seem to have been centered on making available the type of information which she considered would aid parents in rearing their children. that era, books on this subject were uncommon.

In

Perhaps this scarcity

added to the popularity of her books, which offered many helpful and practical suggestions in this area of family life.

In The Housekeeper's IQ

manual may be found many illustrations of her ideas on child care. "The Duties of Homan's Profession," the first chapter of the book, reviews the responsibilities of the wife and mother, "The most difficult and important duties of a woman are those of an educator in the family and the school. In the nursery the children are taught the care of their bodies, the use of language, the nature and properties of the world around them, and many social and moral duties, all before books are used. . . . to a housekeeper and mother the duties of an educator stand first on the roll of responsibilities."^ Throughout the book she brings to the homemaker's attention some problems and solutions which she believes to be important.

The

in

^needier, Catharine, Homan Suffrage and Homan1s Profession, p. 65. ^Beecher, Catharine, The Housekeeper's manual, pp. 223-230; 263- 286. 44ibid., p. 17.

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120 diversity of topics -which are discussed is noted in the "Index: Analytical and Alphabetical;" "Children: washing, . . . living in the dark, . . . early retiring and rising of, . . . Cultivation of good manners, . . . Too great familiarity with, . . . Should acknowledge acts of kindness, . . . ask leave to use others' articles, . . . avoid wounding others' feelings, . . . to be taught to keep silence, . . . do not surround with too many rules, . . . On making allowance for, . . . waiting on, . . . on making useful, . . . on paying for services, . . . on giving younger, to older, . . . Precocity in, . . . eating too often, . . . To be guarded as to dishonesty, deceit, impurity, and running in debt . . . Sharing fruits and flowers. See Boys and Girls and Young Children. "4-5 Like Johann Herbart, Catharine Beecher believed that the formation of character was a most important aspect of education. ^ to theProtestant Clergy of the

In An Address

United States, in 1846, she says:

"The

two most important and yet most neglected departments of education are Moral Training and Domestic Economy."

She then continues, "so little

has the business of moral training been regarded as a branch of education, that few teachers know how to attempt it or what might be done."

In urging that this subject be included in the preparation of

teachers she asks: ""What are the best methods of teaching a selfish child to be generous, an indolent child to be frank, a passionate child to be meek and mild, a dishonest child to be honest? How is a defective conscience to be cultivated? How are habits of system and

^ I b i d . , p. $76.

^Ulicb, Robert, History of iCducaticnal Thought, pp. 281-282.

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121 order and punctuality to be formed? How is 'self-denying' benevolence to be induced?" ^ Toward the close of her career in 1874? she wrote in Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, "Education in this country will never reach its highest end, till the care of the physical, social and moral interests shall take precedence of mere intellectual developments and requirements."

48

While lecturing to a class in moral and mental

philosophy at the Hartford Female Seminary, Catharine Beecher became greatly interested in the subject.

Eventually the lectures were printed

49 as The Elements of Moral and Mental Philosophy.

When william H.

McGuffey was professor of mental philosophy at the University of West Virginia, he used this book as a text for his classes.^ As the normal schools developed in the United States, Herbart's theories of learning and Pestalozzi's conceptions of instruction were discussed widely.

In the Science of Education,

Herbart pointed out

that cleanness, association, system, and method are requisites of good classroom teaching.

52

About the same tame, the Pestalozzian movement

also was making important contributions to the philosophy of teaching irr

Beecher, Catharine, An Address to the Protestant Clergy of the United States, p. 27. ^Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. p. 49* ^Beecher, Catharine, Elements of Mental and Moral Philosophy, pp. 1-452. ^Beecher, Catharine, "Catharine E. Beecher, Autobiography," Barnard's Journal, of Education, Vol. 3 (June 187o), p. 795lHerbart, Johann, The Science of Education, translated by Felkin, HenryM., and Felkin, Emmie, pp. 1-268. ^Herbart's followers have modified these four steps into five principles, preparation, presentation, association, systematization, and application._______________________________________________

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____________________________________________________________

in the United States.

23S

Late in the summer of 1809, the first

Pestalozzian school was opened in Philadelphia, with Joseph Neef and William Maclure as teachers.^

Pestalozzi had many theories which .he

advocated for the improvement of instruction.

By associating mental and

manual labor, he would teach both theory and practice.

He would utilize

home experiences and experimentation in homemaking education as phases of classroom teaching.

By beginning with projects and problems which

were within the child's experience, and advancing with the child's development, he would "adapt his instruction to na.ture and common sense.1 Pestalozzi believed that the relationship of the teacher and child should be based on love and a regard for the child's personality; that science should be popularized by means of objective presentation of truths, rather than by a "rote memory method."^ Catharine Beecher's basic agreement with the principles suggested by Herbart and Pestalozzi was evidenced by the methods of presentation of subject matter which she advocated in both Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions^ and Woman Suffrage and Woman*s Profession.^ of these concepts were voiced in both books.

Many

In both she presented

criteria which she considered essential for good instruction.

She

wrote that the duties of the family state have a "direct and very

^Monroe, Will S., History of the Pestalozzian Movement in the United States, p. 97^Williams, Samuel B., A History of Modern Education. pp. 344-346. ^Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions . pp. 31-42. ^Beecher, Catharine, Woman Suffrage and Woman's Profession, pp. 64-82, 89-96.

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123 decided influence in training and in Intellectual powers."

57

Later she

stated that "The true method at the immature periods of life, is the union of the home and the school in protecting from dangers and in­ forming good habits and p r i n c i p l e s . C a t h a r i n e Beecher believed that a good teacher should know her pupil "socially and intellectually;" that a good teacher should have practical aims, focus her pupil's attention on interesting details which "excite an interest," and arrange lessons so that they would be on the level of a child's ability. 59

In Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions she deplored

the use of the rote memory method; she would try to encourage the child to develop initiative.

She cited "methodical arrangement as a useful

method of teaching in some c i r c u m s t a n c e s . I t would appear that Catharine Beecher, like many other educators in her generation, was finding Pestalozzi's methods to be stimulating to her teaching. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, women were gaining sufficient status to receive recognition for their theories concerning education.

Hannah More (1745-1833) was 311 eniinent English leader in

the education of women.

John Lord, who wrote about outstanding women,

said, "No woman in England has ever occupied the exalted position of Hannah More, or has exercised so broad and deep an influence on the "6l public mind for education for women. Her Strictures on the M o d e m ^Ibid., p. 64. 5°Ibid., p. 70. 59ibid.. pp. 71-90. ^Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. pp. 31-42. ■‘■Lora, John, Beacon Lights of History, Great VIomen, Vol. 5, _____ _______ p. 423.

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124, System of Female Education, first published in 1799* in two volumes, survived twenty editions.

It was printed both in Europe and in

America, and made as deep an impression on the English mind as had • Bhiile by Rousseau, which had been published in France a half century earlier.

Part of the success of Hannah More's book was due to her

remarkable ability as an educator.

Wot only was she respected in this

capacity, but she also held a high social position in the community. Long before Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education appeared, she had gained recognition in literary circles; in fact she was reputed to be a "literary lion" at twenty-five years of age.^ Catharine Beecher was influenced by Hannah More’s philosophy, and frequently made reference to Strictures on the M o d e m System of Female Education. Hannah More felt that the fundamental principle underlying female education was the necessity for "Christian instruction.”

A

sound educator would prepare girls for the profession of homemaking, to which they would devote most of their lives, and "not for a crowd, for usefulness, and not admiration."°5 cultivation of "moderate abilities."

She would stimulate industry and the The education of women to fulfill

the duties of daughters, wives, and mothers was far more Important in her estimation than an "education to make women of fashion dancers, singers, players, painters, actresses, sculptors, gilders, vamishers. £>2More, Hannah, Strictures on the Modem System of Female Education, Vols. 1, 2, pp. I-I36. °^Lord, John, op. cit., p. 43&4Ibid., p. 428. ^More, Hannah, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 43*

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AA engravers. and embroiderers ♦11

She believed that it was wiser to move

contentedly along the "plain path which Providence had obviously marked out for the sex and in which custom had for the most part rationally conformed, than stray unbecomingly, and unsuccessfully in a forbidden L ry

road" of politics.

She would educate woman for her own sphere, not

for the sphere of man; let her become great as a woman, not as a man.

AS

"I would educate women for the sphere in which they must forever move." Hannah More suggested that the need for studies which would enable women to function adequately in the home was great.

Men were educated

for the learned professions, and in a like manner instruction should be offered for women in domestic economy, the care of children, and the "ornamental arts."

"ivhat studies," Hannah More asked, "shall woman

pursue in order to develop her mind and resources" and then added, "This question is only answered by those who devote their lives to the 6° education of young ladies." ' Hannah More’s question was answered in the next" century by Catharine Beecher with the plan which she proposed in An Essay on the Education of Female Teachers

in her Treatise on

71 Domestic Economy, and by the organization of the American Woman's Education Association. The similarity noted between Catharine Beecher's ideas and those

66Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 60. 67Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 65. 0®Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 60. °9ibid., Vol. 1, p. 61. 7^Beecher, Catharine, An Essay on the Education of Female Teachers pp. 1-22. 7^Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, pp. I-369.

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126 of the philosophers of earlier centuries, as ■well as those of educators of the previous generation, would indicate that she had read widely. In her autobiography she has made no comment concerning her reading interests.

However, in her writings she gives the impression that a

background of reading has contributed to her thoughts.

In an early

professional article, an essay on "Female Education," she quotes Hannah Hore1s philosophy.

72

An acknowledgement of the works of Galen,

Montaigne, Plato, Herodotus, and Rousseau, as well as of the calisthenic systems of Ling, is made in Calisthenic Exercises. ^

In describing her

study of science, which was then called mental philosophy, she told of reading Locke, Stewart, Reid, Brown, and others in English, and later of consulting those who could read Greek and German in order to learn the views of Aristotle and Kant.

74

Again, the diversity of her reading is

noted in A Treatise on Domestic Economy, where she makes reference to the works of many leaders.

There she mentions Linnaeus, the Duchess of

Orleans; Sir Isaac Newton; Xantippe, the wife of Socrates; Louis XIV; Lady Mary Mhortley Montagu; Sir John Sinclair, and others.75

Obviously

the interest which Catharine Beecher had developed in reading in her childhood continued throughout her career.

During her life she was

72 Beecher, Catharine, "Female Education," American Journal of Education, Vol. 2 vPart I, April 1827), pp. 219-223; (Part II, May 1827). pp.

264-269.

^Beecher, Catharine, Calisthenic Exercises, Introduction, pp. 5-6. 74 Beecher, Catharine, "Catharine E. Beecher - Autobiography," Barnard*s Journal of Education, Vol. 28 (January 1878), p. 79. 75 Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, passim.

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-_____________________________________________ 132 associated with professional people and with a family of scholars. "My father was president of a theological seminary, and my brother-in-law has been professor in two colleges and one theological seminary. One brother was valedictorian and tutor at Yale, and then president of one of the first Western Colleges. Six brothers were educated in five different colleges. . . . Thirty-four nieces and nephews have been connected with a great number of different boarding-schools as scholars or teachers. . . . These opportunities to study education have extended over a number of years. "76

4.

Influence of American Leaders

Civic and educational leaders in America have not always been in accord with the idea of extending higher education to women.

Benjamin

Franklin was one of the first prominent Americans to express some liberality of thought with respect to this problem.

Because he had

observed how efficiently one widow had handled her husband's property, he became convinced that the intellectual capabilities of many women warranted an education for a profession.

Training which provided

instruction only for such accomplishments as music, painting, conversation, and dancing added little to a -woman's economic efficiency.

77

The need for application of chemistry to home life vtoich Franklin had suggested was elaborated in the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson: "... itself always useful

You know the just esteem which attached to Dr. Franklin’s science, because he endeavored to direct it to something in private life. The chemists have not

76

Beecher, Catharine, Ivoman Suffrage and iJoman1s Profession. pp. 59-60. ‘'hoody, Thomas, Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin, pp.130-131.

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138

been attentive enough to this. I have wished to see their science applied to domestic objects, . . . to the making of bread, butter, cheese, soap. . . . I hope you will make the chemistry of these subjects intelligible to our good housewives."78 Thomas Jefferson considered education to be a requisite for establishing^ and building a democracy.

He introduced a bill in the General Assembly

of Virginia for the organization of schools "for the training of all free children, male and female, for three years training in reading, writing and arithmetic."79

Encouragement for more advanced education

for girls was given by many other leading citizens.

Dewitt Clinton,

Governor of New York, was actively interested in the problem.

80

The

Reverend Charles Burroughs, Rector of Saint John's Church in New York, caught the attention of the public in a stirring speech, which was published in 1827.

Burroughs made a plea for female education "for the

sake of a girl’s personal happiness, that of her family, and the best interests of society."

81

A protest against the failure to provide

education for the professional needs of women was made by Horace Greeley. ^ The editors of the innumerable magazines for ladies which were

78 Edwards, Everett E., Jefferson and Agriculture, Agricultural History Series No. 7, United States Department of Agriculture, 1943> pp. 82-83. 7%oody, Thomas, History of Education for women in the United States, Vol. 1, p. 275• Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 313. ^American Journal of Education, Charles Burroughs Address on Female Education, A Review," Vol. 3 (January 1828), pp. 51-59. 87 Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. pp. 178-179.

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______________ 13$ printed in the nineteenth century were another group of people who helped to popularize domestic economy.

Foremost among these was Mrs.

Sarah losepha Hale, one of Catharine Beecher’s good friends, and a. staunch supporter of the project.

"Promoting education of women," Mrs.

Hale announced, "is my first object."8^

In emphasizing the need for the

study of domestic economy in the development of the nation, she wrote, "The promotion of domestic economy is identical with the furtherance of everything which can increase the sum of human happiness and diminish the sum of misery." the subject.

She would exclude no one from becoming infomed on

"It is a subject of superior importance to any individual,

art, or science and to any legislation, government, and everything which affects the community.

For ten years she ran a continuous series of

articles advancing her theories of women's education in The Lady's Magazine. After it was purchased by Louis A. Godey of Philadelphia, it was consolidated with The Lady's Book which he was publishing, and renamed Godey's Lady's Book. Mrs. Hale continued to serve as editor. Her editorials on domestic economy were read by an even larger number of subscribers to the combined magazine.

According to Entriken,

Catharine Beecher contributed frequently to Godey's Lady's Book. The enthusiasm of these two "women stimulated the editors of Peterson's Ladies' National Magazine, Miss Leslie's Magazine, The Ladies' Garland, 83 Entriken, Isabelle, Sarah Josepha Hale and Godey's Lady1s Book. p. 17. 8%ale, Mrs. Sarah Josepha, "Domestic Economy," The Lady's Book. Vol. 20 (January 1840), p. 42. 85Ibid.. p. 11.

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140 The Southern Lady1s Companion, The Ladies' Pearl, The Lily, and other publications, also to express approval of domestic economy and allied subjects.^

kith all these highly influential leaders giving support

to education for women, it was inevitable that Catharine Beecher should acquire from them some ideals which broadened her philosophy and gave her courage to increase her efforts in the promotion of the subject,

5. Influence of American Educators Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, and Thomas Gallaudet, outstanding leaders in the nation-wide programs of education during the nineteenth century, were outspoken in their approval of domestic economy for the education of women.

In 1839* in the Massachusetts Board of Education

Report, Horace Mann said, " . . . without books, as the grand means of intellectual cultivation, how are the daughters of the state to obtain that knowledge on a thousand subjects, which is so desirable in the character • of a female, as well as so essential in the discharge of the duties to which she is destined. .... The sphere of females is domestic."87 It will be recalled that in 1841 the Massachusetts Board of Education accepted Catharine Beecher's Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Massachusetts School Library.

88

Henry Barnard agreed with Mann and

frequently stated that education was a more effective instrument for fighting the wrongs of women than agitation and suffrage,

when Mann was

86

Thompson, Eleanor, Education for Ladies, 1830 to I860, pp. 45-50. 87 Mann, Horace, Life and Morks of Horace Mann, Vol. 3, p. 37. 88Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, p. 6.

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editor of The Common School Journal and Barnard was editor of Barnard *s Journal of Education, they gave generous support to Catharine Beecher’s publications.

Throughout their journals wholehearted support was

accorded to all programs concerning education for women. ^ In 1827, when the new building of the Hartford Female Seminary was opened, Thomas Gallaudet made the address.

Kis discussion revolved

around the idea of a liberal education for girls and the methods to be used in the presentation of subject matter.

He lamented the fact that

girls were not taught the "actual business of life," and believed that they should learn to put to practical use the knowledge which they acquire.

He claimed that, although many mothers "prepare their

daughters to discharge well those duties that the various relations, domestic and social, may impose upon them," most mothers did not know how to teach their daughters or did not have time to teach them. Gallaudet saw no reason why there should not be a laboratory class for the teaching of domestic economy in the school.

Then, recognizing that

his audience might consider him too visionary, he admitted that this suggestion was impossible for the present but asked, "does it thence follow that you never can do anything?"

90

Hhile this group of educators was promoting nationally an interest in the teaching of domestic economy, a movement advocating science as an area of instruction in higher education was also making progress. 89

In

Curti, Herle, The Social Ideas of American Educators, p. 35.

90

Gallaudet, Thomas, "An Address on Female Education," American Journal of Education. Vol. 2 (November 1827), pp. 183-184.

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142 1798, the President and the Fellows of Yale University became interested in chemistry and employed Benjamin Silliman, then a young man, to teach the subject and set up a chemical laboratory.

Not only was Silliman an

unusually capable person with high scholastic standards, but he was also very popular with his students.

As a result of his efficient teaching,

many of them developed enthusiasm for chemistry and other areas of the natural sciences.

Thus his work gave great impetus to a growing interest

in science in the United States.

91

It was during this period that Louis Agassiz laid the foundation for teaching and research in zoology; that Mathew Maury developed eg

courses in physical geography; and Asa Gray became interested in botany. At the same time, science was being introduced into education for women; Emma Hart Willard, in 1S20, had included the subject in the curriculum of the Female Seminary at Waterford, New York.

93

The methods employed by scientists were carried over into the teaching of domestic economy.

Emma Willard made use of scientific

methods to improve the education for girls in female seminaries.

In her

Address to the Public, she emphasized "domestic instruction" as one of the four subject-matter areas to be required of all students.

She

believed it possible that in homemaking education a "system of principles ecould be^ philosophically arranged and taught, both in 91 Barnard *s Journal of Education, "Reminiscences of Benjamin Silliman, L.L.D., 1779-1864," Vol. 26 (February 187o), pp. 225-226. 92 Beard, Charles A., and Beard, Mary R., The Rise of American Civilization, pp. 738-739* Lord, John, The Life of Emma Willard, p. 92.

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143 theory and by practice."^

Although she did not believe that all

problems and procedures would be identical in all homes or that all homes "would operate in the same way, nevertheless in a class in domestic instruction students who were "of an investigating turn, would . . . consider their domestic operations as a series of experiments which either proved or refuted the system to which they were accustomed."

Like all people "who practise a common art, the students

in the domestic department could compare the results of the observatims and experiments."

She would improve methods in homemaking by detecting

errors and by adding new principles and better modes of practice. ^5 Emma VJillara considered "domestic instruction" to be an area of specialization in the field of science.

Her enthusiasm for applying

scientific methods to homemaking courses was shared at the Troy Female Seminary by Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, who joined her sister in 1824 as: associate principal and instructor in science.

Almira Phelps thought

the scientific method to be fundamental in teaching, as was shown in her Lectures to Young Ladies.

In this she pointed out a lack of recognition

of how fundamental science really is to the study of domestic economy. She observed that "The various processes in culinary operations are mostly performed on Chemistry principles, yet these are seldom known or thought of by those who perform: the operations."

As an illustration of

her statement, she explained the chemical reaction of pearlash (now commercially known as baking soda or sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar in

Mallard, Ernna, An Address to the Public, p. 20. 95Ibid., pp. 21-22.

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making gingerbread.^

"Physics is also a basic science for home

economy," Mrs. Phelps affirmed.

Even such a common practice as dish­

washing may demonstrate the theory of expansion.

As an example she

cited the cracking of cold chinaware and glassware when immersed in very hot water.

Among other principles of physics which she noted to

be applied in common household processes were radiation, evaporation, and reflection.

Almira Phelps developed a course in household chemistry

at Troy Female Seminary; and in 1838, when she wrote Familiar Lectures in Chemistry, household processes were given special emphasis in the book.

97 In 1837 j Mary Lyon at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary proposed a

different scheme for teaching domestic economy.

She would have the

students perform the household tasks essential in maintenance of the seminary.

98 If a girl were not acquainted with any of the basic skills/

she would receive instruction.

Catharine Beecher disapproved of Mary

Lyon's plan, and did not think it worthy of the title of domestic economy; "it was only a method of lessening expenses."

99

On the other

hand she thought highly of the philosophy which designated homemaking as a science, as proposed by Emma Millard and Almira Phelps.

Throughout

A Treatise on Domestic Economy, she referred to homemaking as the science of domestic economy.

She urged that domestic economy be taught not as

Q6 ' Phelps, Almira H. Lincoln, Lectures to Young Ladies, pp. 172-173. 97solzau, Emma, Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, pp. 239-244; 283-285. 9®C-oodsell, "rvillystine, Pioneers of L'oman *s Education in the United States, p. 242. '^Beecher, Catharine, Mornan Suffrage and ~7oman1s Profession. P* 35.

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145 a practical subject but as a science.

She claimed that women had as

much, or even greater, need for scientific and practical training in science as men.

Throughout her book, she attempted to show how the

fundamentals of science were essential to the processes of food preparation and how experimentation may be conducive to more efficient management in the home.

That home economy is a science and should be

placed in the curriculum on an equal basis with chemistry, mathematics, and philosophy, was a point of view which Catharine Beecher emphasized in A Treatise oh Domestic Economy. This belief concerning the relationship of the subject to science led to the title of one of her last textbooks, Principles of Domestic Science, written in 1870, "for the use of young ladies in schools, seminaries and colleges."

In it she reiterated the importance of using

science in the teaching of homemaking, saying, "Most women come to the task of providing for a family in utter ignorance of the science of comparitive values."

She had observed that "men are taught agricultural

chemistry to prepare them wisely and intelligently to conduct the farm. '■Jhy should there not be a course of instruction on domestic philosophy and chemistry in a collegiate course for women?"

She again pleaded for

provision for women on an equal basis with men in higher education. "In men’s colleges there are courses in Political Economy; why, in a woman's college should there not be a course of lectures on Domestic Economy?”'*"^' ■'■^Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, p. 6. -^-Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Principles of Domestic Science, pp. 356-357.

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ILh 6. Summary Although Catharine Beecher was the most important leader in the home economics movement in the early and middle periods of the nineteenth century, she was by no means the first person to evolve a philosophy of education in which women as homemakers had a part.

The

history of education shews that the philosophy of the ancient C-reeks was an early contribution to the subiect.

Plato (428-348 B.C.), in The

Republic, contributed ideas like those which appear in Catharine Beecher’s The Duty of American Tvomen to their Country.

Socrates,

through Xenophon’s treatise, provided another source which may have influenced Catharine Beecher's thinking and writing.

The idea of a

cooperative family, the need for a scientific training for the family, and the context of chapters in A Treatise on Domestic Economy, The American ¥oman1s Home, Principles of Domestic Science, and of her other writings pertaining to homemaking, also had been suggested in The CEconoraicus. While the ancients had advocated such instruction at home, Catharine Beecher argued for the inclusion of domestic economy in the school curriculum.

The interest which Vives, Luther, and Comenius

showed in the advancement of education for women also was reflected in Catharine Beecher's publications.

Arguments not unlike those voiced by

the humanist writers appeared in her Treatise on Domestic Economy and An Essay on the Education of Female Teachers, in which she also made a plea for the permanent endowment of educational facilities for women. Great similarity is observed between certain of Catharine Beecher’s writings on domestic economy and F^nelon's seventeenth-century ideas on

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147 the subject as expressed in his Traite de 1 1Education des Fillss.

In

her philosophy concerning the content of a course in domestic economy, Catharine Beecher’s concepts had much in common with the thinkers who lived before and during the early part of the seventeenth century. However, her ideas for presenting subject matter coincided more closely with those of Rousseau, Herbart, and Pestalozzi.

Hannah 1-iore, who was

a prominent .English educator and author of Strictures on the kodern System of Female Education, seemingly made a great impression on Catharine Beecher for she referred to her in many of her writings.

The

many references which she made to outstanding leaders indicate that she read widely. In America, eminent statesmen, journalists, clergymen, and educators contributed to Catharine Beecher’s philosophy.

Some gave her

courage through the prestige which their support contributed, while others like I-iann, Barnard, and Gallaudet, were wholeheartedly in accord with Catharine Beecher's proposal for domestic economy as a subject in the curriculum.

This support was augmented by propaganda in the press.

The nineteenth century was a period when Lrs. Sarah Josepha Hale and other editors gave much attention to domestic economy and other phases of education for women.

In the earlier part of the nineteenth

centurj-, Silliman and others were establishing science in the curricula of colleges.

Emma Hart Hillard and her sister, Almira Hart Lincoln

Phelps, believed that science was the basis for "domestic instruction." Two decades later, when Catharine Beecher wrote A Treatise on Domestic Economy, she also contended that domestic economy was a science and

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should be taught as a science.

Her belief in domestic economy as a

science inspired the title of one of her last textbooks, Principles of Domestic Science.

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CHAPTER IX CATHARINE BEECHER'S CONTRIBUTION TO HOME ECONOMICS SUBJECT MATTER

1. Science in Catharine Beecher's Books Catharine Beecher apparently was aware that Liebig's research in agriculture enabled her contemporaries to present that age-old subject scientifically.Always insistent that education for women should have equality with that provided for men, Catharine Beecher questioned the wisdom of improving animal nutrition and neglecting human nutrition.

2

Even though few findings which were related to homemaking were available, she was firmly convinced that science played a significant part in many activities of the home.

In spite of this scarcity of

research material, she maintained this philosophy in her writings and incorporated what was at hand, as best she could, into the content of her books.

She realized that her premise concerning the integration of

science with homemaking, as well as other aspirations which she had for the education of women, were far in advance of her time. years she described her views as "somewhat visionary."

3

In later Evidently she

knew that she had written for a subject which was non-existent in female seminaries, and for a course for which no qualified instructors were yet available.

''"The Journal of Home Economics, "Home Economics in the United States," Vol. 3 (October 1911), p. 325. o Beecher, Catharine, "Address of Senior Author," in Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The Principles of Domestic Science. pp. 355-356. Beecher, Catharine, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. __________________ p. 194.

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2. Ellen Richards’ Recognition of Catharine Beecher's Work To start this movement she had urged public support which would provide funds for domestic economy and also contribute to the permanency of higher education for women.

In spite of the fact that this plan was

not adopted on a national basis, she was optimistic about its ultimate success.

In A Treatise on Domestic Economy, she indicated that she did

not anticipate immediate results; she was of the opinion that her plan would be effective only when endowed institutions became available to women.^

She also believed that domestic science would not be recognized

as a regular course in the curriculum -until "at least a generation of women had been educated."'* prophetic statement.

Thereby Catharine Beecher had made another

A generation later a scientist, krs. Ellen H.

Richards (1848-1911), began her career as the first woman student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

6

After graduating from this institution, Ellen Richards was invited to become a member of the Institute staff.

Throughout her career her

experiments and applications of science to the problems of food, shelter, and clothing, brought her international recognition.

Prominent

among her activities in home economics was her leadership in the Lake Placid conferences.^

In 1899 Mr. and Mrs. Melvil Dewey invited a group

of people interested in "home science and home economics" to their home at Lake Placid, New York, so that they might discuss their common ^Beecher. Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, d . 51. 5lbid.,P . 68. Bevier, Isabel, Home Economics in Education. p. 149. ^Ibid., pp. 149-150.

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problems.

151

At these meetings the name "home economics" was adopted.

With Mrs. Richards as chairman, the conferences continued until 1909, when the group organized Mrs. Richards was

as the

American Home Economics Association.

chosen as the

first president andIsabel Sevier was

elected vice president of the new organization.

Ellen Richards

continued her leadership in the American Home Economics Association 9

until 1910, a few At the tenth

months before

her death.

Annual Meeting of the Lake PlacidConference held in

1909, Ellen Richards reviewed the achievements of the group.

She

commended the members for their contributions to the progress of home economics and also reminded them of the valuable legacy which Catharine Beecher had left to home economics.

Ellen Richards then stated that

the true beginning of the home economics movement should be accredited to Catharine Beecher and her books.^

She was referring to A Treatise

on Domestic Economy (1841),^" Miss Beecher1s Domestic Receipt Book TO (1842),12 Miss Beecher’s Housekeeper and h'ealthkeeper (1873), and The American Woman1s Home ( 1 8 6 9 ; The Principles of Domestic Science (1870),^ and The Hew Housekeeper's Manual (1874)*1^ Q

The Journal of Home Economics, "Home Economics in the United States," Vol. 3 (October 1911), p. 323* 9Bevier, Isabel, op. cit., pp. 159, 164-165. l^The Journal of Home Economics, op. cit., p. 328. ^Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy,pp. I-369. ^Beecher, Catharine, Miss Beecher1sDomestic Receipt Book, pp. 1-295* •^Beecher, Catharine, Kiss Beecher 1s Housekeeper and Health keeper . pp. 1-482. •^Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The American Woman1s Home, pp. 1-500. -^Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The Principles of Domestic Science, pp. 1-390. loBeecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The Mew Housekeeper*s Manual, pp. 1-591*

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1523. The Character of Catharine Beecher's Books During the last ten years of Catharine Beecher's life, she suffered from sciatica and Harriet Beecher Stowe collaborated with her sister in her writing.

17

Although the latter was co-author of the last

three of the books mentioned above, the subject matter included Tinder these titles was based on Catharine Beecher's earlier writings.

In

studying these early texts, it would seam that Ellen Richards and her associates must have found much that was suggestive and usable in Catharine Beecher's books.

Catharine Beecher had approached the

problem of providing subject matter in domestic science with a pro­ fessional attitude and had endeavored to organize her material to conform to standards which are accepted, present-day practices in writing textbooks. The format, type of print, and illustrations make Catharine Beecher's writings more readable than many contemporary volumes.

In

the preface of each book her purpose for writing about domestic science is explained.

She always announces that it is her intention to make

the subject matter both theoretical and practical.

That she might be

better qualified as an authority to write on the subject, she consulted recognized leaders in the field.

Her writings also were enhanced by

descriptions of experiences in her own home as well as of those of other homemakers throughout the nation.

"Being the eldest of nine

children by her own mother, and of four by her stepmother, had provided 17

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, "Catharine Beecher," in Our Famous Women, P» 91.______________________ ______________________________

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153

practical experiences11 in home and family living."^ used tools which are often found in m o dem texts.

Catharine Beecher

Good organization is

noted in all of her books concerning home economics.

Sub-chapter

headings afford ready information about the contents. "Index:

An extensive

Analytical and Alphabetical," is provided in these publications

With the exception of The Principles of Domestic Science, a glossary of terms and references is included in all of her books.

Although the

latter did not contain this feature, it provides twenty pages of "Questions and suggestive hints for the use of Teachers and Pupils" which are based on the thirty-two chapters in the book.

19

Changes in

fashion, in custom, and in the knowledge which has resulted from research, make the illustrations and some of Catharine Beecher's subject matter out of date.

Nevertheless, because she discussed such a

wide range of topics which continue to be included in present-day home economics subject matter, her books are significant in the evolution of home economics. In order to present a broad picture of the subject matter which she included in what she called domestic science and which is now known as home economics, an analysis of the content of certain of her books yields interesting information. Housekeeper1s Manual (1874)

20

The subject matter of The New

supplemented by a small amount of

Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The American Woman’s Home. p. 14. — — I d ----'Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The Principles of Domestic Science, pp. 369-390. ^Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The New Housekeeper's Manual, pp. 1-591.

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---

.------------------ 154

additional material found only in Miss Beechers Housekeeper and Healthkeeper (1873), x and The Principles of Domestic Science (1870),

22

covers all of the topics included in all of her books and can be assumed to represent a good over-all view of Catharine Beecher’s conception of the subject. as her ’'composite1* book.

This combined material is here referred to With proper adjustments for differences in

size of pages, a total of 606 pages is included.

The distribution of

subject matter is shown in Table I.

TABLE I THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SUBJECT MATTER ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY USED BY CATHARINE BEECHER IN HER ’’COMPOSITE" BOOK Division of material Subject matter recognized as part of home economics Non-home economics material Miscellaneous glossary material

Total

Number of pages

Per cent

58O

95.7

18

3.0

8

1.3

606

100.0

The "composite” book includes some material which is not now recognized as home economics subject matter.

Under this heading would

fall discussions of the propagation of plants, the maintenance of yard

^"Beecher, Catharine, Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Haa.1thkggpAi-, pp. 1-492.

22

Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The Principles of Domestic Science, pp. 1-390.

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------------------------------------------ ----- ^------------------ is*; and garden, and the care of pets.

Catharine Beecher, realizing that

most homemakers shared in these responsibilities and that they had not been provided with other sources of information about such problems, included these topics in her books.

Many women in the present era

continue to be concerned with these subjects, but the information pertaining to them is available from departments of horticulture or veterinary medicine rather than from home economics.

Glossary material

such as MAuld Robin Gray,” a celebrated Scotch song; deformities of the Chinese bells; and Biblical terms, which cannot be interpreted as related to subject matter in home economics, is classified as miscellaneous glossary material.

These two items total only 26 pages,

or 4*3 per cent of the "composite" book, while a total of 580 pages, or

95•7 per cent of the book, deals with problems which still are of concern to home economists.

Thus at an early stage in the movement for

the education of women, Catharine Beecher not only proposed that heme economics be recognized as a distinct area of instruction, but also provided sound subject matter which could make a course in this area a reality.

A half century later, when the Lake Placid Conference

convened to formulate policies for home economics, Catharine Beecher's early thinking was available to them.

4.

The Content of Catharine Beecher’s Books

Catharine Beecher’s conception of home economics was both comprehensive and extensive.

The subject matter of her "composite"

book easily falls under six headings.

These six are family economics

and home management; family relationships and child development; foods

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156.

------------------------------

and nutrition; health; housing, equipment, and furnishings; and textiles, clothing, and applied arts.

Although these terms are used

currently to designate the subdivisions of home economics, comparable expressions were used by Catharine Beecher to indicate the areas of training which she believed should be included in a course in homemaking.

23

The relative emphasis given by Catharine Beecher to the various divisions of subject matter as indicated in Table II is interpreted as representing her conception of the need by homemakers of her time for each subdivision.

Approximately one-fifth of the pages is devoted to

TABLE II THE DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIAL USED BY CATHARINE BEECHER AMONG THE MAJOR SUBJECT-MATTER AREAS OF HOME ECONOMICS Subject matter

Number of pages

Per cent

Family economics and home management

118.2

20.4

Family relationships and child development

114.9

19.8

Foods and nutrition

141.5

24.4

52.8

9.1

130.2

22.4

22.4

3.9

580.0

100.0

Health Housing, Equipment, and house furnishings Textiles, clothing, and related arts Total

family economics and home management; another fifth to family

Beecher, Catharine, Miss Beecher1s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper, pp. 127-132.

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157-

relationships and child development.

Over one fifth of the material is

concerned with food and nutrition, while slightly more than one fifth deals with the subject of housing, equipment, and house furnishings. Health is discussed in about one tenth of the content.

Only a small

percentage of the information concerns clothing, textiles, and related arts.

By the time this book was written, much of the early home

manufacturing of y a m and cloth must have begun to disappear and the factory system to have been established.

Substitution and adulteration

in textiles was less of a problem than it has come to be in the twentieth century.

First-hand knowledge of textiles must have been

decreasing in amount, but chemically manufactured fibers were still far in the future.

It was an era when style changes were infrequent and

textile products were subjected to long usage.

Although more

information concerning textiles would have been available to Catharine Beecher, obviously she considered that clothing construction was the chief problem which confronted the homemaker in this area. The distribution of material which was included by Catharine Beecher in her "composite” book indicates that her understanding of the problems of the home was broad and that she had utilized this breadth of vision in setting up, from the viewpoint of the topics included, a well balanced foundation of subject matter for students of homemaking. No one book has since been written for home economics at the college level which is as inclusive of all areas of the subject as is the New Housekeepers Manual (1874).

The content of the domestic science books

written by Maria Parloa, Juliet Corson, Mrs. Sarah Rorer, and others, which were published in the 1870!s and 1880!s, the decade following the

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158

appearance of Miss Beecher1s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper (1873)* generally were restricted to the problems related to cookery and food management which were taught in their cookery schools.2^

These books

are comparable to the chapters on food and nutrition in Catharine Beecher’s '’composite” book.

On the other hand, Ellen Richards was among

the group of educators who shared Catharine Beecher’s idea that many departments should be represented in a home economics course.

In

Catharine Beecher’s early thinking, domestic science was a single course in higher education, while Ellen Richards and her associates viewed the subject as a four-year curriculum in colleges.

25

5. Catharine Beecher’s Work and the 1913 Syllabus of Home Economics In 1924, Isabel Bevier said that Catharine Beecher's pioneer work was a factor in the development of home economics as a field of instruction at the college level.

Isabel Bevier was the Director of

Home Economics at the University of Illinois from 1900 to 1921.

She

took an active part in the Lake Placid Conferences, and in 1910 succeeded Ellen Richards as president of the American Home Economics Association.

During the time that Isabel Bevier was president of the

organization, the American Home Economics Association undertook to define the scope of subject matter which could be included in a home economics curriculum.

A corrmittee on a "Syllabus in Home Economics"

^Bevier, Isabel, op. cit., pp. 135-142. ^ I b i d .. pp. 151-153* 26Ibid., p. 108.______

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------------------------------------was appointed to develop an outline which might serve as a guide to home economics departments.

27

In preparing the syllabus, valuable

suggestions were sought and received from many sources.

Teachers of

home economics and related subjects were consulted, and the literature of home economics was carefully examined.

That Catharine Beecher's

work made an outstanding contribution to the work of these twentiethcentury home economists is confirmed by Isabel Bevier.

She says when

the leaders of her time sought guidance "in finding a place and a way for teaching the problems of the home in the college" they found that the direction for the development of home economics "had been sketched out a generation before by an American Woman, Catharine Beecher."

28

There is much in the Syllabus of Home Economics which may be identified with Catharine Beecher.

29

The name "home economics" was a

modern interpretation of the term "domestic economy" which she had used to identify a field of subject matter.

Although she had not originated

this title, her book on domestic economy, which had circulated widely for twenty-five years, had led educators and others also to use this term for the designation of courses in homemaking.

Again the concepts

of the subject which are incorporated in the syllabus are reminiscent of Catharine Beecher's ideas.

About 40 per cent of the material in her

"composite" book is devoted to the social and economic problems of the family.

The general plan for the syllabus includes selection,

27 Bevier, Isabel, and Committee, Syllabus of Home Economics, d . 5. 28 Bevier, Isabel, op. cit., p. 108. 29 Bevier, Isabel, and Committee, op. cit.. passim-

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preparation, and standards for each major division, as they relate to the social and economic aspects of living.

30

Catharine Beecher also

had insisted that science be a foundation for domestic economy.

Many

years later, Isabel Bevier commended Catharine Beecher’s foresight in maintaining that science -was basic to an intelligent study of the problems of the home.

Isabel Bevier believed that this was ’’Catharine

31 Beecher's most significant contribution to the education of women.” The subdivisions of subject matter which Catharine Beecher considered essential, and which were the basis for the organization of the subject matter of her ’’composite” book, were not chosen by the Committee on a Syllabus for Home Economics.

They proposed the division

of content ”in accordance with what seemed to be the best as well as the most general usage in 1913 •"

At that time they designated only

four major divisions for the subject matter of home economics, i.e., food, shelter, clothing, and household and institutional management.

32

Present-day home economists are more nearly in agreement with Catharine Beecher's comprehensive view of the several areas for the division of subject matter in home economics than was the syllabus committee.

Now

family relationships, child care, and aspects of health in some cases are added to the other areas, and in some instances continue to be treated as individual units.

^ Ibid., p. 5» 31 Bevier, Isabel, op. cit., p. 109. •30

J Bevier, Isabel, and Committee, op. cit., p. 5»

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161 6.

Catharine Beecher's Work and the Present-Day Curriculum

Although the scope of present-day home economics, when compared with Catharine Beecher's plan, has not increased as much as might be expected, the volume of subject matter to be included has grown tremendously.

With the amount of information now considered to be

essential, no one book at the present day could as nearly encompass all of the subject matter of home economics as did the New Housekeeper*s Manual alone.

However, the relative emphasis which she gave to the

subject over three quarters of a century ago may be compared with the emphasis given similar subdivisions in current home economics curricula. Today a modern curriculum for a student in general home economics will include courses covering much of the subject matter found in Catharine Beecher's "composite" book.

Most of this material will be given in

courses offered by the home economics department, but some may be drawn from other departments.

The relative emphasis placed on the six

previously mentioned subdivisions of home economics subject matter in a curriculum may be measured in terms of credits, just as the subdivisions of the "composite" book have been measured in terms of pages.

No

additional subdivisions are to be found in a present-day curriculum for general home economics and all items included in the six are discussed in her books.

Table III shows the relative emphasis given these six

areas of subject matter as indicated by courses which currently are required in three land grant colleges for a major in general home economics, in comparison with a similar distribution of material in Catharine Beecher's "composite" b o o k . ________

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TABLE III A COMPARISON OF THE RELATIVE EMPHASIS GIVEN TO SUBJECT MATTER IN CATHARINE BEECHER'S "COMPOSITE" BOOK AND THE PERCENTAGE OF CREDITS IN THE SAME REQUIRED BY THREE LAND GRANT COLLEGES FOR A MAJOR IN GENERAL HOME ECONOMICS

Subject matter

Beecher’s "composite" book Per cent of pages

College 1 Per cent of Credits Credits

College 2 Per cent of Credits Credits

College 3 Per cent of Credits Credits

Family economics and home management

20.4

8

15.0

7

10.8

11

19.6

Family relationships and child care

19.a

7

13.2

9

13.9

8

14.3

Food and nutrition

24.4

15

28.3

17

26.1

16

28.6

9.1

—

---

3

4.6

—

---

22.4

10

18.9

11

16.9

13

23.2

3-9

13

24.6

18

27.7

8

14-3

100.0

53

100.0

65

100.0

56

100.0

Health Housing, equipment, and home furnishings Textiles, clothing, and related arts Total

3

A

----------------------------------------------------------------- 163, In the three cases chosen for comparison, from 10.8 to 19*6 per cent of the credits given for courses included in this field represent family economics and home management.

Catharine Beecher in her

"composite" book devotes 20.4 per cent of her space to this area of subject matter.

While 19.8 per cent of her book concerns family

relationships and child care, from 13.2 to 14.3 per cent of these selected credits in the general home economics major are prescribed in this area.

The relative importance given to food and nutrition is quite

comparable in al 1 cases.

In Beecher's "composite" book and in the three

curricula, the largest percentage among all six groups is noted in this subdivision.

A total of 24.4 per cent of Catharine Beecher's subject

matter relates to food and nutrition.

A person with a general major

■will take from 26.1 to 28.6 per cent of the selected units in this area. Less emphasis is given to health as a separate course.

Only one college

in the three required health courses, and the amount of credit offered for this is only 4.6 per cent of the selected sixty-five credits.

In

Catharine Beecher's "composite" book, 9.1 per cent of her space was devoted to this subject; but this also is a small proportion of the whole.

While 22.4 per cent of the "composite" book is concerned with

housing, equipment, and home furnishings, in the general home economics curricula of the three colleges the number of selected credits ranges from 16.9 to 23.2 per cent.

Catharine Beecher gave the smallest

proportion of space to information on textiles, clothing, and applied arts, 3.9 per cent.

In the courses required of majors in general home

economics the textiles, clothing, and applied arts subdivision varies

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_____________________________

164

markedly as shewn by the greatest range in percentage, 14*3 to 27.7 per cent.

A wide variation in emphasis on related arts and the recognized

development of textiles as a subject for study is shown here. The percentage of space given to areas of subject matter in Beecher's "composite" book, and the percentage of selected credits required by the three land grant colleges for a major in general home economics have many similarities.

With the exception of health and of

textiles, clothing, and related arts, the proportion of space which Catharine Beecher devoted to each subject-matter division is remarkably similar to the corresponding proportion of certain credits required by these three colleges for a major in general home economics. Thus Catharine Beecher, through her texts, has contributed much to present-day home economics curricula.

With Xenophon's CBconomicus

(423 B.C.),^ and Fenelon's Traitg de 1*Education des Filles (1687),^ Catharine Beecher's Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841)

35

and her later

texts based on this book have become classics in home economics literature. of women.

Catharine Beecher was more than a pioneer in the education She was the founder of the home economics movement. 7. Summary

Catharine Beecher realized that her premise concerning the 33

Xenophon, CEconomicus, in Rev. J. S. Watson, Xenophon's Minor Works, pp. 71-147-^Fenelon, Francois de Salignac de la Mothe, TraitI de I 1Education des Filles, as translated in 1750 by George Hickes and entitled Instructions for the Education of Daughters. pp. 1-190. 35 ^Beecher, Catharine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, pp. I-369.

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165,

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integration of science in the teaching of homemaking "was far in advance of her time.

She believed that domestic science would not be recognized

until a generation of women had been educated.

In reality, a generation

later Mrs. Ellen H. Eichards began her career as a scientist.

Ultimate^

she became the leader of the movement for home economics in the early part of the twentieth century.

Through her efforts and the work of her

associates and successors, heme economics has achieved an acknowledged place in education and has made marked progress in research.

Although

much advancement was accomplished under her leadership, Ellen Richards

accredited the h a r m i n g of the home economics movement to Catharine Beecher and her books. Catharine Beecher approached the problem of preparing literature in the field with a professional attitude.

The standards which she used

to organize her material conform to practices accepted in the present day.

She not only proposed that home economics be recognized as a

distinct area of instruction, but her books also provided sound subject matter.

Her conception of the subject matter was both comprehensive and

inclusive. Ellen Richards and her associates must have found much that was useful and suggestive in Catharine Beecher's books.

The name "home

economics," which was officially chosen when Ellen Richards was chairman of the Lake Placid Conference, was an adaptation of the term "domestic economy," which had been established through the use of Catharine 3eecher's Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841).

In 1911, when Isabel

Bevier was president of the American Home Economics Association, a

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166

—

committee was appointed to plan a syllabus in home economics.

Later she

reported that the cominittee found a plan for this subject at the college level which had been outlined by Catharine Beecher a generation earlier. Isabel Bevier considered Catharine Beecher's farsighted ideas concerning the application of science to homemaking to be her most significant contribution to the education of women. Catharine Beecher believed that the subject matter of home econanics could be organized in six subdivisions.

In present-day terminology,

these are family economics and home management; family relationships and child care; food and nutrition; health; housing, equipment, and home furnishings; and textiles, clothing, and related arts.

The

Committee on a Syllabus in Home Economics in 1913 designated food, shelter, clothing, and home and institution management as the four subdivisions of home economics subject matter.

Present-day home

economists are more nearly in agreement with Catharine Beecher's comprehensive view.

A comparison of the percentage of space which she

devoted to each subject-matter division is remarkably similar to a corresponding proportion of certain credits required by three land grant colleges for a major in general home economics.

Catharine

Beecher's home economics textbooks from 1841 to 1874 gave impetus to the home economics movement in higher education and became classics in home economics literature.

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---------------------- --------- : __________________________16Z CHAPTER X.

SUMMARY

This study of Catharine Beecher and her contributions to home . economics describes her part and her activities as a leader in the home economics movement. Catharine Beecher was the eldest daughter of Dr. Lyman and Roxanna Foote Beecher. Island.

She was born September 6, 1800, at East Hampton, Long

Her education followed the traditional pattern customary in the

early 1800’s; she first received instruction at home and later attended Miss Sarah Pierce’s Female Academy, at Litchfield, Connecticut. Catharine Beecher has been recognized as an outstanding leader in education for women during the nineteenth century.

Her career and

philosophy were the products of the society in which she lived.

During

her lifetime a new nationalism was developing in the United States and a zeal for political, social, and humanitarian reforms affected virtually every phase of American life.

The limited education available to girls

was a matter of concern to Catharine Beecher.

She crusaded continuously

for the improvement of education for women from 1821, when she opened the Hartford Female Seminary, at Hartford, Connecticut, the second institution in the United States to offer education for girls, until 1878.

While other educational leaders in this movement confined their

endeavors to their schools in New England, Catharine Beecher, after gaining experience in establishing the Hartford Female Seminary, devoted her life to a nation-wide program. In 1831, Lyman Beecher and his family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.

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168

p — _____________

Keenly aware of the educational problem involved in the westward migration then taking place, Catharine 3eecher drew up a program for the Western Female Institute at Cincinnati, which would prepare teachers and serve as a distribution center for teachers from the East who wished to go West.

When that school closed because of inadequate funds, she

conceived a definite plan for permanently endowed institutions of higher learning for girls and found supporters for the establishment of female normal institutes and high schools in the Mississippi Valley.

An

outgrowth of this activity was the American Woman's Education Association which was organized by Catharine Beecher in New York City to sponsor endowments for women's colleges.

As a result of Catharine

Beecher's work, normal institutes were started at Burlington and Dubuque, Iowa, Quincy, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The

Milwaukee-Downer College located in the latter city is the only one which survived; and today it is a monument to this program. In a period when many of her contemporaries were seeking to enlarge the concept of democracy through suffrage, Catharine Beecher contended that women should not endeavor to gain equality by competing with men. She claimed that homemaking was woman's true profession and just as men could prepare for their professions in colleges women also should have an opportunity to prepare for their calling.

Domestic economy, now

referred to as home economics, was the title Catharine Beecher gave the professional course which she advocated.

She also copyrighted the name

in A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841), the first home economics textbook to be recognized by a state department of education.

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An

___________________ ______________________________________

169

exhaustive study of her books provides information concerning the contributions -which Catharine Beecher made to the home economics movement.

She was the author of ten books dealing directly with heme

economics, which constitute her major contribution to the literature of that field.

These ten are:

A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841);

Miss Beecher* s Domestic Receipt Book (1842); Letters to Persons Engaged in Domestic Service (1842); Letters to People on Health and Happiness (1855); The American Woman* s Home (1869);- The Principles of Domestic Science (1870); Woman *s Profession as Mother and Educator (1872); The New Housekeeper*s Manual (1873); Miss Beecher’s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper (1873); and Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions (1874). She developed a sound philosophy for the subject.

She believed

that the home was the greatest of democratic institutions and should be the foundation for democratic living.

She presented home economics

from a woman's point of view and argued that it should have public recognition in higher education.

She urged that formal instruction in

home economics be given at all levels, but was particularly insistent on its inclusion in offerings at the college level.

She also -urged

that the state make provision for home economics in colleges on a permanent basis. liberal education. economics.

She ardently advocated home economics as a field in She believed that science was fundamental to home

She would place home economics in the curriculum not as a

vocational subject but on an equal basis with mathematics, natural science, and philosophy.

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120.

-

Catharine Beecher "staked out" the field of home economics.

She

considered home economics as a body of knowledge adapted to meet the needs of the heme in a changing society.

She insisted that the subject

matter which was to be included in this field be broad and inclusive. She would not restrict home economics to sewing and cooking, but would include all of the areas which contribute to optimum development in home and family life.

She considered instruction in home economics not as an

end but as a means to enable homemakers as a group to become a greater factor in national development. Catharine Beecher considered home economics as a broad subjectmatter field and, in order that the content of the course might be covered adequately, she suggested subdivisions, which in present-day terminology have become foods and nutrition; housing, equipment, and furnishings; textiles, clothing, and applied arts; family relationships and child care; family economics and home management; and health.

She

included a laboratory course in the home management house in the curriculum. Catharine Beecher was the first person to provide a home economics text which was recognized by a state board of education.

Other

educators had pointed to the need for textbooks and reference materials but had done nothing to solve the problem.

Catharine Beecher was the

author of Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper and A Treatise on Domestic Economy.

With the aid of her sister Harriet Beecher Stowe,

the latter was revised as The American Woman's Home, and still later as The Mew Housekeeper's Manual and The Principles of Domestic Science.

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m

Catharine Beecher prepared Miss Beechers Domestic Receipt Book, the first foods laboratory manual in the United States.

She -wrote

continuously and voluminously, endeavoring to indoctrinate the public with some of her enthusiasm, and philosophy concerning domestic economy and education for women.

Catharine Beecher was an eminently successful

writer; the annual income from her copyrights enabled her to carry on the crusade for home economics and other educational enterprises for which she was noted. Catharine Beecher evolved plans for teaching home economics. proposed the establishment of demonstration schools.

She

She advocated a

separate home economics department and also a model house to facilitate scientific training and practice.

She conducted classes in home

economics education, instructing teachers who were planning to go to the western frontier on "How to Teach Certain Branches of Domestic Economy.11 She proposed criteria for a good instructor.

She believed

that a capable teacher should know her student “socially and intellectually"; she advocated practical aims and would organize subject matter at the level of the child’s ability; she regarded rote memory as an undesirable type of learning; she had the ability to focus her pupils’ attention on details which would create initiative. Catharine Beecher's contributions to present-day home economics are manifold.

She developed a philosophy for the subject.

She

recognized the broad scope of information which constituted this field. She organized its subject matter into subdivisions which are included in current curricula.

She conducted classes in methods and procedure

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122 ■which were adapted to it.

She prepared textbooks on the subject.

Catharine Beecher' s theories were carefully planned; many have not been altered in the present-day concepts of home economics.

There is reason

to believe that her woric was even more significant in the development of this field of subject matter than has been indicated in the writings of her successors. economics.

Catharine Beecher was more than a pioneer in home

She was the founder of the home economics movement.

Many of the theories stated in Catharine Beecher's home economics textbooks have been verified by subsequent research.

Permanent

institutions for educating girls at the college level, for which she so tirelessly crusaded, are a reality.

However, home economics has much

to accomplish before all of Catharine Beecher's goals are realized. Home economics has been too little recognized as an essential force contributing to the optimum development of people in home and family living.

Catharine Beecher's statements challenge all educators to

inventory their educational resources with respect to this concept. In conclusion, Dr. Flora Rose,^ Director of Home Economics at Cornell University from 1907 to 194-0, and a participant at the Lake Placid Conferences, has said at a recent meeting of the American Home Economics Association, "The opportunity uo reach out, to extend to other young men and women in the institution . . .

what homeeconomics has to

offer as a way of life . . . has been neglected."

^Rose, Flora, "A Room of Their Own," Journal ofHomeEconomics, Vol. 41 (October 1949), p. 511.

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m .

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Books and Magazines 2. Secondary Source Materials

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124 Books and Magazines

Beecher, Catharine, An Address to the Protestant Clergy of the United States. Harper Brothers, New York, 1846. The Protestant clergy were urged to become informed of the methods and organization being used by the Roman Catholics in the frontier country. A plea to ministers to increase their participation in education. Beecher, Catharine, "To the Alumni of the West Newton Normal School," The Common School Journal. Vol. 8 (January 1846), pp. 82-86. An appeal to the graduates to increase their efforts in the promotion of education for women. Suggestions for participation in education in the West are made. Beecher, Catharine E., "American People Starved and Poisoned," Harper1s New Monthly Magazine. Vol. 32 (May 1866), pp. 762-772. The health conditions are deplored, the health standards in homes are criticised. Women, who guard the nation’s health, should be taught to understand the fundamentals of health, so that they would be stronger, their children would be stronger. Sanitation and food are two programs suggested. Beecher, Catharine, The Biographical Remains of the Reverend George Beecher. Leavitt and Trow, New York, 1844. This is a very short sketch of George Beecher’s life. His letters and excerpts from his sermons make up the major part of the content of the book. Beecher, Catharine, Calisthenic Exercises, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1856. A course in calisthenics which has bee adapted frcsri the system of Ling who was noted for the Swedish c-.-. 'se of gymnastics ariri calisthenics in this period. Illustrated are exercises of arms, chest, trunk, feet, and legs. A discussion of water cure treatment is included.

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Beecher, Catharine, "Catharine E. Beecher - Autobiography," Barnard1s Journal of Education. Vol. 26 (June 1878), pp. 65-94* Educational Reim'ni scences and Suggestions has been condensed in this article. Much of the material has been quoted directly. ' An explanation of the source of method for teaching clothing is additional information.

Beecher, Catharine E., "The Christian Neighborhood," Harpers New Monthly Magazine. Vol. 34 (May 1867), pp. 573-584* Article proposes a house-planning program; sketches are given for a convenient arrangement of the kitchen; an efficient heating system is described. The home is responsible for fostering leadership in civic improvements and cooperative projects. Among those which are suggested is an arrangement for a community laundry quite similar to the present-day laundromats. Beecher, Catharine, "On Domestic Duties," The Ladies' Garland. Vol. 7 (April 1844), pp. 22?-228. Women must know the correct methods of procedure if they wish to instruct others. A plea is made for an education which will enable women to become competent. cgeecher, Catharine E.j, The Duty of American 'women to Their Country, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1845® The first half of the book is entitled "Women Will You Save Your Country?" The second half is the answer — a proposed plan. The author has used all the principles of propaganda in impressing on the public the need for education of women. Her proposed plan is crystallized in her efforts to secure endowments for colleges at Burlington, Iowa; Dubuque, Iowa: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Quincy, Illinois. Beecher, Catharine E., Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. J. B. Ford and Company, New York, 1874* Catharine Beecher reviews her life, her ambitions, her accomplishments, and her hopes for the fulfillment of unfinished objectives. Her reflections on her home and her career, her review of the progress made in woman's education and the need for endowed education for girls and women are among the outstanding chapters.

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126 Beecher, Catharine E., An Essay on the Education of Female Teachers. Van Nostrand and Dwight, New York, 1835. This speech was written at the request of the American Lyceum and given at their annual meeting in 1835. The author has repeated her speech of 1827 on "Female Education," which appeared in the American Journal of Education. To it she has added the idea that there should be a course which would help women to be capable in the "thousand minutiae of domestic business." Beecher, Catharine, An Essay on Slavery and Abolition, H. Perkins, Philadelphia, 1837. An answer to the Grimke sisters* lectures on the slavery problem. The author believes the South should solve their problem and there should be no agitation for freeing of slaves in the North. Beecher, Catharine E., The Evils Suffered by American Women: The Causes and Remedy, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1846. A plea for educational facilities in the western frontier — the Mississippi Valley. The author contends that home missions are not needed as badly as an education. If the peoplein this area would have an education provided for them, they could and would read the Bible; they would be more intelligent and sin less. The children would not grow up in ignorance. [Beecher, Catharine E.i, "Female Education," American Journal oil Education, Vol. 2 (Part I, Aoril 1827), pp. 219-223, (Part II, May 1827), pp. 264-269. According to Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, pages 82-86, Catharine Beecher wrote these articles when she was twenty-six years old. She evaluates the system of education for girls which existed in that era. She describes education to be irregular, deficient, and superficial. Too many subjects are being taught at the same time and there is too much rote learning. She suggests the provision of suitable classrooms, apparatus, and textbooks as a remedy for the problem. Beecher, Catharine E., "How uo Redeem Woman's Profession from Dishonor," Harper1s New Monthly Magazine , Vol. 31 (November 1865), pp. 710-716. It is suggested that those who were growing rich from the Civil War profits should invest their money in a good house which would serve as a Christian example of what is a good standard. Women should be educated in home management. Good auality of living is reflected in woman's preparation for homemaking.

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Beecher, Catharine E., Letters to the People on Health and Happiness, New York, 1855. A small pocket size book concerning physiology. There are five sections: (1) Organs of the human body; (2) laws of health; ' (3) abuse of the bodily organs; (4) evils resulting from such abuses; and (5) remedies for these evils. In addition there is a report of the influence and progress of the Association of American Women. Home economists will be especially interested in the emphasis placed on "nourishment,” nutrition, healthful clothing, and housing in reference to health. Beecher, Catharine, Letters to Persons Engaged in Domestic Service. Leavitt and Trow, New York, 1842. Ethics which Catharine Beecher believes should be practiced by employer and employee are emphasized. She believes that more attention and prestige should be given to the dignity of work. Beecher, Catharine, Miss Beecher1s Address, Harper and Brothers, 1846. Instead of one address there are two printed in this book, The Evils Suffered by American Women and An Address to the Protestant Clergy of the United States. Both are concerned with a plan for endowment of women!s seminaries. Beecher, Catharine, "The Morale in the Hartford Female Seminary," American Annals of Education, Vol. 2 (April 1832), pp. 218-225. Personal influence of teachers, emphasis on the virtues of faithfulness, forbearance and affectionate interest are named as essential contributions to building of morale. Teachers should encourage improvement, reprove without anger, and not expose student s 1 faults. Beecher, Catharine, "On the Best Motives in Education," American Annals of Education, Vol. 3 (January 1833), pp. 28-32. The best motives in education closely follow Comenius' principles for giving consideration to the needs of children as a basis for teaching.

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12fi Beecher, Catharine E., Miss Beecher1s Domestic Receipt Book: Designed as a Supplement to Her Treatise on Domestic Economy, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1842, A compilation of recipes proven and recommended by Miss Beecher's students of Hartford Seminary. The first chapter reviews the good nutritional practices of the day. There are buymanship suggestions. In addition to the recipes for general table menus, there are instructions for making butter and cheese, entertaining and friendly counsels for domestics. Beecher, Catharine E., Miss Beecher1s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Harper and Brothers, New York, 1873* Catharine Beecher's last book. Its content consists of the material which was still useful from Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book, The American Woman's Home, and A Treatise on Domestic Economy. Among the notable changes are the chapters on housing and furnishings, property rights, and care of the aged. Aspects of advice in consumer-buying reflect the trend of the times* Beecher, Catharine E., A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1845. The 1841 edition, which was the original work, was accepted by the Massachusetts Board of Education. It contains all the phases of subject matter which the author felt necessary for a well managed home. The 1842 book had slight changes at the "request of the Massachusetts Board of Education." The changes are insignificant. The preface announcing Miss Beecher's Receipt Book seems to be one of the notable changes. The chapters include: Peculiar Responsibilities of American Women, Difficulties Peculiar to American Women, Remedies for the Preceding Difficulties, On Domestic Economy as a Branch of Study, On Care of Health, On Healthful Food, On Healthful Drinks, On Clothing, On Cleanliness, On Early Rising, On Domestic Exercise, On Domestic Manners, On the Preservation of a Good ‘ Temper in a Housekeeper, On Habits of System and Order, On Giving in Charityj On Economy of Time and Expenses, On Health of Mind, On Care of Domestics, On Care of Infants, On the Management of Young Children, On the Care of the Sick, On Accidents and Antidotes, On Domestic Amusements and Social Duty, On the Construction of Houses, On Fires and Lights, On Washing, On Starching, Ironing and Cleaning, On Whitening, Cleansing and Dyeing, On the Care of Parlors, On the Care of Breakfast and Dining Rooms, On the Care of the Kitchen, Cellar, and Storeroom, On Sewing, Cutting, and Mending, On the Care of Yards and Gardens, On the Propagation of Plants, On the Cultivation of Fruit, Miscellaneous Directions, Glossary.

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iza Beecher, Catharine, Truth Stranger Than Fiction. Phillips, Sampson and Company, Boston, 1850. A narrative regarding a faculty scandal. Today the plot might have been used for a mystery story. The author piously described the situation as "fiction involving the principle of honor, truth, and justice which obtain in a distinguished American University." Beecher, Catharine, The True Ranedy For the Wrongs of Women. Phillips, Sampson, and Company, Boston, 1851. A review of Catharine Beecher's efforts in promoting woman's education to 1851, with an outline of her plans for future development of the field. Beecher, Catharine, "Women's Profession," Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. 44 (November 1852), p. 484» A discussion of domestic science as women's true profession. The philosophy presented in A Treatise on Domestic Economy is reviewed. Beecher, Catharine E., "Women's Profession Dishonored," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 29 (November 1864), pp. 768-788. Concern is expressed for the inequality in education. A provision is made for training of men for many professions. There is great educational lag. Women are not afforded educational status on a comparable basis. Women, if trained, would educate their children, thus raising the intellectual level of the country. Women should be trained in their true profession for efficiency. Beecher, Catharine E., Woman Suffrage and Woman's Profession: With Views in Opposition to Woman's Suffrage, George MacLean, Philadelphia, 1872. The author explains her position in regard to woman's suffrage which seems to run counter to those of her contemporaries. She believes that women should not have suffrage until they are sufficiently literate to understand the issues at hand. She argues that there should be a nation-wide program to educate women for citizenship. Citizenship for them first begins in the home; there should be education for home as a profession.

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Beecher, Catharine E., and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The American Woman1s Home: or. Principles of Domestic Science; Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintainance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful and Christian Homes, J. B. Ford and Company, New York, 1869. A revision of A Treatise on Domestic Economy, with attempt to relate chemistry, physics, physiology, economics, and psychology to the aspects of housekeeping and homemaking. The subjects are treated much more formally, the -writing has lost its amateurish characteristics. The content of the book falls logically in the following areas accepted by the home economics profession: Family relationships, child care, home management, housing, clothing, nutrition, and home furnishing. Beecher, Catharine E., and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, The New Housekeeper's Manual, J. B. Ford and Company, 1873. This was a revised edition of The American Womans Home: or Principles of Domestic Science. It included the best recipes from Miss Beecher1s Receipt Book. It was regarded as a highly authoritative source of information pertaining to all activities of the household. New scientific interpretations of housekeeping processes were applied to management of food, care of the home. The sections on family relationships and the home in the community are like The American Woman *s Home. Beecher, Catharine, and Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Principles of Domestic Science, J. B. Ford and Company, 18?0. This book is an adaptation of The American Woman1s Home to the classroom. No recipes are included. To encourage classroom discussion questions are provided for each of the thirty-two chapters . Beecher, Charles (ed.), Lyman Beecher Autobiography. and Correspondence, Harper and Brothers, IS64-I865. The letters collected in this autobiography are very valuable to the historian. They are pen pictures of the life of the Beecher family and their friends. From them may be learned many facts concerning the way people lived, how they adjusted to the rigorous living of the time, and the trends in thinking of the post-revolutionary war generation.

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lai Editorials "Catharine E. Beecher," Harper's Bazaar, Vol. 11 (July 1878),, PP. 371-373. The editorial is obviously written by someone who was well acquainted with Catharine Beecher. The anecdotal features ofthe biography give an intimate perspective of Catharine Beecher's personality and activities. Harper and Brothers published ten of Catharine Beecher's books. Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Eighty Years and More. 1815-1897, European Publishing Company, New York, 1898. An autobiographical sketch of a leader who devoted her life to woman's suffrage. The many personal incidents which are included not only acquaint the reader with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but also with the times in which she lived.

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182.

Secondary Source Materials Adams, Charles (ed.), Fami 1iar Letters of John Adams and his Wife, Abigail Adams. During the Revolution. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1876. One of the few primary sources concerning life of women during the period of the American Revolution and the reconstruction period following the war. Adams, Henry, The Formative Years. A History of the United States during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison, Vols. 1 and 2, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1947The book is a reprint of an earlier edition written by a man who was a part of the "Formative Years." Outstanding accounts of the Federalist organization, Jeffersonian republicanism, the new democracy, business, technology, social issues such as slavery, education, and temperance, are found in these volumes. Adams, James Truslow (ed.), Dictionary of American History, Vol. 2, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1940. A history of events, movements, and political developments which have contributed to the development of democracy in the United States. Adams, Elizabeth K., "History of Woman1s Education," in A Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. 3, P» 795* The article starts with the history of woman's education from the period beginning with the ancient Greeks and shows what progress has been made in this movement frca that era until 1910. A good bibliography is included. American Annals of Education, "Hartford Female Seminary," Vol. 2 (April 1832), p. 255. A paragraph of less than half a page, concerning the status of Charles Gallaudet at Hartford Female Seminary. American Annals of Education, "Hartford Female Seminary," Vol. 2 (January 1832), pp. 62-68. An outline of the course of study, methods of instruction, and other details pertinent to the Hartford Female Seminary. Information concerning tuition and methods of discipline is included.

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American Annals of Education. "Miss Beecher's Essay on theEducation of Female Teachers," Vol. 5 (June 1835), pp.274-276. A review of the lecture which was presented to the women of the Lyceum and later printed by the group. American Annals of Education. "Transactions of the AmericanLyceum," Vol. 5 (June 1835), pp. 267-275. A report of the three-day meeting of this national society. Credentials were presented from Massachusetts, New York, United States Naval, Brooklyn, and New Bedford Lyceums, and from the Faculty of Yale College and the Hamilton Literary Association of Brooklyn. Catharine Beecher's essay was the only speech read before the group. Most of the time was devoted to educational business. Woman's education ranked high in the discussion tine. American Journal of Education, "Charles Burrough’s Address on Female Education, A Review," Vol. 3 (January 1828), pp. 51-59* Review of a lecture which urged that more thought be given to the problem of female education and to remedies for the present inadequate system of education for girls. American Journal of Education, "Education of Females; Intellectual Instruction," Vol. 2 (November 1827), pp. 676-682. Modern sciences should be adapted to the education of females. There should be discrimination between the sexes so that subjects for girls will be adaptable to their future life. Poor methods in teaching reading, poetry, grammar, and orthography are cited. American Journal of Education. "Education for Females: Intellectual Instruction," Vol. 2 (December 1827), pp. 734-742. The discussion of correct methods of teaching is continued from the November issue. Chirography (handwriting), geography, history, arithmetic, rhetoric, languages, "Accomplishments - mu8ic3 painting," are less important than domestic economy and needlework; it is a serious error to neglect these latter subjects; domestic economy is the most useful of mental acquirements . American Journal of Education, "Education of Females: Vol. 2 (July 1827), pp. 423-428.

Manners,"

A part of the article is again devoted to health, "Manners should not be treated as the growth of the body but rather of mind and heart." Standards of manners are too low. Devote less time to poetry and music and more time to good conduct.

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184 American Journal of Education. "Education of -Females: Observations,” Vol. 2 (June 1827), pp. 339-343.

Introductory

Upon graduation, students enter life with no actual preparation for the demands of society; "regular cultivation of health," .and "want of attention to formation of a character," and the arrangement of school rooms to meet female needs, are among the requisites advocated for improvement in the education of females. American Journal of Education. "Education of Females: Education," Vol. 2 (August 1827), pp. 481-487.

Objects of

Domestic accomplishments are a truly useful part of education; they should supersede all others. Girls have different goals in life than boys. The education provided for girls should be adapted to their needs. American Journal of Education. "Education of Females: Motives of Application," Vol. 2 (September 1827), pp. 549-55$. Female minds should not be repressed; develop them and it will contribute greatly to the intelligent advancement of the nation. Education should be a means of developing character. American Journal of Education, "Education of Females: Moral Instruction," Vol. 2 (October 1827), pp. 604-609. Moral culture is assumed and not conferred; parents do not take sufficient responsibility for their children. Morals should be studied as a science; teachers should integrate this subject with others which are included in the curriculum. Andrews, Benjamin R., "Miss Catharine E. Beecher, the Pioneer in Home Economics," Journal of Home Economics. Vol. 9 (June 1912), pp. 211-212. A short sketch of Catharine Beecher's life introduces the reader to Catharine Beecher as a writer of home economics books. A Treatise on Domestic Economy is partially analyzed. A portion of the article is devoted to the American Woman1s Education Association, of which Catharine Beecher was the originator. Barnard1s Journal of Education. "Reminiscences of Benjamin Silliman, L.L.D., 1779-1864," Vol. 26 (February 1876), pp. 225-256. A very detailed account of Silliman's life and work. The personal inferences which are made in recalling the life of the eminent scientist would indicate that it is written by a contemporary well acquainted with Silliman.

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Barnard1s American Journal of Education. "American Textbooks; Part 1, Authors and Books," Vol. 13 (March 1863), p. 216.'The editor has attempted to list al 1 of the textbooks which had been written and published in the United States. The Fellenberg Primer, The Moral Instructor, Exercises in Grammar, Mental and Moral Philosophy. Arithmetic Explained, Course of Calisthenics for Young Ladies. which were published anonymously by Catharine Beecher, are listed. Beard, Charles A., and Beard, Mary R., The Rise of American Civilization, Volume 1 and 2, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1930. A social history of the United States in which war and politics are incidental to the human scene. Work of leaders in all vocations is recognized for the contributions which they have made to the progress of the nation. Beard, Mary R., America Through Women1s Eyes, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1933* A review of the feminist movement and the factors which have contributed to women's independence. Much of the discussion is philosophical. Bevier, Isabel, Home Economics in Education. J. B. Lippincott Company, Chicago, 1924. The evolution of educational ideals in women's education from the date of Xenophon's report of Socrates' discussion of the management of the household in The (Economicus to 1925 is briefly discussed. The development of the curriculum in colleges is documented by courses of studies available in the first colleges offering the program. The book is old but it is the latest history of home economics available. Bevier, Isabel, and Committee, Syllabus of Home Economics, American Home Economics Association, 1912. The first official syllabus of the Association which offers suggestions for subject matter which according to the concensus of the group should be included in the curriculum, Bevier, Isabel, and Usher, Susannah, The Home Economics Movement. Whitcomb and Barrows, Boston, 1906. This sixty-four page monograph discusses the evolution of home economics in public schools, 1798-1906, and the development of the program in colleges, 1 8 7 0 - 1 9 0 6 . _________

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186.

Biester, Charlotte, "Catharine Beecher, Pioneer," Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 41 (May 1949), pp. 259-260. Those who have the impression that Fanny Farmer is the "Mother of Measurements" should be made aware of the fact that fifty years previously Catharine Beecher, in her Miss Beecher* s Domestic Receipt Book, had set up a system of precise measurements. She had also provided a standard for the format of cookery books which apparently was used by her successors. Bolzau, Emma, Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps; Her Life and Work. Science Press, Philadelphia, 1936. This biographical sketch of a pioneer in the education of women was a doctorate dissertation. Craig, Hazel T., The History of Home Economics, Lakeside Publishing Company, New York, 1945* A pamphlet which discusses briefly phases of early developments in home economics. The leaders in the movement, legislation, educational and research programs, and the organization of the American Home Economics Association are the outstanding chapters. The articles first appeared in a series in Practical Home Economics. Cubberly, Ellwood P., The History of Education. Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, 1920. This is a textbook in the history of education which has considerable material relating to the development of women's education. Curti, Merle, The Social Ideas of American Educators, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1935. A well organized report of the activities of educators in light of the national social scene. It is thoroughly documented. This book is Part 10 of the Report of the Commission on the Social Studies. Derby, J. C., Fifty Years Among Authors and Publishers. G. ¥. Carleton and Company, New York, 1884. J. C. Derby was well acquainted with Catharine Beecher's contemporaries. His anecdotal accounts give many sidelights on people and customs of the time. His interview concerning Catharine Beecher shows an admiration for her literary ability.

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Dexter, Erwin, History of Education in the United States, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1914. The chapters concerning education in the feminist movement are particularly good general references. Dibbden, T. F., Education of Daughters. Charles Ewer, Boston, 1821. A translation of Feneion1s Traite de l 1Education des Filles which made the work of this famous seventeenth-century educator available to the English speaking peoples. Dumas, Malone (ed.), Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 13, 1928-1931, Charles Scribner's Sons. In collaboration with Allen Johnson, this twenty-volume Dictionary of biographical sketches of leaders in the United States was compiled. Edwards, Everett E., Jefferson and Agriculture, Agricultural History Series No. 7, United States Department of Agriculture, 1943. A short biographical sketch and letters giving Jefferson's attitudes on aspects of science and agriculture. It is planned as a source book. Emerson, George B., "Domestic Economy," The Common School Journal. Vol. 5 (October 1843), pp. 340-347An excellent review of A Treatise on Domestic Economy. His remarks reflect the status of home economics education in 1843* George B. Emerson used the book in his school for boys and girls. Entriken, Isabelle, Sarah Josepha Hale and Godey*s Lady's Book. Science Press, Philadelphia, 1946. A published thesis presenting the life of Mrs. Hale and much information concerning the status of women's publications during the era in which she was editor of the Godey1s Lady1s Book and The Lady* s Magazine. Feneion, Francois de Salignac de la Mothe, Traite de 1'Education des Filles, in Harry J. Good, Ben.jamin Rush and His Services to American Education. Witness Press, Berne, 1918. This treatise, written in 1647, is of decided historical interest since it marks the beginning of a movement which resulted in giving French girls greater educational advantages.

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_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ iaa. Gallaudet, Thomas, "An Address on Female Education," American Journal of Education, Vol. 2 (November 1827), pp. 183-184. The address was given at the opening of a new building of Hartford Female Seminary. Gallaudet*s philosophy of domestic economy . coincided with that of Catharine Beecher. Good, Harry J., Benjamin Rush and His Services to American Education. Witness Press, Berne, 1918. Good feels that a member of the medical staff should have undertaken this biographical research. It is a published doctorate thesis. Goodsell, Willystine, Pioneers of Woman *s Education in the United States, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1931* Emma Willard, Catharine Beecher, and Mary Lyon's contributions to education are reviewed. The author elaborates cn the methods and schools which these women promoted. A partial review of their writings is provided. Graham, Abbie, Ladies in Revolt, Woman's Press, 1934* An account of the movement for emancipation of women during the nineteenth century. Women prominent in education, politics, journalism, and other vocations are discussed. Groves, Ernest R., The American Woman, Greenburg, New York, 1937. Women's status is traced from early days to the present. Women in the North and in the South, during and after the Civil War, are outstanding chapters. Hale, Sarah Josepha, "American Woman's Education Association," Godey *s Lady *s Book, Vol. 38 (June 1855), pp. 276-277. An editorial giving a progress report of the Association and soliciting the cooperation of additional supporters. Hanaford, Phoebe A., Daughters of America: or Women of the Country, True and Company, Augusta, 1883. Biographical sketches of contemporaries of Catharine Beecher. Women in art, music, drama, suffrage, and educational movements are among those given space. Phoebe Hanaford gives the women of literary interests a predominant place in the list.

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189 Harveson, Mae Elizabeth, Catharine Esther Beecher. Pioneer Educator. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1932. A published doctorate thesis on the life of Catharine Beecher. This author gives more detail concerning the -work of Catharine Beecher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Dubuque, Iowa, Quincy, Illinois, and Burlington, Iowa, than any other reference. Her account of Catharine Beecher's writings and her later years is related unusually well. Herbart, Johann, The Science of Education, translated by Felkin, Henry M., and Felkin, Emmie, D. C. Health and Company, Boston, 1908. A psychology of education conceived by Herbart. He endeavors to establish laws of learning in four steps, clearness, association, system, method. Concrete, illustrative, continuous, and application were among the terms he coined in educational theory. Hiekes, George, Instructions For the Education of Daughters. by M. Feneion, R. and A. Foulis, Glasgow, 1750* The author says this is not a "pure" translation; he has added Feneion's ideas found in other writings on the subject to this work. Iowa State College Bulletin. "Announcements 1949-50," Ames, 1949* The annual bulletin which announces the courses offered at Iowa State College 1949 and 1950. Irwin, Inez, Angels and Amazons. Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1933• The biographical sketches of women in the feminist movement and in women's suffrage crusades are written in narrative form. The book was written to popularize the histoiy of this era. The history of women extends from 1800 to 1900. Johnson, Allen (ed.), Dictionary of American Biography. Volume II, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1929* This biographical sketch is documented chiefly from Lyman Beecher's Autobiography and Correspondence. and Catharine Beecher's Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. It is a report which obviously has been used by other writers as background.

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Journal of Home Economics. "Home Economics in the United States," Vol. 3 (October 1911), pp. 323-341. Outstanding developments in government, school and college curriculums, and adult education are reviewed. Dates and events in the history of the home economics movement begin in 1789. Keatinge, M., The Great Didactic. Volume 1 and 2, Adam and Charles Black, London, 1921-1923. A translation of Comenius1 Great Didactic. Comenius has given his philosophy of the aims and methods which he believes conducive to improvement of education in this book. First written in Czech in 1632 and later published in Latin. Lord, John, Beacon Lights of History. Volume £, Great Women. Fords, Howard, and Hulbert, New York, 1886. The volume includes biographical sketches of women whom the author considers to be outstanding, from the era of Cleopatra to George Eliot. Hannah More was chosen because of her outstanding career in women's affairs in England. Lord, John, The Life of Emma Willard. D. Appleton and Company, New York. 1873. This biographical sketch, according to the author, is based almost entirely on the letters viiich Fhima Willard had written during her lifetime. Lupton, Kate, The Education of Girls, Ginn and Company, Boston, 1891. A translation of Flnelon’s Traite de I 1Education des Filles, viiich was written while he was in charge of a girls' convent in France. Michigan State College Catalog, "Announcements for 1948-1949," East Lansing, 1948. The General College Catalog includes information concerning the college for the current year. Monroe, Paul (ed.), A Cyclopedia of Education, Volumes 1-5* The Macmillan Company, 1911-1913. A history of education to which outstanding leaders in the respective fields contributed. Areas of education are also discussed. The work is in five volumes and is a very comprehensive history of education.

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m Monroe, Will S., History of the Pestalozzian Movement in the United States. C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, 1907• The methods which had been adopted by followers of Pestalozzi, Neel, McClure, Harris, Barnard, Carter, Rush, Gallaudet, Woodbridge> Manr, and others, are reviewed. More, Hannah, Strictures on the Modem System of Female Education, Volume 1 and 2, Printed by Samuel Etheridge for E. Larkin, Cornhill, Boston, 1800. A plea for education of girls by an eminent English educator. The book was printed twenty times. Domestic economy is emphasized as one of the needs in the education of women. Moulton, Louise Chandler, and others, Our Famous Women, A. D. Worthington and Company, Hartford, 1884. The opening sentence in the introduction is the keynote of the book. "No aspect of our time is more significant than the ever growing discussion of the place and duties of women.'* Lives of thirty woman leaders are sketched by literary friends of the leaders. McCay, Clive M., and Todhunter, Neige E., "A Century of Progress in Nutrition," Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Vol. 24 (September 1948), pp. 737-743• A review of the progress of research in nutrition in recognition of the centennial celebration, 1848-1948, of The American Association for the Advancement of Science. This research paper shows that human nutrition experimentation before 1848 had been almost negligible. Ohio State University Catalog. 1949-50. "Announcement of Courses," Published Columbus, Ohio, 1949* Announcement of courses for the current year. Phelps, Mrs. Almira H. Lincoln, Lectures to Young Ladies, Carter, Hendee and Company, Boston, 1833* A series of lectures giving the content of courses offered at Troy Female Seminary in 1821. The book is dedicated to Madame Louise I. W. Belloc and Mademoiselle Adelaide De Montgolfier, who were influential in education of women in France at this time.

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X92

Power, Eileen, ’’The Position of Women,11 in The Legacy of the Middle Ages, edited by G. C. Crump and E. F. Jacob, Oxford University Press, England, 1926. A volume bringing together essays on the chief contributions of the Middle Ages to the culture of our times. Rose, Flora, Pioneers in Home Economics. Lakeside Publishing Company, New York, 194&. Personal experiences which Dr. Rose relates in connection with home economics development at Cornell University. Starting with the Lake Placid Conference in 1899, she carries the narrative to 1947. Rose, Flora, "A Room of Their Own," Journal of Home Economics. Vol. 41 (October 1949), p. 5H . A brief of the address which Dr. Rose gave at the fortieth annual meeting of the American Home Economics Association, challenging the group to go forward with new opportunities. Senex, "Female Education," American Annals of Education. Vol. 5 (June 1835), pp. 262-266. Health is one of the objectives of primary importance in the education of females. This education must begin in infancy. A religious philosophy is.interwoven. Senex, "Female Education - No. II," American Annals of Education. Vol. 5 (July 1835), p p . 314-316. Next to health the formation of habits of industry are most important in fsaale education. How a mother’s education enables her to have a good temper is discussed. Senex, "Female Education - No. III. Domestic Habits," American Annals of Education, Vol. 5 (August 1835), pp. 360-363. Habit and skill in domestic life. No quality is more essential to the dignity of the female character than the acquisition of domestic skill. Girls should be trained to care for the health of the family, the nursery; to be mistress of the house and "humble as the theme" - the kitchen.

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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ISi Senex, "Female Education - No. IV,11 American Annals of Education. Vol. 5 (September 1835), pp. 415-417. t— t

The circle of female and domestic virtues will never be complete without establishment of "a good conscience in the sight of God." The need for order, industry, self-command, punctuality, neatness, affability, and hospitality, as a part of female education, is again reiterated. Schlesinger, Arthur M., New Viewpoints in American History, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1928. The social and economic aspects of American history, rather than election dates and military campaigns, are emphasized. Chapter VI, “The Role of Women in American History," is excellent. Stowe, Lyman Beecher, Saints. Sinners. and Beechers. Bobbs-Merrill, New York, 1934. A popular account of the lives of the Lyman Beecher family by Harriet Beecher Stowe's son. Catharine Beecher's decision concerning religion is well interpreted. Thompson, Eleanor, Education for Ladies 1830-1860, Kings Crown Press, New York, 1947. At a time when textbooks were not plentiful, the woman's magazine was one of the chief means of affording education. A careful documentation of the chapters and an excellent bibliography of the magazines of the period make this book a valuable source of information. Thorp, Margaret, Female Persuasion, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1949. Catharine Beecher is referred to as one of the six strong-minded women of America during the nineteenth century. The material concerning her activities is accredited to the books written byMae Elizabeth Harveson and Lyman Beecher Stowe, which are listed in this bibliography. Ulich, Robert, Fundamentals of Democratic Education, American Book Company, 1945* The author endeavors to clarify the development of the philosophy of education. Biographical sketches are used only as they may be introduced to indicate the forces which were influential in the thinkers' lives. The information is limited to the philosophies of Western civilization.

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194

University of Minnesota, The Bull etin of University of Minnesota, College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Home Economics, 1949-1950, Vol. 52, 1949. An announcement of the courses available for the ensuing year- and other information concerning the administration of the institution are made available to the public. Van Renssalaer, Martha; Rose, Flora; and Canon, Helen, A Manual of Homemaking, The Macmillan Company, 1919. This is a general book concerning homemaking problems. The contents are divided into four parts: "The House and Its Furnishings;" "Home Managanent;11 "Clothing;" and "Foods and Nutrition." Watson, Foster, Luis Vives (1492-1540), Oxford University Press, England, 1922. Vives took an active part in the educational activities pertaining to women in the age of Queen Catharine of Aragon. He was a friend of Bude in France, of Erasmus in Flanders, and of Sir Thomas More in England. No Spaniard up to his date had ever come into such friendly relations with the English leaders of learning on their own soil. Watson, Foster, Vives and the Renascence Education of Women, Longmans, Green and Company, New York, 1912. Written to furnish a key to the understanding of many of the problems of aim, administration, organization, and method which confront the student today. Watson, Rev. J. S. M., Xenophon^ Minor Works, George Bell and Sons, London, 1908. This volume is one from a "classical library" in 'which the author "literally translated from the Greek." Remarks concerning each translation aid in clarifying the content. The CEconomicus. on the "Management of a Farm and Household," is of interest to those studying education for women. Willard, Snma, An Address to the Public, J. W. Copeland, Middlebury, 1819. Four subjects are discussed - treatment of the defects of the present mode of female education, and their causes; the principles which should regulate education; a plan for a female seminary; the benefits of seminaries to society.

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125

Williams, Samuel B., A History of Modem Education, W. Bardeen, Syracuse, 1899. Lectures given at Cornell University. Philosophers selected frcm the time of Plato to Pestalozzi are discussed. The author states that education is only now beginning to utilize, the •work of these early philosophers. Williamson, Maude, The Evolution of Homemaking Education. 1818-1919. Unpublished Doctor's Thesis, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 1943* The economic and social aspects which were influential in the development of the home economics movement are discussed. The work of leaders and legislation which contributed to the advancement of the program are reviewed. Woody, Thomas, Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1931* Historical research ccncerning Benjamin Franklin's work. citations are excellently done.

The

Woody, Thomas, History of Woman1s Education in the United States, Volume 1 and 2, Science Press, New York, 1929. This exhaustive research uses contemporary records and literature of the day in reviewing the various stages of woman's education in this country. Aside frcm the biographical thesis by Harveson, these volumes contain more information concerning Catharine Beecher's program in education than any other reference. Whether it is the discussion of normal school development, wanen as authors or as administrators, her name seems always to appear.

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196.

APPENDIX

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-______________________________________________________ 193L I.

A LIST OF BOOKS WRITTEN BY CATHARINE BEECHER

1828

Arithmetic Explained. Published by the author, Hartford, pp. 126.

1829

Suggestions Respecting Improvgnents in Education. Packard and Butler, Hartford, pp. 84.

1829

Exercises in Grammar. Published by the author, Hartford, pp. 49«

1830

The Fellenberg Primer. Published by the author, Hartford.*

1831

Elements of Mental and Moral Philosophy. Published by the author, Hartford, pp. 452.

1832

Arithmetic Simplified, D. F. Robinson and Company, Hartford, pp. 273. Also 1833.

1833

Primary Geography for Children. Corey and Fairbanks, Cincinnati, pp. 112.**

1835

An Essay on Education of Female Teachers. Van Nostrand and Dwight, New York, pp. 22.

1835

The Lyceum Arithmetic. William Pierce, Boston, pp. 248.

1836

Letters on the Difficulties of Religion, Belnap and Hammersly, Hartford, pp. 350.

1837

An Essay on Slavery and Abolition, H. Perkins, Philadelphia, pp. 157.

1838

The Moral Instructor. Truman and Smith , Cincinnati, pp. 188.

1841

A Treatise on Domestic Economy. Marsh, Capen, Lyon and Webb, Boston, pp. 369; revised edition 1842; also 1843, 1845, 1847, 1849, 1851, 1852, 1854, 1855, 1856, I867.

1842

Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book, Harper and Brothers, New York, pp. 293; also 1846, 1850, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859.

1842

Letters to Persons Engaged in Domestic Service. Leavitt and Trow, New York, pp. 235-

^Reference to book found in readings, but number of pages and other information not included. **Harriet Beecher Stowe was co-author in these books.

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isa.

1844

The Biographical Remains of the Reverend George Beecher, Leavitt, Trow and Company, New York, pp. 233*

1845

The Duty of American Women to their Country, Harper and Brothers, New York, pp. I64.

1846

Miss Beecher* s Address including The Evils Suff ered by American Women, and An Address to the Protestant Clergy of the United States, Harper and Brothers, New York, pp. 36.

1850

Truth Strangerthan Fiction, Phillips, Sampson and Company, Boston, pp. 296.

1851

The True Remedy for the Wrongs of Women, Phillips, Sampson and Company, Boston, pp. 263.

1855

Letters To People on Health and Happiness, Harper and Brothers, New York, pp. 192.

1856

A Course of Calisthenics for Young Ladies, Published by the author, pp. 58.

1856

Physiology and Calisthenics , Harper and Brothers, New York, pp. 193 r 58 (including A Course of Calisthenics for Young Ladies).

1857

Common Sense Applied to Religion, Harper and Brothers, New York, pp. 358.

1860

An Appeal to the People in Behalf of their Rights as Authorized Interpreters of the Bible, Harper and Brothers, New York.*

r

I864 Religious Training of Children, Harper and Brothers, New York, pp. 403. 1869

The American Woman1s Home, J. B. Ford, New York, pp. 500.**

1870

The Principles of Domestic Science, J. B. Ford, New York, pp. 381**

1871

Woman Suffrage and Woman *s Profession. Brown and Gross, Hartford, pp. 12&1

1872

Woman*s Profession as Mother and Educator. G. Maclean, Philadelphia, pp. 133-

1873

The New Housekeeper*s Manual. J. B. Ford, New York, pp. 591.**

1873

Miss Beecher* s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper, Harper and Brothers, New York, pp. 482; also 1874.

1874 Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, J. B. Ford, New York, _____ pp.. 2Z6.____________________________________________________ _

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VITA CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH BIESTER Date and Place of Birth

June 21, 1899, on a farm near Belvidere, Illinois

Parents

Henry Biester and Elizabeth Schaudelmier Biester

Family

Sister, A-lice Biester; brother, Harold Biester

Education

Laurenceville District Rural School, Graduated from Belvidere High School, Belvidere, Illinois, 1917. A. B. degree University of Illinois, 1921, Major Hone Economics M. A. degree, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York, 1939, Major Family Economics Other schools attended: University of Minnesota, University of Chicago, and University of Oregon

Organizations

Kappa Delta Pi, Pi Lambda Theta, Epsilon Sigma Phi, American Home Economics Association, and American Association of University Women

Present Position

Professor of Home Economics, Santa Barbara College, University of California

Other Positions

Instructor of Home Economics, Ohio State University Assistant State U-K Club Leader, Kansas County It—H Leader, Hettinger County, North Dakota Home Extension Agent, Grant County, South Dakota; Johnson County, Kansas; NavajoApache Counties, Arizona; Home Advisor, De Kalb County, Illinois; and Home Agent, Indian Field Service, Fort Apache Agency, Arizona

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ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS 1.

’’Samplers, the Colonial Textbook,” Practical Home Economics, Vol. 18 (February 19l;0), pp. 39-Itlo

2.

Outlines of Home Management Principles, Burgess Publishing Company, Minneapolis, l91tl, 19U2, Revised 192t5, 19h9»

3•

”More Nutrition — Less Mal-Nutrition,” School and Society, Vol. iilj. (January 31, 19lt2), pp. 128-130.

U«

’’Let Students Promote Home Economics,” Practical Home Economics, Vol. 23 (September 19U5), pp. 37U, 14. 3K—U39*

5.

"We Use the Community for Home Management Projects,” Practical Home Economics, Vol. 23 (December 19ii5>), pp. 608-609, 631-632•

6.

’’Home Economics in Other Lands,” Practical Home Economics, Vol. 2h (April 19l|6), pp. 25k, 256, 251 o

7.

Vocational Series, Opportunities in Home Economics, Southern California Home Economics Association, Los Angeles, 19ii6.

8*

’’Instructor-Student Planning," Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 39 (March 19k7), pp. 158-199.

9.

"Choose Home Economics in a Liberal Education,” Sierra Educational News, Vol. kl (April 19U7), p. L6.

10.

"Articles and Bcoks Written by California Home Economists," California Home Economics News, Vol. 20 (May 19k7)> pp. 7-8.

11.

"Cook Books Are News,” Forecast for Home Economists, Vol. 63 (October 1 9 h 7 ) , pp. 82, 81t.

12*

"Home Economics Club Develops Money Managers," Practical Home Economics, Vol. 25 (October 19k7), pp. 507, 550, 552.

13.

"Teacher-Trainees Make Capable Judges at lt-H Achievement Day," Agricultural Leaders Digest, Vol. 29 (January 19L8), p. i}6.

lit.

"Dietitian Interns Tell Their Story," Forecast for Home Economists, Vol. 6 k (March 19I18), pp. 38, 51u

15»

"Experience Is a Good Teacher," Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 2;0 (November 19ltS), p. 532.

16.

Opportunities in Iipme Economics — An Annotated Bibliography, Pacific Publishing Company,Millbrae, 19L8, 19U9.

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17.

"Catharine Beecher, Pioneer," Journal of Home Economics, Vol. lil (May 1949), pp. 259-260.

13.

"Observing Home Economics Education at Santa Barbara College, University of California," Forecast for Home Economists, Vol. 6 k (June 1 9 h 9 )s pp. 28-29.

19.

"Tante Marie's French Kitchen," Western Home Economics, Vol. 1 (June 19li9), p. 58.,

I I

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