Mary Lyon was an American pioneer in women's education
Alice Hamilton was an American doctor and expert in Occupational Health. Hamilton qualified as a doctor in 1893 and studied bacteriology and pathology in Europe before returning to Chicago in 1897. Her interest in occupational illnesses and injuries was sparked by seeing the effects they had on the people of Chicago. Hamilton sat on the Occupational Diseases Commission of Illinois and was the first woman appointed to the faculty at Harvard University. See also http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/chemistry-in-history/themes/public-and-environmental-health/public-health-and-safety/hamilton.aspx Emma Hart Willard was an American women's rights activist and educator. She became a teacher and started the Middlebury Female Seminary at her home in 1814. This is now Emma Willard House and houses the Middlebury College Admissions Office. Willard went on to open Waterford Academy (which failed due to lack of funding) then the Troy Female Seminary in New York. The seminary was renamed Emma Willard School in 1895 and exists to this day as a girls' boarding school. Willard also travelled a great deal and wrote several books. See http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/emmawillard.html for more information on Emma Willard Mary Barbour, 22nd Feb 1875 – 2nd April 1958Mary Rough Barbour was born in Kilbarchan, Scotland and moved to Govan in Glasgow when she married. Barbour became politically active after joining the Kinning Park Co-operative Guild. Barbour was a founder of the South Govan Women's Housing Association, first female Labour Councillor on Glasgow Town Council (1920), Glasgow Corporation's first woman Baillie, and one of the first female magistrates in Glasgow. See http://www.gcu.ac.uk/radicalglasgow/chapters/mary-barbour.html Angelina Grimké was an American political activist, abolitionist, women's rights advocate, and suffragist. Grimké and her sister Sarah were brought up in a southern slave-owning household but both were against slavery. They moved to New York as teenagers. They were the first women to lecture for the Anti- Slavery Society. After receiving a hostile reception from those that thought women should not speak in public, the Grimkés defended women's rights to make speeches and more generally be fully political beings. She continued campaigning for civil and women's rights throughout her life. Betty Gathergood was the third curator of Dr Johnson's House, following on from her mother (Phyllis Rowell) and her grandmother (Isabella Dyble). Interestingly, since the 300 year old townhouse was opened to the public, all the curators have been women. To see more about the house http://www.drjohnsonshouse.org/charity.html To read more about Betty Gathergood see http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-betty-gathergood-1352618.html Also interesting is I don't have a photo of Betty Gathergood but will add one if/when I find one. Lydia Child was an American women's & "Indian" rights activist, abolitionist and journalist. Child was an organizer in anti-slavery societies and wanted women to have equal rights in these organisations. In 1839 she was elected to the Board of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) and edited the Anti-Slavery Standard from 1840 - 1843. She became disillusioned with the AASS because of in-fighting and a refusal, on the part of the AASS to renounce violence in the fight against slavery. Child wrote both factual and fictional pieces and believed that fiction could reach people that factual reporting couldn't. Child was a founder of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first African-American woman to receive an MD in the United States. She worked as a nurse for 8 years before being admitted to the New England Female Medical College in 1860, graduating four years later.
See http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/partners/early/e_pioneers_crumpler.html I've been reading about the new History curriculum on various blogs. I'll confess here that it's mostly going right over my head - which may actually be the point.
It's a long time since I was at school and I only did two years of history at secondary school. I couldn't wait to drop it as it was such a boring and dry subject. It was okay at primary school, when we covered stuff like the French Revolution (even learning the La Marseillaise, which I can still just about sing along with). I loved the history in my Blue Peter Annuals - Marie Antoinette (I'm sensing a theme here) and Grace Darling. Secondary School history seemed to be all about who fought who. Pretty well nothing that caught my interest. We did also cover areas like the industrial revolution but it was all facts, with nothing about the humanity of it, nothing of the real people, nothing that made me feel connected to the past. So, I took 3 Sciences at school to get away from history only to discover that I had to do an hour of history every week anyway (apparently to ensure that we had a rounded education). I dreaded it, such was my hatred of History, but was surprised to discover that there was more to history than kings and war. We covered subjects like the history of local place names - with only a slight disappointment that Stamperland (where I lived) was so called because the land had belonged to Mr Stamper (duh) - and historical murders (great fun for 15 year olds). Over the years I took a bit of an interest in women's history but this really only consisted of the "usual suspects" - Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Fry, the Pankhursts. A few scattered women among all the men, or rather, among all the kings and generals. My renewed interest came about only when I delved into the background of my own family (or, more specifically, my Great Great Granny Barton), and went off on all sorts of tangents looking into the other Temperance women and the kinds of social reform they were otherwise involved in. I do realise that the Temperance workers and Social Reformers may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'd bet there's something out there in the past that will thrill you - maybe the history of pirates, horticulture, trains, espionage, vaudeville, football ... Take your pick ! Anyway, my point is this - for the most part, the new national curriculum looks about as gripping as history was in my day. KS1 looks okay (since I'm rather keen on the whole heros thing) but (and bearing in mind that I'm not a "real" historian) I don't see how you can cover the ‘essential chronology of Britain’s history’ in KS2 without it boiling down to a dry list of things that happened and when they happened. Where are teachers going to fit in the inspirational or the exciting? How are students meant to feel connected or engaged? KS3 (assuming anyone carries on past KS2) looks so heavy that anyone but the most hardened academic will lose the will to live. Maybe this is the point - the current Government seem to see no value in the humanities so why not make sure the subjects have as narrow an appeal as possible. Over the past few years I've made numerous little discoveries that have truly thrilled me. I've discovered that women were working in all sorts of areas, reforming society, and making their mark and not just in suffrage and nursing. I've discovered joy in primary sources and have found bizarre little snippets like Oswald Mosley being a proponent of wholemeal bread or the inventor of the wrist watch. I've read reportage about a zeppelin flying over London in WW1 and newspaper reports about the Titanic. Fantastic stuff. As a result, I've started this website, have transcribed over 120,000 lines of text in archived newspapers, am collating newspaper reports and putting together a history of the "queen of Scottish orators" and am working on her biography. I love it but I do wonder how much I could have achieved if I hadn't lost 40 years through being thoroughly put off history by a dull dull dull curriculum. I wish teaching could be about inspiring and educating young people. I wish it could lead to them really wanting to learn for the sake of learning and to learn to think and care about the world. I'm sure teachers will do their best to inspire and engage in spite of the new curriculum but think too that there are an awful lot of children out there who, like me, will decide that history is indeed bunk. Shame. |
AuthorI'm an amateur historian interested in Women's History, Social History, Social Reformers, the Temperance Movement, and the (so far) unwritten histories of "ordinary" people. Archives
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