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Volume 63 | Number 2 Article 2

3-1-1982 The Dubuque eF male Seminary: Catharine Beecher's Blueprint for 19th -Century Women's Education Robert E. Belding

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Recommended Citation Belding, Robert E. "The Dubuque eF male Seminary: Catharine Beecher's Blueprint for 19th -Century Women's Education." The Palimpsest 63 (1982), 34-41. Available at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/palimpsest/vol63/iss2/2

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the State Historical Society of Iowa at Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in The alP impsest by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Catharine Beecher’s Blueprint for Nineteenth Century Women s Education

The building that housed Catharine Beechers Dubuque Female Seminary appeared in 1910 (courtesy the author) THE DUBUQUE FEMALE SEMINARY by Robert E. Belding ention education in Iowa in a discus­ provide Iowa’s population with educational sion of the state’s history before the opportunities on a par with the established M Cavil War and the image that most eastern schools of the time. One of these was often comes to mind is that of a log school- the Dubuque Female Seminary, founded by house, a class of about a dozen students ranging Catharine Beecher in 1853. from children to young men, and a teacher Catharine Beecher was a member of one of whose own education extended only a bit be­ the most illustrious families in the intellectual yond that of the students he or she was teach­ and religious ferment in America in the ante­ ing. Even the oldest Iowa towns along the Mis­ bellum decades. Her father was the prominent sissippi had not progressed far beyond the fron­ Congregational minister, Lyman Beecher, and tier stage of development by this time, but she was a sister of Henry Ward Beecher, one of there were a number of serious attempts to slavery’s most active opponents, and Harriet © Iowa State Historical Department/Division of the State His­ Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle loins torical Society 1982 0031—0360/82/0304—034 $1.00 Cabin. As a member of a well-to-do New Eng­ The Palimpsest 35 land family, Catharine received the standard from the less-civilized elements of the commu­ private education for young ladies of her time, nity and, if necessary, from Indian attack. The including drawing, painting, and music. But Dubuque Miners Express described it as “re­ this did not prepare her very well for supervis­ tired, elevated, healthy and romantic. ing the large Beecher household after the death Though the oriental style of the College’s of her mother when she was sixteen, a fact that home might have suggested the opulence and no doubt influenced the strongly practical leisure of the pampered upper class, the blue­ character of the schools she later established. print that Catharine Beecher devised for her In 1824 Catharine founded a very successful schools emphasized practicality in its list of private girls’ school in Hartford, Connecticut, courses and propriety in its regulations on stu­ and in 1832, when her father became the presi­ dent deportment. Reacting against her own dent of the Lane Theological Seminary in Cin­ education in the niceties of social life, cinnati, she founded the Western Female Beecher’s goal was to train young women who Institute there. Catharine’s health problems would be proficient teachers early in their lives and the financial stringency that followed the and efficient homemakers after their marriage. Panic of 1837 brought an end to the school, Disagreeing with many of the women’s rights though it had flourished for its brief lifespan. activists of her time, she did not intend to Bv the late 1830s, Catharine Beecher had provide her students with an education in the become convinced of the need for new educa­ then male-dominated professions, but to train tional opportunities in the rough-hewn cities of the growing West, and horn Cincinnati she moved on to found the Milwaukee Female Col­ lege in 1850. While she hoped to make her permanent home in Milwaukee, Beecher also established colleges at Kalamazoo, Michigan, at Quincy, Illinois, and at Dubuque. Dubuque’s 3,000 people welcomed the for­ mation of Beecher s new school with open arms. The city had early gained a bustling prosperity based first on lead mining in the region and later on the steamboat trade on the Mississippi River. Several private schools had been established in the city, but they had proved to be short-lived, and no public school system had yet grown up to replace them. As a result, when Catharine Beecher visited the city on a fund-raising campaign for her school she was hailed as a “household divinity. The building constructed to house the Dubuque Female Seminary, renamed the Dubuque Female College in 1854, was some­ thing of an architectural oddity. With turrets and battlements and lacy spires, it took on an oriental appearance, a fortress-like structure seemingly designed to protect its occupants Catharine Beecher (courtesy the author) 36 The Palimpsest them to he successful in the areas open to quired the students to eat their noon meal at women in American society at the time. the school, and her female teachers ate with To provide what Beecher considered to he a them to serv e as commendable models of table proper atmosphere for study, the college manners. Lunch was, in fact, listed as a non­ catalog specified in detail the type of conduct credit class in the school’s catalog. that would he either required or prohibited in The severity of the regulations that Beecher the school. One statement on classroom man­ outlined for her students gives the Dubuque ners, for example, reminded the girls that Female College the appearance of having been “movement will he limited to recitation or the a solemn and silent cloister, and indeed exercise of penmanship. The rustling of skirts Beecher was described by a visitor to her will not he tolerated. Warnings about corridor school in Milwaukee as “a kind of lady-abbess behavior were less specific. The catalog, and a in educational matters.” But the regulations notice posted in the hallway, vaguely ad­ were not unusually severe for girls schools of monished: “ Do not leave anything in the school the time. Beecher simply adapted them from corridors which will damage your character. A her successful schools in the East and from the “narrowly modest mirror was provided in the ideas followed by Emma Willard in her girls entry hall, hut the students were warned not to school in Troy, New York and Mary Lyon, who tarry before it for more than a minute at a time CET/L/NG lest they become vain. They were also warned that such idle games as chess and checkers would not he allowed anyw'here on school grounds, and that “without exception females are to contain all emotions of anger, fretfulness and discontent.” Other regulations required that the students appear at school in a drably-colored dress filled out by at least seven layers of petticoats, and to have an umbrella and a proper pair of mud shoes. Headgear was limited to one orthodox bonnet. If jewelry was worn to school, the stu­ dent was to surrender it to the headmistress upon arrival and to pick it up at the end of the day, along with a firm reprimand. The equip­ ment the students were to supply was fairly simple: an atlas, a Bible, and a copy of Beecher’s own text on the operation of a Chris­ tian home. Since this work, entitled A Treatise “In most large houses, the table furniture, the on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young cooking materials and utensils, the sink, and the Ladies at Home and at School, had already eating room, are at such distances apart, that half the time and strength is employed in walking achieved widespread popularity throughout hack and forth to collect and return the articles the country, many of the students no doubt used," wrote Catharine Beecher in 1869. Here is simply brought along the family copy from her plan for an efficient sink and cooking-form, home. reprinted here from American Woman’s Home, Though the college was a day school and all published by Catharine Beecher and her sister its students were commuters, Beecher re­ Harriet Beecher Stowe. (SHSI) The Palimpsest 37 had founded Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. ______Ì 3 Since the graduates of the Dubuque Female COOK DRAIN S I N K | O "t) College were expected to be homemakers for 0) o most of their lives, Beecher made home eco­ § £ nomics the core of its curriculum. And the core 5 of the home economics course was Beecher’s Treatise on Domestic Economy. This was in­ tended to be an American text on the efficient KITCHEN management of an American home. It was de­ 9 x 9 signed to replace the standard European works that had been in use up to this point and that included, for example, discussions of the place of butlers and other domestics in the operation SU D/NG DOORS of a properly-run English mansion. Beecher, in contrast, described a home that was to be STOVE ROOM largely without servants and that therefore 1 needed to take advantage of efficient planning 1 and the labor-saving inventions that were be­ 1 coming more widespread as the century prog­ 9x7 s ro /r k 1 ressed. llII Beecher drew most of her ideas from her 1" own early experiences in running the Beecher r 1 1 family household in Connecticut and Ohio. She CELLAR had always had a preoccupation—not to say an DOOR obsession—with her own health, and as a result her Treatise included many valuable recom­ mendations on heating and lighting a home and on a daily program of exercise. Many of Beecher’s concerns were, in fact, only begin­ HALL CLOSEST ning to be recognized as important influences HALL ¡ « on individual health in the mid-nineteenth RECESSI! century7, and the popularity of her text went a long way toward promoting them. LANDING In her plan of domestic economy, Beecher Floor plan of the kitchen and stove room de­ indicated that the mother in the ideal home scribed in American Woman s Home. Glazed would need scheduled time away from her sliding doors keep kitchen heat and odors from children, so she urged that they be sent for six spreading through the house. (SHSI) hours a day to a nursery' school, and later to a common school. (School attendance was not lence were, Beecher maintained, three qual­ compulsory in most of the country at this time.) ities prerequisite to selflessness and service to At nursery school, which she hoped would be God, and these qualities, along with consis­ taught by the products of institutions that fol­ tency and honesty, would be embodied in the lowed her ideas, children would acquire habits ideal teacher and passed along to her students. that would be reinforced in the properly run Even in the nursery school there would be home. Cooperation, self-denial, and benevo- mental discipline in the form of instruction in 38 The Palimpsest the qualities necessary for molding Christian in the offerings, because she believed an east­ character. ern professor’s statement that ‘the subject Beyond home economics, Beecher s plan for would cause women to forsake having children, educating students at the College also included so charmed would they be with quadratic equa­ a range of subjects that would serve them both tions. Nor would she teach philosophy in her in their short-term careers as teachers and in school, for she shared the common belief that their longer careers as informed homemakers. the subject would certainly weaken the female Chief among these was the study of the English constitution so that she would be unable to hear language and its proper expression. The girls normal children. read, for example, carefully censored classics Though Catharine rebelled against many of so that they could select the right models of the traditional religious beliefs of the rest of the literature both for their students and later for Beecher family, she did include a strong their own children. Their leisure time as spiritual element in her school’s curriculum. mothers could also be well spent, they were The three religious courses were “Evidences of reminded, by poring over the same selected Christianity,’ “Moral Lessons,’’ and The Bi­ literature. The works included many of the ble These were reouired in order to render newer American authors, like Washington Irv­ all teachers grave,’ she said. The content of ing, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James each subject was clearly ordered in sound Fenimore Cooper. This, she believed, would continued page 40 not only acquaint the native-born students with their own heritage, it would also help to Americanize the many hundreds of immigrant children found in cities like Dubuque. The academy’s English instruction also in­ cluded versification and, lest a wife embarrass her husband in social situations, correct pro­ nunciation. By the nineteenth century, per­ sonal correspondence had been raised to an art form, and to insure that her students would enjoy a lifetime of leisurely correspondence from the parlor desk (and to promote the character traits of sympathy, imagination, and perception) Beecher stressed the analysis of classical essays and practice in student compo­ sition. There was, however, no room for foreign languages in her prescription for the Dubuque school. She considered strange tongues to be a superfluous adornment suited only to wealthy homes; English should suffice as practical equipment for a Christian home. Arithmetic was to be included in the Design for a “Ward caserecommended by academy’s curriculum, using Beecher s own Catharine Beecher as a way busy homemakers textbook, which employed problems involving might enjoy “a fragment of the green woods kitchen measures and grain bins. But Beecher brought in and silently growing; it will refresh was careful not to include higher mathematics many a weary hour to watch it. (SHSI) The Palimpsest 39 Catharine’s work in promoting the formation of academies for women in Ohio, Wisconsin, Illi­ nois, and Iowa and Lyman Beecher’s years as president of the Lane Theological Seminary, the Beechers contributed to expanding the The influence that the Beecher family— educational opportunities of the West through Lyman Beecher and his succession of three Edward Beecher s service as president of Illi­ wives and thirteen children—had on American nois College at Jacksonville from 1830 to 1844. intellectual life before the Civil War can he The third area where the Beechers left their expressed in three words: religion, education, mark was in their opposition to slavery. Both and abolition. The antebellum decades were a Lyman and Henry Ward Beecher denounced time of ferment in American thinking about slavery in their sermons, taking the position these issues, and at one time or another a that slavery should be confined within its con­ Beecher could be found at the center of each temporary limits so that eventually its own in­ movement for change. ternal weaknesses would destroy it. Edward Lyman Beecher was the most traditional Beecher, too, aided the abolitionist Elijah P. member of the family in his religious views, Lovejoy s efforts in Illinois before Lovejoy’s having been strongly influenced by Timothy death at the hands of a mob at Alton in 1837. Dwight in his years as a student at Yale. But the Beechers’ best-known attack on slavery Though he was trained in the Calvinist ortho­ came from Harriet Beecher Stowe in her novel, doxy of the New England tradition of Jonathan Uncle Toms Cabin. Harriet had been strongly Edwards, he followed a new school of Calvin­ affected by the condition of the fugitive slaves ism that stressed the freedom of the human will she saw being channelled northward through and the religious experience of revivalism. Too Cincinnati. She wrote her novel later at conservative for some Congregationalists, too Brunswick, Maine while her husband, Calvin liberal for others, nevertheless he did influence Stowe, was serving on the faculty of Bowdoin the course of American religious thought, first College. W hen her story appeared in book as a minister in Boston and then as president of lorm in 1852, it struck a spark of public senti­ the newly established Lane Theological Semi­ ment, selling three hundred thousand copies nary in Cincinnati from 1832 to 1850. within a year. Ultimately, it convinced hun­ Lyman Beecher expected all his sons to be dreds of thousands of northerners of the moral ministers, and four did in fact become promi­ indefensibility of slaverv as an institution. nent Congregational ministers, though not Perhaps the Beechers’ greatest contribution without a great deal of religious questioning on to American society in the first half of the nine­ their part. Henry Ward Beecher was the most teenth century was their enthusiasm for the influential of the four. Speaking from the plat­ causes they supported. Many of their ideas form of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, about religion, education, and slavery were New York (he never spoke from a pulpit in his innovative and experimental, but many others own church), Henry attracted a weekly audi­ were simply part of the intellectual climate in ence of from two to three thousand people to which they lived. W hether from a church’s hear his energetic sermons on a wide range of pulpit, a speakers platform, or a college lec­ issues, social as well as religious. tern, what the members of the Beecher family Though the Beechers were a New England provided was the energy to spark people to family, their influence on education came action, action that they might not otherwise mainly in the western states. In addition to have taken.—Alan M. Schroder 10 I nk Pammpsfs'I

Brot her fashion and their combined effect was in te n d e d to stud tin1 cranium with m oral and mental nourishment. II anyone questioned n[vwoavwv these outcomes at the time, their words appar cully did not survive. Indeed, faculty and stu dents who might not have agreed with these 7 /j -> elevated purposes would not have been at­ tracted to the institution in the first place. ¡ti Hcquired chapel attendance complemented : y1 the array of Christian courses. As a starter for caieh day it ignited the program and invari­ ably included choral exercises, scripture read­ M il IrMM OAwrn ing, prayer, and a brief religious exposition v«_ •r\ always conducted by Beecher herself when she IIAMI*I H was in town. Her own puritan background echoed in her printed warning that all light conduct in the sanctuary is oflcnsivc to God. With propot manuHcmcnt of dumpers, our Monday s chapel service reflected the honor otdinatt/ sized roul hod of anthracite coal will, system praeticed among the students, as a show lot twenty font horns, keep the stove running, ol hands indicated who had attended church keep seventeen gallons of nutlet hot at nil hours, the previous day. hake pies ami ptttldinps iti the nut tin closet, heat Women s schools were the lirst to teach flat irons undet the hack covet , boil tea kettle ami täte pot undet the front t'ovet, hake bread in biology (that is, health) apart from medical the oven, and ettok a turkey in tlu‘ tin toastet in training. Voting ladies were perceived as Irail front, The author has numerous J'tiends, who, vessels, and Catharines own health was a aftci trying the best ranges, have dismissed them never-ending concern for her. Again, much of fti this stove, and iti taut or three years cleared tile contents of her course reinforced what she the whole ex pense htj the saving of fuel Cat ha had written in her Treatisc on Domestic hcon tint Bcechct, American Woman s Homo (SIISl) omt/ and included direct ions on how to care fur the sick at home and how to treat the grand Noto on Sources mother who could usually he found rocking in front of the domestic hearth or the newly in­ Smm rs uuIIiokhI l»y Cutlmrlno llocK'llor innludo Ku ven ted muir KtliiciiUoii," \mrrienn Journal of Education, II cookstove. ( iiiiiiiIxm -15); letters to the People on Health anil 11 cult h t raining extended into required calis­ It appinatts (Now York llurpor, 1855); Educational lietniniHOences and Sufpptstions (Now York: llurpor. thenics, which again was not a Beecher inven­ 187*1), loHlIxxiks I»\ IIoocIhm woro also ronNultod, in tion but was a standby ol women s education in olodluK Ihr \meiiran Woman's Home (Now York I'oid, I HUP) mid \ treatise on thimestir Econotnu general. Beecher had deliberately situated her (Now York; ílur|>or, 1855), Dubuque school on an embankment to assure Othoi souivoN Im ludo "Cuthurlno Hoodio».“ In the Educated W oman in Vrnor^«, r»l Huiliuru Cross (Now that all the girls began their day with a lolty Vmk rouoliois CoIIoko Pions, 10(15); Kutluyn Kish Skim. < atluirine lieeehei \ Stadt/ In /)m/if\vO

i V The Palimpsest 41 chord which must he struck in unison.” direct the female academies she had founded in Whether training her students in home eco­ the West, but as the 1850s wore on she spent nomics, English, religion, or health care, less and less time there. She was determined to Beecher was fully prepared to adopt new ap­ operate them as endowed institutions in order proaches to teaching and to modify educational to maintain their tuition rates at levels that theory to fit the needs of the practical situation. would open them to more than simply the chil­ At the time that she was developing her first dren of the wealthy. But local funds to create seminary for girls in New England, Horace the endowments often could not be found, so Mann of Massachusetts and Henry Barnard of Beecher was forced to spend more and more Connecticut were airing the pedagogical views time in the East on fund-raising expeditions. they had developed from their observations in Finally, in 1859 she returned permanently to Europe. Later, Calvin Stowe, her sister Har­ the East to retire and to regain her health, and riet’s husband, discussed his own Prussian her Dubuque school expired quietly like a views on education when the Beecher family gentle woman.” was living in Cincinnati. From them, Beecher But her impact on the West was not to be adopted the concept of the necessity of actually erased. Her principles of home economics training competent teachers, a German im­ were added to those of other pioneer women of port, and Europe’s new psychology of class­ her day, and they left their impact on many room management. In adopting the idea of in­ private academies and public schools across the structing students first in concrete and familiar country. In her retirement years, Catharine notions and later moving on to more abstract Beecher recorded her Reminiscences. In these and less familiar concepts, for example, she quotes letters from her graduates indicat­ Beecher started her geography instruction ing that the noble intentions of their head­ with the local environment and worked out­ mistress had been fulfilled. The social and ward to the area, the state, the nation, and cultural movements they became involved in ultimately the world. Another aspect of the spread far beyond their expected employment new psychology from Europe insisted that stu­ as teachers and “wives both immediate and dents should understand rather than simply enduring.’ Some led in the establishment of memorize the content of their courses. This municipal libraries, city parks, and improved novel idea she also pressed upon the teachers schools. Some raised a call for public nurses, in her school. Some of the components of and a few graduates became nurses themselves Beecher’s eastern plan for ladies’ education without further training. They demanded clean were not, however, suitable to the western and paved streets and refurbished neighbor­ frontier, so she quickly adjusted them to the hoods. As middle-class wives they stood be­ social environment that surrounded her in­ hind many community betterment projects. stitution. Wherever she taught, Beecher On the whole, they found that there was little minimized theory in favor of practical applica­ discrepancy between Catharine Beecher’s tion. principles and their application to life beyond Catharine Beecher’s guidance was needed to her schools. □