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The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2012 The Invisible Woman and the Silent University Elizabeth Robinson Cole University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Administration Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, History of Gender Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons, United States History Commons, and the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Cole, Elizabeth Robinson, "The Invisible Woman and the Silent University" (2012). Dissertations. 538. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/538 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AND THE SILENT UNIVERSITY by Elizabeth Robinson Cole Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2012 ABSTRACT THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AND THE SILENT UNIVERSITY by Elizabeth Robinson Cole May 2012 Anna Eliot Ticknor (1823 – 1896) founded the first correspondence school in the United States, the Society to Encourage Studies at Home. In the fall of 1873 an educational movement was quietly initiated from her home in Boston, Massachusetts. A politically and socially sophisticated leader, she recognized the need that women felt for continuing education and understood how to offer the opportunity within the parameters afforded women of nineteenth century America. With a carefully chosen group of women and one man, Ticknor built a learning society that extended advanced educational opportunities to all women regardless of financial ability, educational background, race, geographical location, or physical ability. Through concerted effort she kept the Society and its works as quiet as she could, an invisible woman leading a “Silent University.” The silence in which Ticknor sought to cloak her Society still overshadows its work today. Ticknor’s influence spread far and wide in the educational developments of the nineteenth century and today, quite unknowingly, the field of adult education reaps the benefits of her innovations. It is rather unfortunate that educational history, particularly adult education history, has left virtually unacknowledged the rich legacy that resulted from the work of Ticknor and her beloved Society. Careful analysis of the Society’s documents and an examination of the social, historical, and political context in which it was situated reveal a vibrant, volunteer-led organization which initiated the development of correspondence ii education in the United States, furthered the advanced education of women, and inspired one of the greatest movements in adult education history, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC). Left out of the literature of adult education history is the link between John Heyl Vincent, Chautauqua cofounder, and Anna Eliot Ticknor. Historical documents of the Society and writings of those closest to Vincent provide evidence to support that it was Ticknor’s vision of correspondence education which gave birth to the CLSC. Anna Eliot Ticknor and the Society to Encourage Studies at Home have never been credited neither by Vincent nor by the field of adult education for their innovations and inspiration that changed American education. iii COPYRIGHT BY ELIZABETH ROBINSON COLE 2012 The University of Southern Mississippi THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AND THE SILENT UNIVERSITY by Elizabeth Robinson Cole A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: _John R. Rachal__ _____________________ Director _Thomas V. O’Brien ___________________ _Lilian Hill ___________________________ _Thomas Lipscomb ____________________ _Susan A. Siltanen _____________________ Dean of the Graduate School May 2012 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to thank Dr. John Rachal, advisor, mentor, and chair, for his inspiration and guidance for this project. Without his support and advice this project would never have taken flight. The author also wishes to thank the other members of the committee, Dr. Lilian Hill, Dr. Thomas O’Brien, and Dr. Thomas Lipscomb. Your time and advice were invaluable. The author would also like to thank the archives and their staffs who provided access to the materials critical to this project. First, I cannot express enough appreciation for the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the Boston Public Library. Sean Casey and the rest of the staff spent an extraordinary amount of time aiding the search and pulling every item wished to be seen, regardless of how difficult it was to find. They also took the time to teach a novice historical researcher the techniques of the craft. Their work is greatly appreciated. Second, the Oliver Archives Center of the Chautauqua Institute is a wonderful place to conduct research. The staff is tremendously knowledgeable and wonderfully helpful. Many thanks to Archivist Jon Schmitz and his staff. Of course, I must thank my family. They have been my cheerleaders, my big shoulders, and my motivation to complete the project. Thank you to my husband Jim who has been extremely patient while I have been in school and often stressed beyond comprehension, as well as my travel companion while I traipsed about the country to dig through archives. Thank you to my daughter Lora who at age six has been most understanding when Mommy had to work on her “disserpation.” Thank you to my v parents and siblings who have always believed in me. Thanks also to the women of my family who have paved the road for me to be a first, the first woman in my family to earn a doctoral degree. To my grandmother Maxine Combs who was the first woman in our family to attend college. To my grandmother Wilma Robinson who was the first woman in the family to earn a professional licensure. To my mother Ann Combs Robinson who was the first woman in the family to earn a college degree. To my sister Jane Robinson who was the first woman to earn a graduate degree. Thanks for showing me the way. Thanks be to God for surrounding me with love and support. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v PREFACE ........................................................................................................................ viii CHAPTER I. ANNA TICKNOR: PREPARATION FOR A LIFE AS AN EDUCATIONAL INNOVATOR ..................................................................... 1 II. SOCIOHISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF NINETEENTH CENTURY WOMEN’S EDUCATION IN AMERICA ................................................... 24 III. THE FOUNDING OF THE SOCIETY TO ENCOURAGE STUDIES AT HOME ................................................................................................................. 49 IV. THE EXPERIMENTAL YEARS OF THE SOCIETY TO ENCOURAGE STUDIES AT HOME 1873 – 1875 ................................................................ 72 V. THE GROWING YEARS 1875 – 1882 ....................................................... 109 VI. THE “WANING” YEARS 1882 – 1896 ...................................................... 150 VII. THE SOCIETY’S FINAL TERM AND THE ANNA TICKNOR LIBRARY ASSOCIATION .......................................................................... 179 VIII. THE INSPIRATION FOR A NATIONAL MOVEMENT AND THE INFLUENCE UPON THE FIELD ADULT EDUCATION .................... 211 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................236 vii PREFACE Research is endlessly seductive; writing is hard work. –Barbara Tuchman, Practicing History Historical researcher Barbara Tuchman wrote her comment regarding the seductiveness of historical research more than twenty years ago. This researcher can attest to the fact that the process of researching is as seductive as she suggests and even more so today with changes brought about by advancements in technology. During this project the researcher has learned to apply technology to recording historical documents and has learned the art of the search using technology to find historical documents. The Boston Public Library was gracious enough to allow me to digitally photograph and scan all documents that related to the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, the Anna Ticknor Library Association, and the Ticknor family. A digital camera, portable scanner, and laptop were used to create more than 1,000 images of these necessary documents to use in the development of this project. Digitization allowed for much more substantial as well as convenient study of these documents. Many archives are moving towards this process of digitizing historical documents. This preserves delicate documents while making more readily available these materials for research. The archives of the Chautauqua Institute is currently engaging in such a project, providing a searchable database of many of
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