Women’s Education in the Early Nineteenth Century John Howard Preston Advises His Daughter on Reading and Study 1823

19 Century Women's Education

Manuscripts & Autographs

Preston, John Howard. Autograph letter to his daughter Sarah, November 29, 1823, records a father’s detailed expectations for his daughter’s education, including independent composition, disciplined study, reading comprehension, and instruction under a female tutor. Addressing Sarah as “My dear child,” Preston praises a letter she had sent to her brother after learning that “you had not only written it, but composed it.” His distinction between copying or assisted writing and original composition shows his attention to Sarah’s intellectual development, while his references to her “Cousin and Tutoress” identify a woman responsible for her instruction.

Preston, John Howard. November 29, 1823. Autograph letter signed, three pages, folded from a large sheet, with the fourth page retaining the original stampless address panel. Preston urges Sarah to “profit every Day by the kind and good instruction of your Cousin and Tutoress,” adding, “you must never esteem anything too difficult which you are set to do.” He places disciplined education above social rank: “If you were the King’s Daughter you would have to learn in patient submission; and how much more ready should you be to do so in your situation in Life!” Preston then addresses reading, noting that he and Sarah’s mother had “always been glad to see your fondness for reading,” but instructing her to “understand and remember what you read—as it is not the quantity of reading but duly improving it which is the thing to be desired—and that makes it of real worth.” He closes by assuring his absent daughter, “we do not forget you, but love you much tho’ you are at a distance from us.”

Written while Sarah was living away from her parents and receiving instruction from a female relative identified specifically as her tutor, the letter supplies direct evidence of one family’s expectations for a girl’s education in 1823. Preston’s comments identify composition, perseverance, comprehension, memory, and purposeful reading as measures of Sarah’s progress and show both parents taking an active interest in her studies. The surviving address panel preserves the letter’s original postal format. Usual losses where the original wax seal was opened; otherwise well preserved. An unusually detailed family letter documenting the substance of a young woman’s education through a father’s contemporary instructions to his daughter.

Item #16084

Price: $225.00