Women’s Religious Organizing in Connecticut Female Education Society of New Haven Annual Report 1818

Women's Education In 1818

Pamphlets

Education Society of Connecticut and Female Education Society of New Haven. The Second Annual Report of the Education Society of Connecticut; and of the Female Education Society of New-Haven, 1818, documents women’s organized participation in financing and supplying the education of young men preparing for the Protestant ministry in early nineteenth-century Connecticut. Despite its name, the Female Education Society did not exist to educate women: women founded the New Haven organization in 1815 to support indigent male students pursuing ministerial education, complementing the financial assistance supplied by the Education Society of Connecticut. Historical accounts record that the women’s society provided clothing for students receiving educational aid and drew support from female auxiliary organizations elsewhere in Connecticut. Its annual report therefore records an early organized avenue through which women raised money, administered charitable resources, and participated in the institutional support of higher and theological education.

Education Society of Connecticut and Female Education Society of New Haven. The Second Annual Report of the Education Society of Connecticut; and of the Female Education Society of New-Haven. New Haven: Printed by Nathan Whiting, 1818. 15 pages, 9 x 6 inches, in original paper wrappers, gently bound at the center left edge. The contents include the “Constitution of the Charitable Society of Connecticut for the Education of Indigent Pious Men for the Ministry of the Gospel,” treasury and committee reports, the constitution and report of the Female Education Society, its treasurer’s report, and an appeal “To the friends of the cause which the education societies are aiming to promote.” The stated purpose was to furnish financial assistance to “young men of piety and promising talents” preparing for religious study at Yale College. The Female Education Society supplied a parallel structure through which women contributed material and financial support; by September 1816 it reportedly counted 182 women as members and had received both money and clothing for assisted students.

The report dates from a period when voluntary religious associations were expanding the means by which students without sufficient personal resources could prepare for the ministry. The Female Education Society is particularly notable for the organizational role assumed by women: although the educational beneficiaries were men, women collected funds and clothing and established auxiliary networks in support of their schooling. The report is recorded as Shaw & Shoemaker 43583 and survives in the Early American Imprints series; current bibliographic records confirm institutional copies, but the supplied claim of only two American institutional holdings could not be independently verified and is therefore omitted. Pages browned, with small edge chips and creases, scattered foxing, and minor liquid staining not affecting the text; good condition. An early printed record of women’s voluntary association work directed toward educational and religious philanthropy in Connecticut.

Item #16201

Price: $225.00