“Address on Female Education” 1827 Hartford Female Seminary Collection

Catharine Beecher Hartford Female Seminary

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Catharine Beecher. Hartford Female Seminary, Connecticut, collection of 4 items that includes Important Pamphlet “Address on Female Education” 1827. Original pamphlet address given at the opening of Hartford Female Seminary in 1827. Accompanied by 3 Hartford catalogues of the mid-19thcentury, all of which are the only recorded copy, and a reunion program of 1892 as per OCLC Worldcat. “An Address on Female Education, Delivered, No. 21st, 1827, at the opening of the edifice erected for the accommodation of the Hartford Female Seminary.” By T.H. Gallaudet, Principal of the American Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. Published Hartford, H. & F.J. Huntington, 1828. An important and very early address, upon opening of the prestigious institution founded by Catharine Beecher, sister to abolitionist writer Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800 – 1878) was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on female education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education. She founded Hartford Female Seminary in 1823, writing many of the textbooks herself, and using the campus as a laboratory for her theories on education. After her unsuccessful mass protest (the first organized by a woman in our nation’s history) to prevent passage of the Indian Removal Bill in 1832, Beecher took to the West where she founded schools across the frontier. Each catalogue here includes a basic statement of the school’s mission, a description of the courses of study offered, and listing of all current students and the year’s graduates. Unlike some other early female educators, Beecher focused her attention on the earliest stages of education, such that her pupils received the rudiments which would allow them to pursue higher education later on. From one of the catalogues included here, “These are so arranged that a child may obtain her first school instruction here, and advance by a gradual and judicious training, until she has received as high culture as perhaps any system can impart,”

Even at the young age of 23, Beecher and her sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, were already known as outspoken activists, and the new school was haled with much “hope that this enlightened attempt to do justice to the female mind, will be so conducted as to refute the current vague assertions…” From a contemporary review of the pamphlet address included here, “The institution, at the opening of which this address was spoken, is a liberal enterprise for female education, on a scale seldom if ever attempted hitherto, in this country. It offers to young women a pretty fair opportunity of keeping pace, in some measure, with those of the other sex, who enjoy the advantages of a classical education.” External paper cover removed, but title page present. Foxed, but otherwise in very good, readable condition. The three catalogues of the school are dated for the academic years of 1865-1866, 1876-1877, and 1877-1878, and by an OCLC Worldcat search made February 2021, none have recorded copies with any institutional collection worldwide. The reunion program of 1892 has a single recorded copy with the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society. All three catalogues and program are in very good condition with all pages and covers present and only the most minor of scuffing and toning externally. An important speech accompanied by 3 very rare catalogues and program, from one of America’s most legendary female activists.

Item #16979

Price: $550.00