“She Pursued Her Life-Work”: The Life Lessons of American Women Educators, 1800–1860

Abstract

In 1855, Catharine Badger published a tribute to Martha Whiting, principal of the Charlestown Female Seminary in Massachusetts. Badger believed that it was “the path of duty” to tell Whiting’s life story, so that her students and friends might “receive one more lesson as from her.” This chapter focuses on the careers of women educators such as Martha Whiting, Martha Hazeltine Smith, Abigail Hasseltine, and Anna Sill, in order to examine the changing educational landscape in nineteenth-century America. Although these women have been largely forgotten today, they were celebrated within their own era for their pioneering educational work. Significantly, they were all the subjects of published memoirs and praised for “the energy, enthusiasm, and hearty purpose, with which she pursued her life-work.” Their life lessons remain historically significant not only because of their individual achievements, but because their contemporaries expressed such deep interest in their stories. This chapter explores how these women squared the unconventional nature of their career ambitions with dominant prescriptions of “true womanhood.” Through their roles as principals and educators at female seminaries, these women helped implement large-scale institutional changes, while forging new models of womanhood that celebrate female usefulness and accomplishment.