Famous Givers and Their Gifts. Bolton Sarah Knowles
the hope to make the men and the public life of the periods more clear and real." These leaflets are very valuable, the subjects being, "The Voyages to Vinland, from the Saga of Eric the Red," "Marco Polo's Account of Japan and Java," "The Death of De Soto from the Narrative of a Gentleman of Elvas," etc. They are furnished to the schools at the bare cost of paper and printing. Mr. Mead, the scholarly author, and editor of the New England Magazine, has been untiring in the Old South work, and has been the means of several other cities adopting like methods for the study of early history, especially by young people.
Every year since 1881 four prizes, two of forty dollars, and two of twenty-five dollars each, have been offered to high school pupils soon to graduate, and also to those recently graduated, for the best essays on assigned topics of American history. Those who compete and do not win a prize receive a present of valuable books in recognition of their effort. From the first, Mrs. Hemenway was the enthusiastic friend and promoter of the Old South work. She spent five thousand a year, for many years, in carrying it forward, and left provision for its continuation at her death. It is not too much to say that these free lectures have stimulated the study of our early history all over the country, and made us more earnest lovers of our flag and of our nation. The world has little respect for a "man without a country."
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
'This is my own, my native land!'
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?"
Mrs. Hemenway did not cease her good work with her free lectures for young people. It is scarcely easier to stop in an upward career than in a downward. When the heart and hand are once opened to the world's needs, they can nevermore be closed.
Mrs. Hemenway, practical with all her wealth, believed that everybody should know how to work, and thus not only be placed above want, but dignify labor. She said, "In my youth, girls in the best families were accustomed to participate in many of the household affairs. Some occasionally assisted in other homes. As for myself, I read not many books. They were not so numerous as now. I was reared principally on household duties, the Bible, and Shakespeare."
Mrs. Hemenway began by establishing kitchen gardens in Boston, opened on Saturdays. I remember going to one of them at the North End, in 1881, through the invitation of Mrs. Hemenway's able assistant, Miss Amy Morris Homans. In a large, plain room of the "Mission" I found twenty-four bright little girls seated at two long tables. They were eager, interesting children, but most had on torn and soiled dresses and poor shoes.
In front of each stood a tiny box, used as a table, on which were four plates, each a little over an inch wide; four knives, each three inches long, and forks to correspond; goblets, and cups and saucers of the same diminutive sizes.
At a signal from the piano, the girls began to set the little tables properly. First the knives and forks were put in their places, then the very small napkins, and then the goblets. In front of the "lady of the house" were set the cups and saucers, spoon-holder, water-pitcher, and coffee-pot.
Then they listened to a useful and pleasant talk from the leader; and when the order was given to clear the tables, twenty-four pairs of little hands put the pewter dishes, made to imitate silver, into a pitcher, and the other things into dishpans, about four or five inches wide, singing a song to the music of the piano as they washed the dishes. These children also learned to sweep and dust, make beds, and perform other household duties. Each pupil was given a complete set of new clothes by Mrs. Hemenway.
Many persons had petitioned to have sewing taught in the public schools of Boston, as in London; but there was opposition, and but little was accomplished. Mrs. Hemenway started sewing-schools, obtained capable teachers, and in time sewing became a regular part of the public-school work, with a department of sewing in the Boston Normal School; so that hereafter the teacher will be as able in her department as another in mathematics. Drafting, cutting, and fitting have been added in many schools, so that thousands of women will be able to save expense in their homes through the skill of their own hands.
Mrs. Hemenway knew that in many homes food is poorly cooked, and health is thereby impaired. Mr. Henry C. Hardon of Boston tells of this conversation between two teachers: "Name some one thing that would enable your boys to achieve more, and build up the school." – "A plate of good soup and a thick slice of bread after recess," was the reply. "I could get twice the work before twelve. They want new blood."
Mrs. Hemenway started cooking-schools in Boston, which she called school kitchens; and when it was found to be difficult to secure suitable teachers, she established and supported a normal school of cooking. Boston, seeing the need of proper teachers in its future work in the schools, has provided a department of cooking in the city Normal School.
Mrs. Hemenway believed in strong bodies, aided to become such by physical training. She offered to the School Committee of Boston to provide for the instruction of a hundred teachers in the Swedish system, on condition that they be allowed to use the exercises in their classes in case they chose to do so. The result proved successful, and now over sixty thousand in the public schools take the Swedish exercises daily.
Mrs. Hemenway established the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, from which teachers have gone to Radcliffe College, Cambridge; Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; Denver, Colorado; Drexel Institute, Philadelphia; their average salary being slightly less than one thousand dollars, the highest salary reaching eighteen hundred dollars. Boston has now made the teaching of gymnastics a part of its normal-school work, so that every graduate goes out prepared to direct the work in the school. Mrs. Hemenway gave generously to aid the Boston Teachers' Mutual Benefit Association; for she said, "Nothing is too good for the Boston teachers." She was a busy woman, with no time for fashionable life, though she welcomed to her elegant home all who had any helpful work to do in the world. She used her wealth and her social position to help humanity. She died leaving her impress on a great city and State, and through that upon the nation.
New York State and City are now carrying out an admirable plan of free lectures for the people. The State appropriates twenty-five thousand dollars annually that free lectures may be given "in natural history, geography, and kindred subjects by means of pictorial representation and lectures, to the free common schools of each city and village of the State that has, or may have, a superintendent of free common schools." These illustrated lectures may also be given "to artisans, mechanics, and other citizens."
This has grown largely out of the excellent work done by Professor Albert S. Bickmore of the American Museum of Natural History, Eighth Avenue and Seventy-seventh Street, Central Park, New York. In 1869, when the Museum was founded, the teachers of the public schools were required to give object-lessons on animals, plants, human anatomy, and physiology, and came to the Museum to the curator of the department of ethnology, Professor Bickmore, for assistance. His lectures, given on Saturday forenoons, illustrated by the stereopticon, were upon the body, – the muscular system, nervous system, etc.; the mineral kingdom, – granite, marble, coal, petroleum, iron, etc.; the vegetable kingdom, – evergreens, oaks, elms, etc.; the animal kingdom, – the sea, corals, oysters, butterflies, bees, ants, etc.; physical geography, – the Mississippi Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Mexico, Egypt, Greece, Italy, West Indies, etc.; zoölogy, – fishes, reptiles, and birds, the whale, dogs, seals, lions, monkeys, etc.
These lectures became so popular and helpful that the trustees of the Museum hired Chickering Hall for some of the courses, which were attended by over thirteen hundred teachers each week. Professor Bickmore also gives free illustrated lectures to the people on the afternoons of legal holidays at the Museum, under the auspices of the State Department of Public Instruction.
New York State has done a thing which might well be copied in other States. Each normal school of the State, and each city and village superintendent of schools, may be provided with a stereopticon, all needed lantern slides, and the printed lectures of Professor Bickmore, for use before the schools. In this way children have object-lessons which they never forget.
The Museum, in co-operation with the Board of Education of the city of New York, is providing free lectures