LETTER: ALS to Mr. E.B. Wilson regarding Kindergarten and Froebel.
On Kindergartens
Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. Autograph letter signed to E.B. Wilson; n.d. (ca. 1884-1885).
Half-leaf of cream-colored paper; folded to make 4 pages; written on pages 1, 3 and 4; page 2 blank.
Peabody writes to Wilson regarding the establishment of a new kindergarten in Salem, Massachusetts. She expresses surprise that, since Wilson’s niece was a kindergarten teacher in Cambridge, he was unaware of the benefits of a “Froebel Education,” the system of educating based on the work of Frederich Froebel. Peabody goes on to say that she’ll send a young woman trained in Froebel’s principles to assist Wilson, and that she’ll have tracts sent to Wilson, to have on hand to distribute to parents. The letter reads in full:
Dear Mr. Wilson,
As one of the best of all kindergartens, Miss Wilson of Concord Avenue in Cambridge is your cousin – I take for granted you know the value of Froebel Education & must desire to have it in Salem. So I send you a young lady who has had extra advantages of training – scientific, aesthetic & practical who would like to keep a kindergarten in Salem – either a charity one or a private one for pay – and will you advise her. It is a good thing to have some explanatory tracts which I can send you to show parents. For ten cents E. Steiger 25 Park Place New York will send a set of more than a dozen short tracts, post paid, each one of which defines some important point in this system. I also can send you two pamphlets, one on Education kindergartens in relation to schools & one on kindergartens in relation to Family Life by the celebrated Miss Shirreff of London who is President of the Froebel Society there.
With warm wishes to Mrs. Cole I am Yours
Elizabeth Peabody
54 Bowdoin Street
Boston
Peabody made a slight error; “Miss Wilson” was Wilson’s niece, not cousin. Steiger was a publisher who published Froebel pamphlets, as well as an educational book by Peabody and her sister, Mary Mann, titled, Guide to the Kindergarten and Intermediate Class (1877).
Frederich Froebel devoted his work to developing a curriculum for preschool age children; he is responsible for founding the first kindergartens. In 1837 he founded a “care, playing and activity” institute for small children; by 1840 he began using the term “kindergarten” to describe the institute. Many of Froebel’s concepts still exist today; like the importance of “educational play,” “free work” and games to assist learning. The first formally structured American kindergarten, based on Froebel’s model, was founded in Boston in 1860.
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