Florence Holbrook

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Florence Holbrook
A middle-aged white woman with hair in a bouffant style
Florence Holbrook, from a 1921 newspaper
BornMay 30, 1860
Peru, Illinois
DiedSeptember 28, 1932
Chicago
Occupation(s)Writer, educator, peace and suffrage activist

Florence Holbrook (May 30, 1860 – September 28, 1932) was an American writer, educator, suffragist, and peace activist. She taught in the Chicago schools for over fifty years, and was an American delegate to the International Congress of Women in 1915, at the Hague, and in 1919, in Zürich. She was also aboard the Peace Ship with Rosika Schwimmer, and part of John Dewey's commission to study Soviet education in 1929.

Early life and education[edit]

Holbrook was born in Peru, Illinois and raised in Joliet, the daughter of Edmund S. Holbrook and Anne Case Holbrook. Her father was a judge and an abolitionist.[1] She earned a bachelor's degree in 1879 and a master's degree in 1885, from the University of Chicago (then known as Chicago University).[2]

Career[edit]

Education[edit]

Holbrook worked in the Chicago public schools for over fifty years, as a high school teacher of Greek and Latin, and later as a school principal.[3][4] She was known for promoting arts in the schools, and leading student trips to the Art Institute of Chicago.[5] She was president of the Chicago chapter of the Illinois State Teachers' Association.[2] In 1908 she traveled in Europe and Great Britain studying schools, especially student-produced music and crafts.[1] Her work gained particular national attention when her elementary-age students performed in a production of John Milton's masque Comus, an unusual and challenging text for schoolchildren.[6] In 1929, she accompanied John Dewey to study education in the Soviet Union. She retired from teaching in 1929.[7]

Peace[edit]

"Florence Holbrook is a woman who is not interested in educational work alone," commented a 1895 newspaper article; "she is strong enough to be interested in all that affects humanity."[8] She was a member of the Chicago Peace Society, Chicago Political Equity League. She was a member of the American delegation to the International Congress of Women at The Hague in 1915, and in 1916 she joined the Peace Ship Expedition led by Rosika Schwimmer, and she managed Schwimmer's American lecture tour.[2] In 1919, she was again a delegate to the International Congress of Women, when it met in Zürich.[7]

Publications[edit]

Holbrook wrote books for classroom use, often about mythology and folklore subjects.[2] "Holbrook has a theory that if children hear the best of literature from the beginning of their education they will never wish for any other," explained a 1895 newspaper profile.[8]

  • 'Round the Year in Myth and Song (1897)[9]
  • The Hiawatha Primer (1898)[10]
  • From Many Lands: A Third Reader (1901, with Mary Frances Hall)[11]
  • Elementary Geography (1901)[12]
  • The Book of Nature Myths (1902)[13]
  • Northland Heroes (1909)[14]
  • Hiawatha Alphabet (1910, illustrated by H. D. Pohl)[15]
  • Cave, Mound, and Lake Dwellers (1911)[16]
  • Dramatic Reader for Lower Grades (1911)[17]
  • "To the Teachers of All the World" (1915, with Kate Blake and Grace deGraff)[18]
  • Every-day Speller (1917, with M. V. O'Shea and William Adalbert Cook)[19]
  • "The Teacher" (1924)[20]

Personal life[edit]

Holbrook died in 1932, at the age of 72.[7] There are photos of Holbrook in the Schwimmer-Lloyd Collection, and a box of Holbrook's scrapbooks, at the New York Public Library.[2][21] Her books, all of them now in the public domain, are still reprinted and sold. In 1983, columnist James J. Kilpatrick wrote about Holbrook's work as a principal.[22]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Tells of Old World Schools; One-Time Joliet Girl Interviewed". Herald News. 1908-11-13. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Florence Holbrook scrapbooks". New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  3. ^ "Florence Holbrook (1860-1932)". Jane Addams Digital Edition. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  4. ^ "Honors for Miss Florence Holbrook". Chicago Tribune. 1914-06-22. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Clark, Grace R. (1925). "Florence Holbrook". The Journal of Education. 101 (22 (2532)): 616. doi:10.1177/002205742510102211. ISSN 0022-0574. JSTOR 42833808. S2CID 220783519.
  6. ^ "In Literature and Language". The Journal of Education. 68 (1 (1686)): 16–24. 1908. doi:10.1177/002205740806800109. ISSN 0022-0574. JSTOR 42877510. S2CID 63930433.
  7. ^ a b c "Woman Educator and Pacifist Dead; Miss Florence Holbrook, 72, Internationally Known". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1932-09-30. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b "Over a Thousand Pupils; Rapid Growth of the Forestville School in Recent Years". The Chicago Chronicle. 1895-12-01. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Holbrook, Florence (1897). "'Round the Year in Myth and Song". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  10. ^ Holbrook, Florence; Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1898). The Hiawatha primer. University of California Libraries. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
  11. ^ Florence Holbrook, Mary Frances Hall (1901). From Many Lands: A Third Reader. Harvard University. Globe School Book Co.
  12. ^ Holbrook, Florence (1901). Elementary geography. Rand-McNally elementary geography. Chicago ; New York: Rand, McNally & Co.
  13. ^ Holbrook, Florence (1902). "The Book Of Nature Myths". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  14. ^ Holbrook, Florence (1909). "Northland Heroes". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  15. ^ Holbrook, Florence; Pohl, H. D. (1910). Hiawatha alphabet. Chicago: Rand McNally.
  16. ^ Holbrook, Florence (1911). Cave, mound, and lake dwellers, and other primitive people. Boston, New York etc.: D. C. Heath & company.
  17. ^ Holbrook, Florence (1911). "Dramatic Reader For Lower Grades". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  18. ^ Williams, J. S. (26 August 2019). "Florence Holbrook". Women In Peace. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  19. ^ O'Shea, M. V.; Cook, William Adelbert; Holbrook, Florence (1917). Every-day speller. First-[fourth] book. Every day speller. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co.
  20. ^ Holbrook, Florence (July 1924). "The Teacher". Journal of Education. 100 (2): 44. doi:10.1177/002205742410000212. ISSN 0022-0574. S2CID 220824319.
  21. ^ "Schwimmer-Lloyd collection". NYPL Digital Collections. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  22. ^ Kilpatrick, James J. (1983-07-05). "Florence Holbrook, Prin.; Feared and Loved". The Baltimore Sun. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.

External links[edit]

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