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Show SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, MARRIOTT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY involvement in the kindergarten movement in Utah when women members requested that the Woman’s Executive Board of Home Missions in New York City send a kindergarten teacher to Salt Lake City. The first kindergarten opened under the direction of Elizabeth Dickey in the basement of the Colleg iate Institute. The kindergarten consisted of two grades: one with morning sessions for the youngest children between ages two and four, and the other with afternoon sessions for five year old children that served as a preparatory class for lower school grades.11 Elizabeth Dickey conducted kindergarten training programs in both Salt Lake Augusta W. Grant. City and in the Westminster Presbyterian congregation. 12 To promote kindergarten education, Dickey organized classes for mothers where she demonstrated kindergarten methods and drew attention to the importance of proper education for children. In 1887, after four years, Dickey’s health began to deteriorate and she resigned, resulting in the closure of the kindergarten in the Presbyterian Church. Five years later, Bessie Goodrich, another welleducated kindergarten teacher, arrived in Salt Lake City at the invitation of Mary Millspaugh, the wife of the principal of the Collegiate Institute. Health problems hindered Goodrich’s work as a teacher until she left Utah in 1894. Following the Presbyterian Church’s pattern, other denominations also tried to establish kindergartens. Because of the fundraising and charitable activities of women, free kindergartens were offered for short periods of time, but, for the most part, they remained private institutions with regular tuition charged. For example, the Episcopal Church opened a private kindergarten in Rowland Hall with the help of Bertha Robinson Harmes in 1892.13 A year later, the Episcopal Church opened a free kindergarten under the direction of Helen H. Durant, a graduate of California Kindergarten Training School. However, it lasted only for a year.14 With the arrival of Alice Chapin, a well-educated kindergarten teacher and trainer from Boston Kindergarten Training School, kindergarten training 11 Salt Lake Collegiate Institute Catalogue, 1886-1887. Archives, Giovale Library, Westminster College. “Reminiscences of the Beginning of Kindergartens in Salt Lake City,” 3. 13 Rowland Hall was a combined elementary and high school institution for girls only, which was run by the Episcopal Church. Making an exception for the kindergarten department, they accepted boys as well. “Rowland Hall A Home School for Girls, Salt Lake City. 1892-93,” Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s School Records, 1883-1955. Utah State Historical Society. For a more detailed description of this school, see: Mary R. Clark, ”Rowland Hall-St Mark’s School: Alternative Education for More than a Century,” Utah Historical Quarterly 48 (Summer 1980): 271-92. 14 Salt Lake Tribune, December 23, 1893. 12 136 |
