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SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, MARRIOTT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH KINDERGARTEN MOVEMENT association.49 Presbyterian Emma J. McVicker Students and teachers sitting in a was appointed treasurer while Anna K. Craig, school gymnasium. Alice Chapin, Elizabeth H. Parsons, and William Stewart were among the Association’s members.50 The establishment of kindergarten classes at the University of Utah was a welcome expansion for the university and boon to the kindergarten movement. In his report for 1896, University President James E. Talmage wrote that: “The addition of a well equipped Kindergarten department is rendered necessary by the growing importance of this part of the teacher’s labor. The Kindergarten is recognized in the Constitution of the State as an integral part of the public school system; and already many petitions have been presented asking that kindergarten training classes be established in connection with the normal School.”51 His comments, together with the Association’s efforts, resulted in a grant of thirty-five hundred dollars to the kindergarten department at the University of Utah for two years in a row.52 The funding made possible two free kindergartens and a popular mother’s 49 Augusta W. Grant began her teaching career when she was thirteen as a teacher assistant in her mother’s school. Later she became the principal. She graduated from the University of Utah’s teacher training course. She continued to teach until her marriage to Heber J. Grant, who later became president of the LDS church. She participated in other women activities and she was also a delegate to the Mother’s Congress held in Washington D.C. in 1898. Emerson Roy West, Latter-Day Prophets: Their Lives, Teachings, and Testimonies with Profiles of Their Wives. (American Fork: Covenant Communication Inc, 1997), 123. 50 “History of Utah State Kindergarten Association,” Anne Marie Fox Felt papers, box 1, folder 7, p. 3. 51 Reports of the Board of Regents and of the President, for the Year 1896. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Company, 1897), 24. 52 The kindergarten training commenced at the University of Utah in 1888. William M. Stewart, the previous Nineteenth Ward District school principal, became the head of the normal (teacher training) department at the university in 1888. He invited Anna Elizabeth Richards Jones to teach in the department. The training was terminated after a year and did not resume until 1897. “Anna Elizabeth Richardson Jones As a Teacher,” Anne Marie Fox Felt papers, box 2, fd. 7. 145