Harrison, Elizabeth

Title

Harrison, Elizabeth

Full Name

Harrison, Elizabeth (1849 - 1927)

Lifespan

September 1, 1849 – October 31, 1927

Place of origin

Athens, Kentucky

Country of origin

United States of America

Language

English

Occupation

Educator

Children author

Essayist

Short biography

Elizabeth Harrison was born in Athens, Kentucky, the fourth child of Elizabeth Thompson Bullock and Isaac Webb Harrison. According to the 1850 census, Isaac Harrison was a merchant there.

The family moved to Midway, Kentucky, then to Davenport, Iowa, where by 1870 he was described in the census as a land agent. Elizabeth Harrison was invited to Chicago in 1879 by her friend Mrs. W.O. Richardson to pursue a career in education.

After encountering the early kindergarten movement in Chicago and studying with early kindergarten educator Alice Putnam, Harrison sought further training in St. Louis and New York. She then taught kindergarten in Iowa and Chicago. Involving mothers in education, Harrison and Putnam founded the Chicago Kindergarten Club in 1883, influenced by the book Mothers at Play by Friedrich Fröbel. In 1886, Harrison founded a training school for kindergarten teachers in Chicago. Intrigued by the ideas used by a German woman working at her school, Harrison decided to find out more. She tracked these ideas back to the Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus in Berlin and in 1889 she traveled there to study. On her return she renamed her institution the Chicago Kindergarten Training College.

Harrison's school became an innovative college of education. She was president of the college, expanded to the National Kindergarten and Elementary College, until her retirement in 1920. It is now part of National Louis University. In 1903 Harrison co-wrote “The Kindergarten Building Gifts” with Belle Woodson, Instructor in Gifts and Occupations of the Chicago Kindergarten College. During her career, Harrison wrote a number of books, including: “A Study of Child Nature” (1890 – which saw 50 editions published in the following years), “In Storyland“(1895), “Some Silent Teachers” (1903), “Misunderstood Children” (1908), “Montessori and the Kindergarten” (1913) and “The Unseen Side of Child Life” (1922). In 1893, the college published Harrison's book, “The Kindergarten as an Influence in Modern Civilization”, in which she explained, "how to teach the child from the beginning of his existence that all things are connected [and] how to lead him to this vital truth from his own observation”.

Harrison's autobiography, “Sketches Along Life's Road”, was edited and published in Boston in 1930, after her death.

Letter from Susan Blow to Elizabeth Harrison congratulating Harrison on the growth of Kindergarten programs in St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago, IL.

Selected List of Publications

The vision of Dante; a story for little children and a talk to their mothers. Illustrated by Walter Crane

Relation

Blow, Susan Elizabeth

Link to external sources

Elizabeth Harrison - Wikipedia