East Tennessee Female Institute | |
---|---|
Location | |
Information | |
School type | Female seminary |
Religious affiliation(s) | Methodist Episcopal Church |
Established | May 7, 1827 |
Closed | 1911 |
The East Tennessee Female Institute was an all-female institution of higher learning that operated in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, from 1827 until 1911. Originally chartered as the Knoxville Female Academy, the school offered high school and college-level courses to the women of Knoxville and surrounding counties in the years before the University of Tennessee became coeducational. With the rise of free public education in Knoxville in the early 1900s, enrollment at the institute, which was tuition-based, gradually declined. [1]
Blount College, the forerunner of the University of Tennessee, was chartered in 1794, and was originally open to both male and female students.
By the time it was rechartered as East Tennessee College in 1807, however, it was an all-male institution, and Knoxville's leaders began making preparations to establish a school for the city's young women. The Knoxville Female Academy was chartered in 1811, but its trustees struggled for several years to raise enough money to hire faculty and rent a building in which to conduct classes. [1]
In 1826, East Tennessee College made a much-publicized move to a permanent location atop Barbara Hill, and interest in the Knoxville Female Academy was reinvigorated. In April of the following year, the Knoxville Register called on the city's leaders to revive the academy, and by the end of the month the school's trustees had hired faculty (a principal and two instructors) and had made arrangements to hold classes in the home of physician and trustee Joseph Strong. The Reverend John Davis was named the first principal, and classes began on May 7, 1827. [1]
In 1828, the school's trustees began raising funds for a permanent school building. Strong and Matthew McClung each donated their halves of the lot bounded by what is now Henley, Main, and Hill Avenue, while Charles McClung, John Crozier, and several lesser donors contributed money for the building, which was completed in 1829. After Davis resigned, Strong secured the services of Dartmouth graduate Joseph Estabrook, who led the academy until 1834 when he resigned to become president of East Tennessee College. The Knoxville Female Academy graduated its first class on September 30, 1831. [1]
In 1841, the Methodist Episcopal Church took over patronage of the academy, and the Reverend David McAnally was installed as principal. McAnally helped to greatly increase the school's collections, and the school continued to grow under his leadership.
On January 31, 1846, the Knoxville Female Academy was rechartered as the East Tennessee Female Institute, which had the power to confer degrees. Around the same time, the school's trustees began squabbling with the church's representatives, and the board voted to sever ties with the church in 1847. [1]
During the 1850s, two East Tennessee College faculty— George Cooke and R. L. Kirkpatrick— served as principals of the East Tennessee Female Institute. The latter became principal in 1856, and endeavored to keep the institute open amidst the American Civil War in the early 1860s.The Union Army closed the school in late 1863 and used the school building as a hospital. The school reopened in 1866, and operated under various superintendents until 1877, when the building was leased to Knoxville for use as a public school. [1]
In 1885, suffragist Lizzie Crozier French and her sister, Lucy, leased the building and reopened the East Tennessee Female Institute. Along with classical subjects, Crozier-French stressed public speaking, and published a text, A Manual of Elocution, for her students. During this period, the Ossoli Circle, a women's club founded by Crozier-French in 1885, held its initial meetings at the institute. The Crozier sisters operated the school until 1890, when the trustees voted to sell the property. [1]
In 1892, the East Tennessee Female Institute, which had been renamed the East Tennessee Institute and School of Music, began classes in a new building on Main Street. Under the leadership of Professor Charles Ross and a new faculty, the school's enrollment grew to over 100 by 1894. [1] William Rule's Standard History of Knoxville, published in 1900, described the school as having "large, well lighted and ventilated" rooms that were "well supplied with apparatus, books and maps for teaching languages, sciences, art and history." [2]
With the rise of free public education in Knoxville in the late 19th century, the institute had difficulty attracting students willing to pay tuition. In 1911, the school closed, and its building was leased to the University of Tennessee Home Economics Department. In 1919, the school's trustees made a deed of gift of the building to the University, which for several years used the building for its College of Law. [1]
For most of its history, the East Tennessee Female Institute offered a mix of classical studies and "ornamental" studies. During Estabrook's tenure in the 1830s, first-year students learned spelling, reading, geography, and arithmetic. These subjects were continued in the second year, with grammar and mythology added. Third-year students studied history, natural philosophy, rhetoric and botany, while senior students studied astronomy, chemistry, philosophy, and logic. Ornamental subjects included music (mainly piano), painting, drawing, lace making and sewing. After it was rechartered as the East Tennessee Female Institute in 1846, the school conferred "Mistress of Polite Literature" degrees upon its graduates. [1]
Students were required to give weekly recitations on Biblical scripture, and bi-weekly recitations on other subjects. Public examinations were given twice per year, and were often attended by members of the public and covered by the city's newspapers. [1]
Knoxville College is a historically black liberal arts college in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, which was founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church of North America. It is a United Negro College Fund member school.
The University of Tennessee System is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of two public university systems, the other being the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR). It consists of four primary campuses in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Pulaski and Martin; a health sciences campus in Memphis; a research institute in Tullahoma; and various extensions throughout the state.
John Hervey Crozier was an American attorney and politician active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, during the mid-nineteenth century. Described as "an orator of uncommon brilliancy" and "one of the brainiest men ever sent by Tennessee to congress," Crozier represented Tennessee's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1845 to 1849. While originally a member of the Whig Party, Crozier switched his allegiance to the Democratic Party in the 1850s, and supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. Crozier retired from public life after the war, and spent his remaining years engaged in scholarly pursuits.
The James Park House is a historic house located at 422 West Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. The house's foundation was built by Governor John Sevier in the 1790s, and the house itself was built by Knoxville merchant and mayor, James Park (1770–1853), in 1812, making it the second-oldest building in Downtown Knoxville after Blount Mansion. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and currently serves as the headquarters for the Gulf and Ohio Railways.
The National Conservation Exposition was an exposition held in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, between September 1, 1913, and November 1, 1913. The exposition celebrated the cause of bringing national attention to conservation activities, especially in the Southeastern United States. The fair was held in what is now Knoxville's Chilhowee Park in East Knoxville.
The Alpine Institute was a Presbyterian mission school located in Overton County, Tennessee, United States. Operating in one form or another from 1821 until 1947, the school provided badly needed educational services to children living in the remote hill country of the Upper Cumberland region. In 2002, several of the school's surviving structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district.
Margaret Elizabeth Crozier French was an American educator, women's suffragist and social reform activist. She was one of the primary leaders in the push for women's rights in Tennessee in the early 1900s, and helped the state become the 36th state to certify the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women the right to vote, in 1920. She also founded the Ossoli Circle, the oldest federated women's club in the South, and led efforts to bring coeducation to the University of Tennessee.
Charles McClung McGhee was an American industrialist and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee. As director of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway (ETV&G), McGhee was responsible for much of the railroad construction that took place in East Tennessee in the 1870s and 1880s. His position with the railroad also gave him access to northern capital markets, which he used to help finance dozens of companies in and around Knoxville. In 1885, he established the Lawson McGhee Library, which was the basis of Knox County's public library system.
Enoch Lloyd Branson (1853–1925) was an American artist best known for his portraits of Southern politicians and depictions of early East Tennessee history. One of the most influential figures in Knoxville's early art circles, Branson received training at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s and subsequently toured the great art centers of Europe. After returning to Knoxville, he operated a portrait shop with photographer Frank McCrary. He was a mentor to fellow Knoxville artist Catherine Wiley, and is credited with discovering twentieth-century modernist Beauford Delaney.
Charles McClung was an American pioneer, politician, and surveyor best known for drawing up the original plat of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1791. While Knoxville has since expanded to many times its original size, the city's downtown area still roughly follows McClung's 1791 grid. McClung also helped draft Tennessee's constitution in 1796, surveyed and planned what is now Kingston Pike in 1792, and served as Knox County's first court clerk. His home, Statesview, still stands in West Knoxville and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Samuel Czar Carrick was an American Presbyterian minister who was the first president of Blount College, the educational institution to which the University of Tennessee traces its origin.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, it is the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee system, with ten undergraduate colleges and eleven graduate colleges. It hosts more than 30,000 students from all 50 states and more than 100 foreign countries. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
Thomas William Humes was an American clergyman and educator, active in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the latter half of the 19th century. Elected rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in 1846, Humes led the church until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he was forced to resign due to his Union sentiments. He was named president of East Tennessee University in 1865, and during his tenure, he led the school's expansion and transition into the University of Tennessee. Humes later served as the first librarian of the Lawson McGhee Library, and published a book about East Tennessee's Unionists entitled, The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee.
Boscobel College for Young Ladies was a college in Nashville, founded in 1889 as the Nashville Baptist Female College by the Tennessee Baptist Convention. The college operated for twenty-five years — until 1916. One of its founding objectives was to provide the lowest possible cost for higher-education of young women.
The Baumann family was a family of American architects who practiced in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the surrounding region, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It included Joseph F. Baumann (1844–1920), his brother, Albert B. Baumann, Sr. (1861–1942), and Albert's son, Albert B. Baumann, Jr. (1897–1952). Buildings designed by the Baumanns include the Mall Building (1875), the Church of the Immaculate Conception (1886), Minvilla (1913), the Andrew Johnson Building (1930), and the Knoxville Post Office (1934).
The History of Knoxville, Tennessee, began with the establishment of James White's Fort on the Trans-Appalachian frontier in 1786. The fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790, and the city, named for Secretary of War Henry Knox, was platted the following year. Knoxville became the first capital of the State of Tennessee in 1796, and grew steadily during the early 19th century as a way station for westward-bound migrants and as a commercial center for nearby mountain communities. The arrival of the railroad in the 1850s led to a boom in the city's population and commercial activity.
Mary Boyce Temple was an American philanthropist and socialite, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the first president of the Ossoli Circle, the oldest federated women's club in the South, and published a biography of the club's namesake, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, in 1886. She also cofounded the Tennessee Woman's Press and Author's Club, the Knoxville Writer's Club, and the Knox County chapter of the League of Women Voters. She represented Tennessee at various international events, including the Paris Exposition of 1900 and at the dedication of the Panama Canal in 1903.
The Ossoli Circle is a women's club located in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1885 as a literary society, the club is a charter member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and the first federated women's club in the South. Ossoli has long played an active role in obtaining economic and educational opportunities for women in Tennessee, and its members campaigned for the passage of the 19th Amendment in the early 1900s. The club currently sponsors over two dozen projects and organizations.
Adelia Armstrong Lutz was an American artist active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She organized art circles in Knoxville, Tennessee, as director of the Knoxville Art Club and as a co-organizer of the Nicholson Art League. Her still lifes and portraits were exhibited throughout the American South, and they are to be the subject of a permanent exhibit at her former home, Historic Westwood.
Bolivar College was a private preparatory school and college in Madisonville, Tennessee. It was established by Rev. Creed Fulton, a founder of Emory and Henry College in Virginia. It opened in 1825 as the Bolivar Acadmy and became a college in the 1890s. It closed in December 1907.