National School of Elocution and Oratory | |
---|---|
Location | |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | |
Information | |
Other name | Shoemaker School of Speech and Drama |
Type | college |
Established | 1873 |
Founders | Jacob and Rachel H. Shoemaker |
Closed | late 1930s |
Principal | Dora Adele Shoemaker |
National School of Elocution and Oratory (later, Shoemaker School of Speech and Drama) was an American school for speech arts, focused on rhetoric and elocution. It was established by Jacob and Rachel H. Shoemaker in Philadelphia, 1873. [1] [2] Attention was given to conversation and oratory, vocal culture, reading, and recitation. [3] It awarded Bachelor's and master's degrees. From 1915, their daughter, Dora Adele Shoemaker, served as principal, renaming the school "Shoemaker School of Speech and Drama" and adding coursework in journalism and radio technique. The school closed in the late 1930s.
Professor Jacob W. Shoemaker (1842–1880) studied of the principles of rhetoric and elocution, taught these extensively in institutes throughout Pennsylvania, and from 1866, labored in Philadelphia to build up a school that should embody and present these principles with full effect. His enthusiasm and persistence gradually attracted enough pupils and assistants to enable him to carry out his plans, and in the autumn of 1873, the National School of Elocution and Oratory was established. In 1874, its first catalogue was issued, showing an enrolment of 88 students for that year. In 1875, its scope and course were much extended, and a charter was secured for it from the legislature of the State. By September 1880, it was said that not less than 3,000 students came under its instruction, and that at least 600 lectures and readings were given before educational bodies and lyceums. [1]
Prof. Shoemaker died in 1880, and the institution was carried on for several years under the direction of his widow, Mrs. Shoemaker, who had previously acted as an assistant teacher. In 1886, she was vice-president, the Presidency having been accepted by Dr. Edward Brooks, formerly Principal of the State Normal School at Millersville (now Millersville University of Pennsylvania). [4]
From 1915, Dora Adele Shoemaker served as principal. [5] Renamed the Shoemaker School of Speech and Drama, [6] its course offerings included journalism and radio technique. [7] Dora headed the school until the late 1930s. [8]
Edward Brooks was an American educator and author of numerous textbooks.
Jessie Eldridge Southwick was an American elocutionist, teacher, author, and poet. She was active in the Chautauqua and Lyceum movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, performing around the United States as well as internationally. She influenced oratory through active involvement in emerging organizations, writing textbooks, and teaching expressive voice culture and platform performance at Emerson College and elsewhere.
Elizabeth Marney Conner was a 19th-century American dramatic reader and educator, and the founder of the Buffalo School of Elocution. She published recitations in both prose and verse, and was also the author of an operetta.
Mabelle Biggart was an American educator, dramatic reader, preacher, and writer. In 1890, Biggart was in charge of the department of elocution at the Chautauqua assembly of Glen Park, Colorado, and that she was giving exercises illustrating the Delsarte System. Around the same time, she had been instrumental in starting the Polytechnic Institute and Woman's Athletic Club of Denver, intended to aid women to gain health, strength, and beauty. She had also assumed charge of a "Polytechnic Department" in the Denver NewsLetter, devoting the space to physical culture, science, and literature. She wrote articles for various publications including, "A Woman that is a Woman", "List to the Voice!", "Newfoundland", "Where is the New Woman?", "Dr. Grenfell's Labrador Mission", and "On the Painted Desert".
Louisa Belle Howard was an educator, dramatic reader and music teacher.
Rachel Walter Hinkle Shoemaker was a dramatic elocutionist and Shakespearean reciter.
Edna Chaffee Noble was an American elocutionist. She was the founder of the Training School of Elocution and English Literature in Detroit, Michigan, and the Chaffee-Noble School of Expression in London, England. She served as president of the Michigan Association of Elocutionists in 1899.
Louisa Woodworth Sanborn Foss was regarded as the best American elocutionist in her day. Compared to Charlotte Cushman, Foss was counted among the first woman elocutionists in the world.
Maria Brace Kimball was an American elocutionist who taught, lectured, and wrote on the subject. She was an instructor in elocution and lecturer on dramatic literature in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts; lecturer on French theatre and dramatic literature in schools; teacher of elocution in Brearley School, New York City, 1883–92. She was the author of A Text Book of Elocution (1892) and A Soldier-doctor of our army, James P. Kimball (1917), as well as various contributions to periodicals.
Helen Louise B. Babcock was an American educator, elocutionist, and dramatic reader.
Lily C. Whitaker was an American educator and author. She contributed to the Southern Quarterly, under her father's direction and wrote for the New Orleans press. In addition to a poetry collection, Donata and Other Poems (1880), and a textbook, Spoken thought : a text book on vocal expression for use in high schools, normal schools and colleges (1927), she wrote several plays. Whitaker was elected president of the New Orleans Educational Association, and served as principal of one of the largest public schools in that city. She founded the first school of speech and oratory in the Southern United States.
Corinne Stocker Horton was an American elocutionist, journalist, newspaper editor, and clubwoman. For years, she was the society editor of The Atlanta Journal, but withdrew from the staff after her first marriage. She continued to write for magazines, but was also a successful fiction writer. Horton was affiliated with the Players' Club of Atlanta, the Atlanta Woman's Club, and the Georgia Women's Press Club.
Sarah Lord Bailey was a British-born American elocutionist and teacher of dramatic elocution.
Mrs. Findley Braden was the pen name of Anna Braden an American writer, newspaper editor, and elocutionist. Prior to marriage, she used Madge Rile and other pen names.
Dora Adele Shoemaker was an American educator, poet, and playwright.
Julia A. Orum was an American educator, lecturer, and author. She was principal of the Philadelphia School of Elocution and of the Mountain Lake Park Summer School of Elocution. She was a successful Shakespearian reader and lecturer.
Mary Alderson Chandler Atherton was an American educator, textbook author, and magazine publisher. She arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in 1881. There, she founded the "Home School for Shorthand and Typewriting" (1883), and ten years later, the "Chandler Normal Shorthand School", chiefly for the training of teachers, the first school of its kind in the U.S. In 1895, Atherton called a "Public School Shorthand Convention", the first in the history of shorthand education. Also in that year, she founded the Chandler Thinking Club for the encouragement of independent thinking. She published two periodicals and five textbooks.
Loraine Immen was an American philanthropist, elocutionist, author, and social leader. She was a life fellow of the Society of Science, Letters and Art. Immen was one of the most active and best known clubwomen in Michigan. She was the inspiring prime mover and first president of the Grand Rapids City Federation of Women's Clubs.
Eugenia Williamson Hume (1865–1899) was a 19th-century American elocutionist, and educator. She was one of the best educated and most accomplished women in St. Louis, Missouri in her day.
Emma Dunning Banks was an American actress, dramatic reader, teacher, and writer.