To Bring into Play: Miss Mary Richmond's Utilization of Kindred Networks in the Diffusion of Kindergarten Ideals into Practice

Abstract

In the setting up of kindergarten systems in colonial New Zealand over the late nineteenth century, kindergarten founders such as Miss Mary Richmond in Wellington developed global links with kindergarten movements in a number of countries including England. This article examines the nature and significance of two key global interconnected networks underpinning Mary Richmond's work in kindergarten. The two networks addressed here—the Froebel movement in London and the Unitarian based network of family and friends—were characterized by a shared belief in the power of education to bring about change. This paper argues that such networks need to be understood not only through the lens of female collective action but also more specifically through a particular reforming outlook that sought to use education as a means to bring about broader social change.

Notes

² Ibid, p. 12.

¹ Belich, James. Making Peoples. Auckland: Allen Lane/Penguin Press, 2001. Between 1840 and 1882, colonization was rapid with a growth in population from 2000 to 500,000 people.

³ Porter, F. and C. McDonald, eds. My Hand Will Write what my Heart Dictates. Auckland: Auckland University Press with Bridget Williams Books, 1996.

⁴ Mary Richmond is known to have been in England in 1875, 1890, 1896, 1907, and the 1920s.

⁵ Mary Richmond, Diary, 1896. 77–173–17, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

⁶ Agnes Elizabeth Shaen, daughter of William Shaen, Kensington, London.

⁸ Singer, Elly. Childcare and the Psychology of Development. London: Routledge, 1992.

⁷ For example, Read, J. “Froebelian Women: Networking to Promote Professional Status and Educational Change in the Nineteenth Century.” History of Education 32, no. 1 (2003); Allen, Ann Taylor. Feminism and Motherhood in Germany, 1800–1914. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1991.

⁹ Gleadle, Kathryn. The Early Feminists: Radical Unitarians in the Emergence of the Women's Rights Movement 1831–51. New York: St Martins Press, 1995: 3.

¹⁰ Weston, Peter. The Froebel Educational Institute: The Origins and History of the College. London: Roehampton Institution, 2002. Liebschner, Joachim. Foundations of Progressive Education: The History of the National Froebel Society. Cambridge, Lutterworth Press, 1991.

¹¹ Weston, Peter. Friedrich Froebel His Life, Times and Significance. London: Roehampton Institution, 1998.

¹² Weston, The Froebel Educational Institute: The Origins and History of the College, 26.

¹³ Weston, The Froebel Educational Institute: The Origins and History of the College; Brehony, Kevin. “English Revisionists, Froebelians, and the Schooling of the Urban Poor.” In Practical Visionaries: Women, Education, and Social Progress, edited by M. Hilton and P. Hirsch. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2000.

¹⁴ Weston, The Froebel Educational Institute: The Origins and History of the College.

¹⁵ Weston, The Froebel Educational Institute: The Origins and History of the College.

¹⁶ The Link, no. 17 (March, 1921): 22. Froebel Educational Institute, Princess Christian was the fifth of Queen Victoria's children.

¹⁷ First name not given. Probably Bernard Bonsanquet, the philosopher.

¹⁸ “News of Old Students.” The Link, no. 17 (March 1921): 22. Froebel Educational Institute.

¹⁹ Mary Richmond, Diary, Monday, 7 February, 1898. 84–056–1/10, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

²⁰ See Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991.

²¹ Scholfield, G., ed. The Richmond‐Atkinson Papers, Vol. 1, 1960. Wellington: Government Printer, 1989; Porter, Francis. Born to New Zealand: A Biography of Jane Maria Atkinson. Wellington: Allen & Unwin in association with Port Nicholson Press, 1989.

²³ Hocken Library, Richmond E., ed. Family Letters of the Richmond and Atkinsons 1824–1899, IV.

²² Scholfield, The Richmond‐Atkinson Papers, Vol. 1: 27.

²⁴ Ibid., 27.

²⁷ Letter from Jane Maria Richmond to Margaret Taylor, 4 September 1848, in Scholfield, The Richmond Atkinson Papers, Vol. 1: 50.

²⁵ Belich, James. Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders. Auckland: Penguin Books, 1996: 183.

²⁶ Mary Richmond, ‘A Talk to Teachers' 1907, 91–262–6, Alexander Turnbull Library, 4.

²⁸ See Scholfield, 1960 and Porter 1989 for details of the families and the links that connected them. Associated families included the Atkinson, Hursthouse, Stephenson Smith, Wilson, Ronalds and Richmonds.

²⁹ Scholfield, The Richmond Atkinson Papers, Vol. 1: 5.

³⁰ Watts, Ruth. Gender, Power and the Unitarians in England 1760–1860. London: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.

³¹ Ibid., 17.

³² Robertson, Yvonne. Girdle Round the Earth: New Zealand Presbyterian Women's Ideal of Universal Sisterhood, 1878–1918. Presbyterian Historical Society of New Zealand, Annual Lecture, 1993.

³³ Watts, Gender, Power and the Unitarians in England 1760–1860, 8.

³⁴ Belich, Making Peoples: A History of New Zealand.

³⁵ Little public education provision existed in colonial New Zealand for the middle classes in the 1850s and '60s. Furthermore, the immediate family moved at regular interval in accordance with William Richmond's work as a lawyer, a Member of Parliament and later a Supreme Court judge.

³⁶ Scholfield, The Richmond‐Atkinson Papers, Vol. 1: 27.

³⁷ Gleadle, The Early Feminists, 55.

³⁸ Alexander Turnbull Library, Mary Richmond, My first eight years 1853–1861, An Autobiographical fragment, M.S papers 5358, 12.

⁴⁰ Richmond, My First Eight Years 1853–1861, 9.

³⁹ Froebel, 1922:29, cited in E. Singer, Child‐care and the Psychology of Development, 53.

⁴² Letter Jane Maria Atkinson to Margaret Taylor, Nelson, 23 March 1870, in Scholfield, 300–01.

⁴¹ Watts, Gender, Power and the Unitarians in England, 1760–1860.

⁴³ Alexander Turnbull Library, Box of miscellaneous letters, letter from Maria Richmond to Mary Richmond, 15 February 1867, MS 85–50.

⁴⁴ Gleadle, The Early Feminists; Watts, Gender, Power and the Unitarians in England, 1760–1860.

⁴⁵ Scholfield, The Richmond‐Atkinson Papers, Vol. 1.

⁴⁶ Letter J.C. Richmond to Miss Ann E. Shaen, Blackheath, 22 August 1873, in Scholfield, 351.

⁴⁷ Alexander Turnbull Library MS77.173, Speech given by Mary Richmond, “How to make children lovable”, 1933.

⁴⁸ “Emily Richmond to William Richmond, 22 October 1878.” In My Hand will Write what my Heart Dictates, edited by F. Porter and C. McDonald, 292.

⁴⁹ Alexander Turnbull Library, Mary Richmond–Anna Richmond, 23 March 1876. Box of Miscellaneous Letters. 85–50.

⁵⁰ Weston, The Froebel Educational Institute.

⁵¹ See Hilton, M., and P. Hirsch, eds. Practical Visionaries: Women, Education and Social Progress 1790–1930. Harlow: Longman, 2000; Read, J. “Froebelian Women: Networking to Promote Professional Status and Educational Change in the Nineteenth Century.” History of Education 32, no. 1 (2003): 17–33.

⁵² Note earlier references to Lily Shaen (William Shaen's daughter) and Anne Shaen (Williams's sister).

⁵³ Watts, Gender, Power and the Unitarians in England, 1760–1860, 203–04. See also Gleadle, The Early Feminists.

⁵⁴ Gleadle, The Early Feminists.

⁵⁵ Richmond, Mary. “The Late Miss Margaret Shaen.” The Inquirer 9 May 1936: 233.

⁵⁶ The Richmonds often used the Shaen home as a base when in London.

⁵⁷ Belich, J. Paradise Reformed: A History of the New Zealanders from the 1880s to the year 2000. Auckland: Allen Lane: Penguin, 2001: 76.

⁵⁹ Letter C. W. Richmond to Alice Blake, 26 September 1893, in Scholfield, 591.

⁵⁸ New Zealand is commonly claimed to be the first national state in the world to allow women to vote. More recent historians argue international precedence depends on definitions of ‘nation’. Women had voted in Wyoming since 1869 and in Utah since 1870. Colorado gave women the vote, with New Zealand, in 1893.

⁶⁰ Scholfield, 592–3.

⁶¹ Harding, Olga. One Hundred Years: A History of Wellington Girls' College. Wellington: Wellington Girls' College Centennial Committee, 1982.

⁶² Porter, Born to New Zealand.

⁶⁴ Probably Mary's cousin, Ruth Atkinson.

⁶⁵ Letter C. W. Richmond to Alice Blake, 30 November 1893, in Scholfield, 592.

⁶³ Scholfield, The Richmond‐Atkinson Papers.

⁶⁶ “Is There Room for Mary There.” The New Zealand Free Lance, Saturday 24 March 1906: 6.

⁶⁷ May, Helen. The Discovery of Early Childhood: The Development of Services for the Care and Education of Very Young Children, Mid Eighteenth Century Europe to Mid Twentieth Century New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University Press; Bridget Williams Books with New Zealand Council for Educational Research, 1997.

⁶⁸ Dalrymple, Learmouth. The Kindergarten: Being a Brief Sketch of Froebel's System of Infant Education. Dunedin: Otago Daily Times, 1879.

⁶⁹ May, Discovery.

⁷⁰ Scrapbook, ACC91–262–3, Alexander Turnbull Library.

⁷¹ Undated School prospectus. 77/173, Alexander Turnbull Library. Mary Richmond's name and address is given.

⁷² Richmond, Mary. “A talk to teachers,” 1907: 4. The teacher referred to may be Mrs Catherine Francis, the long serving infant mistress employed at Mt Cook Infant School. She was a known advocate of Froebel's teachings.

⁷³ Weston, The Froebel Educational Institution.

⁷⁴ May, Discovery.

⁷⁵ Alexander Turnbull Library, Notebook Richmond Kindergarten Association, 1905. MS X‐2516.

⁷⁶ Ibid.

⁷⁷ 77–173/30 Alexander Turnbull Library, Correspondence 1900–1908. Letter from M. J. Shaen to Mary Richmond, 27.7.08.

⁷⁸ Richmond, Mary. “Woman and Her Opportunities.” The White Ribbon 9, no. 102 (1903): 1–2.

⁷⁹ Richmond, A Talk to Teachers.

⁸⁰ The Link, March, 1911: 26.

⁸¹ The Link, March, 1923: 23–5.

⁸² Burton, F. “The New Zealand Women Teachers' Association—1901–1964.” Research Essay presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master's Arts in History, 1986.

⁸³ Porter, Frances. “Richmond, Mary Elizabeth 1853–1949.” Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 7 July 2005. Available from URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/; INTERNET.

⁸⁴ Porter, Born to New Zealand.

⁸⁵ Goodman, Joyce. “‘Their Market Value Must be Greater for the Experience they had Gained’: Secondary School Headmistresses and Empire, 1897–1914.” In Gender, Colonialism & Education: The Politics of Experience, edited by Joyce Goodman and Jane Martin. London, 2002: Woburn Press.

⁸⁷ Froebel Educational Institute, “New Zealand.” The Link no. 6 (March 1915): 14–15.

⁸⁶ Tribute to the memory of the late Miss Mary Richmond, 1949: 1.