Essays on Female Education

Treatises on female education accompanied advertisements or prospectus for female schools. Parents used this kind of publication to learn about schools for their daughters. Both treatises dignified the cause of female education and encouraged parents to invest in the education of their daughters.

The opening of a new female school at St. Mary's Hall in New Jersey was preceeded by a period of fund raising. This essay emphasized the importance of woman's role as teacher of Christian morality in the family and society. St. Mary's Hall probably had denominational support from the Episcopal Church--if not in cash and personnel, then in publicity and promotion from the pulpit.

The second treatise was written in Lexington, Kentucky, to advertise a private young ladies'school that had been in existence only one year. This treatise on female education gave the school a reputation for being more than a school where young women paraded fashionable clothing and practiced fine manners.

See the Inventory of Exhibit Sources for a list of other sermons, essays, and addresses on female education at the William Clements Library.