Society to Encourage Studies at Home

The Society to Encourage Studies at Home was a Boston-based educational organization that operated from 1873 until approximately 1897 and is generally described as the first correspondence school in the United States. Founded by Anna Eliot Ticknor, the daughter of historian and Harvard professor George Ticknor, it was created to make systematic study accessible to women who could not easily attend conventional schools or colleges. Its stated purpose was to encourage women to devote part of each day to sustained, organized learning. The society emerged in an era when educational opportunities for women were expanding but remained strongly constrained by geography, household responsibilities, finances, and prevailing assumptions about women's roles. Rather than requiring students to relocate or attend classes, the organization arranged courses that could be pursued at home. The program was restricted to women, but its intended audience was broader than the privileged women typically associated with nineteenth-century private study. It specifically sought to serve women of different social circumstances, including those whose domestic work limited their ability to pursue formal education. Its model combined written correspondence, reading assignments, individually planned courses, and continuing interaction between students and instructors. This differentiated it from the English Society for the Encouragement of Home Study, which provided a more standardized curriculum and expected students to complete the work independently. The American society adapted instruction to individual students and did not require a final examination in London, a requirement considered impractical for students separated from instructors by distance and often possessing limited financial resources. The Society's curriculum covered subjects including history, English, science, ancient history, and related areas of general education. More than 200 teachers contributed their time and expertise, including educators and public intellectuals such as Ellen Swallow Richards, Vida Dutton Scudder, Lucretia Crocker, Katherine Peabody Loring, Alice James, Lucy Elliot Keeler, Florence Trail, and Elizabeth Thorndike Thornton. Instruction was offered without charge by the teachers, while modest student fees helped support the society's operations and its lending library. Over its roughly twenty-four-year existence, the society served 7,086 students. Its library held several thousand volumes that students could borrow, extending the organization's role beyond correspondence lessons into the provision of educational materials. Former students included Mary Parker Follett and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, although the society's significance also lies in the many less-famous women who used its structure to pursue sustained study outside traditional institutions. After Anna Eliot Ticknor died in 1896, the society was voluntarily dissolved in 1897. It therefore did not become a continuing commercial education company or a modern university. Its historical importance rests instead in its early use of correspondence, individualized study plans, lending resources, and regular written contact to deliver education across geographic and social barriers. These features anticipated later forms of distance education and helped establish a model for organized home study in the United States.

The Society to Encourage Studies at Home was established in Boston in 1873 by Anna Eliot Ticknor. Ticknor came from a prominent intellectual family: her father, George Ticknor, was a historian and Harvard professor. The society was founded to encourage women to make regular time for serious study, particularly women whose family and household obligations or geographic location made conventional education difficult. The organization drew partial inspiration from the English Society for the Encouragement of Home Study, but its operating model differed in important ways. The English institution was aimed primarily at upper-class women with leisure and relied on a prescribed curriculum that students followed independently. The American society attempted to reach women across a wider range of social circumstances. It developed courses around individual students, maintained continuing communication between teachers and learners, and avoided requiring students to travel to a distant city for a final competitive examination. The society's teaching method depended on correspondence. Students received reading plans and assignments, worked from home, and exchanged written communications with instructors. The teachers donated their time and services, while student fees helped maintain the organization's lending library. That library contained several thousand volumes and supplied students with books that might otherwise have been inaccessible to them. Instruction covered a range of subjects, including history, English, science, and ancient history. More than 200 correspondents served as teachers during the society's existence. The listed instructors included Ellen Swallow Richards, Vida Dutton Scudder, Lucretia Crocker, Katherine Peabody Loring, Alice James, Lucy Elliot Keeler, Florence Trail, and Elizabeth Thorndike Thornton. The program attracted 7,086 students over approximately twenty-four years. Among those students were Mary Parker Follett and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Society to Encourage Studies at Home remained a voluntary educational association rather than a conventional degree-granting college. Its value lay in combining organized curricula, personal guidance, and access to books without requiring campus attendance. In this respect, it represents an early American experiment in distance learning and women's continuing education. Ticknor died in 1896. The society was voluntarily dissolved in 1897, after which it ceased operations. Its surviving annual reports and later historical studies document an institution that anticipated important features of later correspondence schools and modern distance education, including asynchronous written instruction, individualized learning plans, and education designed for students managing other responsibilities.

• 1897

  Society voluntarily dissolved

  [1]Society to Encourage Studies at Homeen.wikipedia.org

  After operating for approximately twenty-four years, the Society to Encourage Studies at Home ended its work.

• 1896

  Death of Anna Eliot Ticknor

  [1]Society to Encourage Studies at Homeen.wikipedia.org

  The death of the society's founder preceded the organization's voluntary dissolution.

• 1878

  Annual reporting begins in the surviving record

  [1]Society to Encourage Studies at Homeen.wikipedia.org

  Annual reports are documented for the period beginning in 1878 and continuing through 1896.

• 1873

  Society founded in Boston

  [1]Society to Encourage Studies at Homeen.wikipedia.org

  Anna Eliot Ticknor established the Society to Encourage Studies at Home as an organization offering structured, home-based study to women.

An early American distance-education organization positioned around accessible, systematic, teacher-supported study for women learning from home. Its distinctive promise was individualized instruction and continuing correspondence rather than a fixed curriculum, campus attendance, or a centralized final examination.

• Distance education · 1873

  Correspondence courses

  The society's central offering was a program of home study conducted through correspondence. Courses were organized around reading and written assignments, with students maintaining contact with instructors rather than attending a campus. The program was available only to women and was designed to accommodate domestic responsibilities, geographic separation, and limited financial resources. Unlike a rigid standardized syllabus, the society planned courses around individual students and their educational circumstances.

• Educational resource

  Lending library

  The Society maintained a lending library containing several thousand volumes. Student fees helped finance the collection and its circulation, giving participants access to books needed for their courses. The library complemented the correspondence model by reducing the practical barrier of obtaining suitable educational materials for students studying outside established schools and colleges.

• 1897

  Voluntary dissolution after the founder's deathOther

  Background

  The society had operated since 1873 under the leadership associated with Anna Eliot Ticknor. Ticknor died in 1896, and the organization subsequently chose to end its activities rather than continue as an ongoing institution.

  Action taken

  The Society to Encourage Studies at Home was voluntarily dissolved in 1897.

  Aftermath

  The organization became a historical example of early correspondence education and left annual reports and other records for later study.

  Source

1. 1Society to Encourage Studies at Homeen.wikipedia.org