Fanniebelle Curtis

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Fanniebelle Curtis
A middle-aged white woman wearing a brimmed cap and a uniform with shirt and tie
Fanniebelle Curtis in 1919, from the American National Red Cross photograph collection, Library of Congress
Born
Fannie Isabella Curtis

November 28, 1867
Norwalk, Connecticut
DiedNovember 14, 1943
Norwalk, Connecticut
Other namesFannibelle Curtis, Fannie Bell Curtis
OccupationEducator
RelativesStiles Curtis (grandfather)

Fanniebelle Curtis (November 28, 1867 – November 14, 1943), born Fannie Isabella Curtis, was an American educator. She was kindergarten director of New York City, and head of the Kindergarten Unit of the American Red Cross during World War I.

Early life and education[edit]

Curtis was born in Norwalk, Connecticut,[1] the daughter of David Seymour Curtis and Cornelia Isabelle Raymond Curtis. Her father was commissioner of streets and sewers in Norwalk. Her grandfather was Stiles Curtis, a politician and bank president.[2] Her older brother Frederick Stiles Curtis and his family served as Presbyterian missionaries in Japan, Korea, and China.[3] She trained as a teacher at the Connecticut State Normal School in New Britain, with further studies in New York with Jerome Allen.[1]

Career[edit]

New England[edit]

In 1884, Curtis assisted Clara W. Mingins in opening the first kindergarten in Connecticut, in New Britain,[4] then headed the kindergarten at the state normal school in Willimantic for three years.[1] She was president of the Connecticut Valley Kindergarten Association.[5] She was director of kindergartens in Newton, Massachusetts from 1893 to 1894, then taught at the normal school in New Britain. In summer 1895 she ran the special kindergarten department at Norwich.[1]

New York[edit]

Curtis was director of kindergartens in Brooklyn, New York from 1897[6] to 1912.[7] She was vice-president of the Brooklyn Kindergarten Union. "Under her enterprising hand several practical helps have found their way into the city kindergartens, such as the Brooklyn Sand Table Blocks," according to an 1899 report.[8] She served on the executive committee of the Department of Pedagogy at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and chaired its kindergarten committee.[9][10]

She became kindergarten director of the New York City Board of Education in 1912.[7][11] She established a kindergarten summer camp in Coney Island, "so that mothers and babies might have frequent days at the seashore and the satisfaction of a cool quiet place."[12] Under her leadership, the city schools encouraged professional training for kindergarten teachers, and expanded the kindergarten offerings to include a specially-equipped classroom for blind children.[13]

Curtis retired from the New York City school system in 1921. She was succeeded as Director of Kindergartens by her assistant, Luella A. Palmer.[7]

World War I[edit]

Curtis took a leave of absence[7][14] to head of the Kindergarten Unit of the American Red Cross during and after World War I.[15][16] She helped establish kindergartens and playgrounds, and teacher training programs, especially for the "bewildered and benumbed"[17] children of postwar France.[18][19] She made appeals to American teachers for materials to use in French kindergartens.[20] She also lectured on the unit's work for the International Kindergarten Union.[21] "It is a tragedy that has no parallel in the world's history," she explained. "Every foreign mail brings more pitiful stories. It is childhood's darkest hour."[20]

After the war, she wrote and spoke about the ongoing work of American educators in France.[22][23][24] In 1925, Curtis presented a film about the reconstruction work in France at meetings of the Women's Overseas Service League in various American cities.[25] She returned to France in 1926, to help lay the cornerstone of the Maison de Tous, a community house in Lievin.[26]

Publications[edit]

  • "The Kindergarten Unit in France" (1918)[27]
  • "An Appeal for the Children of France" (1918)[20]
  • "The Final Work of Our Kindergarten Unit in France: The Building of the Maison de Tous" (1926)[28]
  • "Address of the Director of the Kindergarten Unit of France" (1928)[29]
  • "The International Bureau of Education" (1929)[30]

Personal life[edit]

Curtis died in 1934, at the age of 75, at her home in South Norwalk.[31]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d E. A. D. (March 1896). "Fanniebelle Curtis". Kindergarten News. 5 (10): 77–78.
  2. ^ "Obituary for David Seymour Curtis". The New York Times. 1920-12-21. p. 13. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Mrs. F. S. Curtis, 74, Long a Missionary; Retired After Serving 40 Years in Japan and Korea; She Dies in New Haven". The New York Times. 1937-07-07. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  4. ^ Wiard, Oliver. "History recalled on arts festival landmark for 1973" New Britain Herald (April 27, 1973).
  5. ^ "The Connecticut Valley Meeting". Kindergarten Review. 5 (10): 351. November 1895.
  6. ^ "To Start Kindergartens; Miss Fanniebelle Curtis Chosen Supervisor for Brooklyn System". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1897-05-21. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b c d Association for Childhood Education Committee of Nineteen (1938). History of the Kindergarten Movement in the Mid-western States and in New York: Presented at the Cincinnati Convention, Association for Childhood Education, April 19-23, 1938. pp. 71, 73.
  8. ^ "Brooklyn" Kindergarten Magazine 11(June 1899): 676.
  9. ^ Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (1912). Yearbook of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. pp. 196, 197.
  10. ^ "Institute Department Meeting; Miss Fanniebelle Curtis Re-Elected President of Kindergarten Section". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1901-04-19. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Hinitz, Blythe. "Margaret Naumberg and the Walden School" in Alan R. Sadovnik and Susan F. Semel, eds., Founding Mothers and Others: Women Educational Leaders During the Progressive Era (Springer 2016): 40. ISBN 9781137054753
  12. ^ "Kindergarten Mothers' Club Feature of Coney Island". The Chat. 1920-08-14. p. 58. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Cut Out War Games; Miss Fanniebelle Curtis Gives This Advice to Kindergartners". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1914-09-23. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ J. B. M. (February 1918). "Return of Miss Curtis from France". Kindergarten Primary Magazine. 30 (6): 173.
  15. ^ "A Few Facts about the International Kindergarten Union" The Virginia Teacher 5(4)(April 1924): 107-108.
  16. ^ Emmons, Helen R. (June 1918). "Kindergartens and the War". Central Normal Bulletin. 14 (6): 5–6 – via Central Michigan University History, Clark Historical Library.
  17. ^ Winchester, Almira M. (1919). "The Kindergarten and the War". Kindergarten Education. 49: 4.
  18. ^ Clarke, Ida Clyde Gallagher (1924). Women of Today. Women of Today Press. p. 20.
  19. ^ Brodnax, E. "Where the Children Play" Parks and Recreation 3(4)(July 1920): 37.
  20. ^ a b c Curtis, Fanniebelle (June 1918). "An Appeal for the Children of France". Kindergarten Primary Magazine. 30 (10): 286.
  21. ^ "Our Kindergarten Unit in France". Childhood Education. 1 (2): 92–95. October 1924. doi:10.1080/00094056.1924.10723021. ISSN 0009-4056.
  22. ^ "She Had to Do It; Fanniebelle Curtis Explains France's Ruhr Valley Invasion". The Topeka State Journal. 1920-04-16. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Training the Child Mind, Their Mission". The Topeka State Journal. 1920-04-14. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "She is Kindergarten Convention Delegate". Star Tribune. 1924-05-02. p. 14. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Fanniebelle Curtis Shows French Film in America". Carry on. 4 (4): 15. November 1925.
  26. ^ "On Foreign Shores". Carry on. 5 (3): 29. August 1926.
  27. ^ Curtis, Fanniebelle (December 1918). "The Kindergarten Unit in France". The Kindergarten and First Grade. 3 (10): 395–402 – via Internet Archive.
  28. ^ Curtis, Fanniebelle (January 1, 1926). "The Final Work of Our Kindergarten Unit in France: The Building of the Maison de Tous". Childhood Education. 2 (1): 249 – via ProQuest.
  29. ^ Curtis, Fanniebelle (January 1, 1928). "Address of the Director of the Kindergarten Unit of France". Childhood Education. 4: 33 – via ProQuest.
  30. ^ Curtis, Fanniebelle (January 1, 1929). "The International Bureau of Education". Childhood Education. 5: 485 – via ProQuest.
  31. ^ "Fanniebelle Curtis: Rites for Educator". Daily News. 1943-11-17. p. 533. Retrieved 2023-07-23 – via Newspapers.com.
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