Arthur Gilman (educator)
Arthur Gilman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Error: Invalid birth date for calculating age |
| Died | December 27, 1909 (aged 72) |
| Occupation(s) | Educator, philanthropist |
| Known for | Co-founder of Radcliffe College |
Arthur Gilman (June 22, 1837 – December 27, 1909) was a prominent American educator and philanthropist. Together with his second wife, he established a women's educational institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts connected to Harvard University, which later developed into Radcliffe College.
Biography
Arthur Gilman, the son of banker Winthrop Sargent Gilman, was able to attend private educational institutions in St. Louis, Missouri and Lee, Massachusetts thanks to his father's fortune, which originated from the wholesale grocery business. Beginning in 1849, he studied at the coeducational Chrestomathic Institute in Rye, New York, followed by continued education at a school in New York City until 1853.
Between 1857 and 1862, he was employed at his father's banking company in New York City. Due to health complications, Gilman withdrew from the business and moved to Lenox, Massachusetts, where he devoted himself to literary, historical, and educational activities.
In 1870, Gilman relocated to Cambridge and became associated with the Riverside Press. By 1871, he held an editorial position at the American Tract Society based in Boston. Concerned about the educational opportunities available for their daughter, he and his second wife, Stella Scott Gilman from Alabama, founded Private Collegiate Instruction for Women (commonly known as the Harvard Annex) in 1879. This institution engaged Harvard faculty on a part-time basis to offer women instruction equivalent to that provided to male Harvard students.
The establishment was renamed the Society for the Collegiate Instruction for Women in 1882 and later restructured as Radcliffe College in 1894. Gilman served as regent of Radcliffe until 1895. Additionally, in 1886 he founded and led the Cambridge School for Girls (presently known as The Cambridge School of Weston). His academic interests were chiefly centered on English literature and history.
Works
Gilman authored Genealogy of the Gilman Family in England and America (1864) and The Gilman Family traced in the Line of Hon. John Gilman, of Exeter, N. H. (1869). He edited the works of Chaucer (The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, three volumes, 1879) and contributed to the “Stories of the Nations” series. His scholarly publications largely focused on historical subjects and included:
- First Steps in English Literature (1870)
- Kings, Queens, and Barbarians, or Talks about Seven Historic Ages (1870)
- First Steps in General History: A Suggestive Outline (1874)
- Shakespeare's Morals (1879)
- History of the American People (1883)
- Tales of the Pathfinders (1884)
- The Story of Rome (1885)
- Short Stories from the Dictionary (1886)
- Story of the Saracens (1886)
- The Colonization of America (1887)
He also took part as editor and contributor in several other works:
- Boston, Past and Present (1873)
- Library of Religious Poetry (1880)
- The Kingdom of Home; Homely Poems for Home Lovers (1881)
- Magna Charta Stories (1882)
- Index to the Complete Edition of the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1884)
Stella Scott Gilman was the author of Mothers in Council (1884).