Adelaide Steele Baylor (October 14, 1860 – December 18, 1935) was an American educator and school administrator. She was chief of the Home Economics Education Service in the

United States Office of Education The Office of Education, at times known as the Department of Education and the Bureau of Education, was a small unit in the Federal government of the United States, Federal Government of the United States within the United States Department of the ...

from 1923 to 1935.

Early life and education

Baylor was born in

Wabash, Indiana Wabash is a city in Noble Township, Wabash County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 10,666 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Wabash County. Wabash is notable as claiming to be the first electrically lighted ci ...

, the daughter of James Craig Baylor and Susannah Steele Baylor. She graduated from Wabash High School, attended the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, earned bachelor's degree from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in 1897, and a master's degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1917. She received an honorary doctorate from the Stout Institute in Wisconsin in 1928.

Career

Baylor was a teacher and school principal as a young woman. She was superintendent of schools for the city of Wabash, Indiana. She became assistant state superintendent of public instruction in Indiana, and state supervisor for home economics education. In 1913 she addressed the Tenth Conference of Superintendents and Principals of American Schools for the Deaf, when they met in Indianapolis. For twelve years, from 1923 to 1935, Baylor was chief of the Home Economics Education Service in the United States Office of Education in Washington. She testified before congressional hearings on vocational education in 1928 and 1934. Her work involved extensive travel and public speaking; according to one account, "After 1923 she visited every state in the Union three or four times, Hawaii twice, and Puerto Rico once." She retired in October 1935, a few weeks before her death, and was succeeded by

Florence Fallgatter Florence Alberta Fallgatter (1891 – April 8, 1973) was an American educator and home economist. She was head of the home economics department at Iowa State University from 1938 to 1958, the first woman president of the American Vocational Ass ...

as chief. Baylor was secretary of the

National Council of Education The National Council of Education - Bengal (or NCE - Bengal) was an organisation founded by Satish Chandra Mukherjee and other Indian nationalists in Bengal in 1906 to promote science and technology as part of a '' swadeshi'' industrialisation m ...

, vice-president of the

National Education Association The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stud ...

's Department of Elementary Education, and the first woman to hold a life membership in the American Vocational Association.

Publications

Baylor wrote articles for professional publications, including ''

Journal of Education The Journal of Education () is an academic journal, published by SAGE Publishing on behalf of the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, with Hardin Coleman as its editor-in-chief. It bills itself as "the oldest educ ...

'' and ''Journal of Home Economics.''Baylor, Adelaide S. "Training Leaders for Education in Relation to Home and Family Life." ''Journal of Home Economics'' 23 (1931): 411-417. She also wrote textbooks and children's books, including ''Adventures of Miss Tabby Gray'' (1913) and ''Young America's First Book'' (1919). * "English as She is Taught" (1910) * ''Natural One-Book Geography'' (1911, with George L. Roberts and Frederick J. Breeze) * "Consolidation of Rural Schools" (1912) * ''Adventures of Miss Tabby Gray'' (1913, illustrated by Josephine Bruce) * "Rural Education as an Element in the Strength of the Nation" (1917) * ''Young America's First Book'' (1919, with Emma Colbert) * "Training for the Vocation of Home Making" (1928) * "Training Leaders for Education in Relation to Home and Family Life" (1931)

Personal life and legacy

Baylor died in Washington, D.C. in 1935, aged 75 years. One of her speeches is included in the anthology ''Speeches of American women, 1920-1960'' (2003). In 2014, she was in the first class of inductees into the Wabash City Schools Hall of Distinction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baylor, Adelaide Steele 1860 births 1935 deaths People from Wabash, Indiana American educators Home economists University of Chicago alumni