Elizabeth Robinson Abbott (September 11, 1852 – September 27, 1926) was an American educator considered to be a pioneer in introducing

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

Biography

The daughter of

William Stevens Robinson William Stevens Robinson (7 December 1818, Concord, Massachusetts11 March 1876, Malden, Massachusetts) was a United States journalist. Biography He was educated in the public schools of Concord, learned the printer's trade, and joined his broth ...

and Harriet Hanson, she was born Elizabeth Osborne Robinson in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

. Her sister,

Hattie Hattie or Hatty may refer to: People *Hattie Alexander (1901–1968), American pediatrician and microbiologist *Hattie Helen Gould Beck, birth name of burlesque dancer Sally Rand (1904–1979) *Hattie Bessent (1908–2015), American psychiatric ...

, served as assistant clerk of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

in 1872, being the first woman to hold such a position. She taught at a district school in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and ran a small private school. She also worked at

typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing ''characters'' (letters and other symbols).Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random Ho ...

for a while but found that the pay for women in that field was not very good. She then began working as a cook in a charity kindergarten and nursery in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

; she was allowed to take classes which eventually allowed her to teach kindergarten. She began teaching at a charity summer school in Boston and then taught in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1885, she married George S. Abbott. She continued to teach and later operated a kindergarten out of her home. She served as secretary of the Connecticut Valley Kindergarten Association. Abbott also helped found the Old and New woman's club in

Malden, Massachusetts Malden is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 66,263 people. History Malden, a hilly woodland area north of the Mystic River, was settled by Puritans in 1640 on la ...

and was the main founder for the Woman's Club of Waterbury. Abbott and her husband later moved into her family's home in Malden. She was confined to a wheelchair for the last eleven years of her life and died in Malden at the age of 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbott, Elizabeth Robinson 1852 births 1926 deaths 19th-century American women educators 19th-century American educators Schoolteachers from Connecticut Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century