Jesse Olney (12 October 1798
Union, Connecticut
Union is a town located in the northeastern part of Tolland County, Connecticut, United States and is part of the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor. The population was 785 at the 2020 census, making it the least ...
– 31 July 1872
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. Stratford is in the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was settled ...
) was a
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
. He was particularly active in the improvement of school
textbook
A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...
s on this subject, and was amply rewarded by substantial sales, second only to
Webster
Webster may refer to:
People
*Webster (surname), including a list of people with the surname
*Webster (given name), including a list of people with the given name
Places Canada
*Webster, Alberta
*Webster's Falls, Hamilton, Ontario
United State ...
's ''American Spelling Book''.
Biography
He was educated at
Whitesboro, New York
Whitesboro is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 3,772 at the 2010 census. The village is named after Hugh White, an early settler.
The Village of Whitesboro is inside the Town of Whitestown.
History
The vi ...
, became a teacher at Whitesborough and
Binghamton
Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...
, and was for twelve years principal of the Stone School in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
, resigning in 1831. In 1828, he brought out ''A Geography and Atlas'', which was at once accepted as a standard work, and for thirty years was used in almost every public and private school of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It was many times enlarged and revised, and ran through 98 editions, some of the editions numbering 80,000 copies. Millions of copies were sold, and the popularity of Olney's ''Geography'' was surpassed only by that of Webster's ''American Spelling Book''.
Olney's ''Geography'' has the distinction of having caused a complete revolution in the methods of teaching geography. Olney was a practical instructor, and was dissatisfied with the existing textbooks and
treatise
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Treat ...
s, which began with an exposition of the science of
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
, and, making the centre of the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
the initial point, developed the scheme until it finally included the Earth. Olney reversed this method. He began with the scholar's own continent — in fact, in the very city, town, or village in which he or she lived, and made clear by lucid definitions the natural divisions of land and water, illustrating each instance by the use of maps. His plan was to familiarize the child with the surface of the Earth by going from the near to the distant, and from the concrete to the abstract, and this system at once overthrew theoretic geography, and initiated the modern practical and descriptive science.
![Olney's 1844 School Map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Olney%27s_1844_School_Map.jpg)
The immediate success of the work led Olney to give up teaching and devote himself to authorship. Leaving Hartford in 1833, he settled in
Southington, Connecticut
Southington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, it had a population of 43,501. Southington contains the villages of Marion, Milldale, and Plantsville.
Geography
Southington is situa ...
, until 1854, when he moved to
Stratford. His text-books (1831–52) included other geographies, a series of readers, a ''Common School Arithmetic'', and a ''History of the United States''. He also compiled ''A Family Book of History'', ''Psalms of Life'', poems, and other works.
After discontinuing to teach, he devoted himself to the cause of popular education. He was for many years a member of the legislature, afterward comptroller of the state for two terms, and used largely his legislative and official powers to build up the system of
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 ...
common schools. In 1840, he had become a
Unitarian, and for the next fourteen years he gave sympathy and much practical aid to the liberal religious movement that was then agitating
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Olney, Jesse
1798 births
1872 deaths
American educators
American geographers
People from Union, Connecticut
American Unitarians
People from Whitesboro, New York
American male writers
Members of the Connecticut General Assembly
Connecticut Comptrollers
19th-century American politicians
People from Southington, Connecticut
People from Stratford, Connecticut