Virginia Thrall Smith (August 16, 1836 – January 3, 1903) was a pioneering children's advocate. She helped reform Connecticut's child welfare policies and founded the first free kindergarten program in the state.

Early life

The daughter of Melissa Griswold and Hiram Thrall, Smith grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut. She was educated at Suffield Institute,

Hartford Female Seminary Hartford Female Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut was established in 1823, by Catharine Beecher, making it one of the first major educational institutions for women in the United States. By 1826 it had enrolled nearly 100 students. It implemente ...

, and Mount Holyoke College. In 1857, 21 year old Virginia Thrall married William B. Smith (1832-1897) and the couple moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Between 1859 and 1874, the couple had six children, three of whom died in infancy from

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. Their son,

Winchell Smith Winchell Smith (5 April 1871 – 10 June 1933) was an American playwright, known for big hit works such as '' Brewster's Millions'' (1906) and '' Lightnin' '' (1918). Many of his plays were made into movies. He spent freely but left a large fort ...

became a well-known playwright.

Charitable work

During the early years of her marriage, Smith became involved in local charities and wrote short fiction for newspapers. In 1876, Smith was appointed administrator of the Hartford City Mission, a Congregationalist charity which served the poor. Smith expanded the services offered by the Hartford City Mission, giving it many of the programs included in a

settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...

. Smith's work focused on empowering the poor and one of her first acts as administrator was to create a loan fund so that "self-respecting persons might obtain small sums to meet their most pressing wants." Smith also created skill building classes like the Women's Sewing Class and Reading Society. In 1881, Smith opened a free

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 Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

at the Hartford City Mission. This was the first free kindergarten in Connecticut. In 1885, Smith pushed the Connecticut State Legislature to authorize kindergartens in public schools throughout the state. The bill passed unanimously. Smith was invited to speak at the 1893 World Congress of Representative Women at the Chicago World's Fair. More than 150,000 people attended the lectures and Smith's speech was included in a special booklet by the Congress of Women. By the standards of the day, Smith's call for national public kindergartens and fresh air funds was revolutionary. As she said, "Every community stands under a moral obligation to give to every helpless child born within its border the best possible chance to grow into honesty and virtue." In 1882, Smith was appointed to the State Board of Charities. She visited poorhouses and estimated that 2,500 children were housed in these low quality and often dangerous facilities. Thanks to Smith's advocacy, a new law was passed in May 1883 establishing temporary children's homes. These homes were only available to children deemed physically and mentally healthy which was only a partly victory in Smith's opinion. Meanwhile, Smith's work helping unwed mothers began to trouble some and she was accused of

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. The accusations were never proven, but Smith was forced to resign from the Hartford City Mission in 1882. Smith organized the Connecticut Children's Aid Society in 1892. She set up a homes for sick and abandoned children in Wethersfield and Newington. The Newington facility grew into the

Connecticut Children's Medical Center Connecticut Children's Medical Center is a nationally ranked, independent, non-profit, pediatric acute care hospital located in Hartford, Connecticut. The hospital has 185 beds and is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of the University of Co ...

. Meanwhile, the Connecticut Children's Aid Society has grown into The Village for Families & Children.

Death

Virginia Thrall Smith died in Hartford in 1903 and she is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Virginia Thrall 1836 births 1903 deaths American social activists Children's rights activists Mount Holyoke College alumni People from Bloomfield, Connecticut Burials at Cedar Hill Cemetery (Hartford, Connecticut)