Blow, Susan Elizabeth (1843-1916)

Title

Miss Susan Elizabeth Blow

Author

Blow, Susan Elizabeth (1843-1916)

Date

June 7, 1843 – March 27, 1916

Place of origin

Carondelet, Missouri, US

New York

Country of origin

United States of America

Language

English

Profession

Teacher

Member of the St. Louis School

Biographical details

Susan Blow was the eldest of nine children. She was the daughter of Henry Taylor Blow and Minerva Grimsley Blow. Blow received her education from her parents, various governesses, private tutors, and schools, due to her family's social status. Her parents highly valued education for their daughters, although this was uncommon for Victorian families. Henry Blow contributed funds to build a public school which was named after him. At age eight, Susan was enrolled at the William McCartney School in New Orleans, Louisiana. She attended classes there for the next two years. Blow and her sister Nellie enrolled in the New York school of Henrietta Haynes at age sixteen. They were forced to return home due to the outbreak of the Civil War.
Blow tutored her younger brothers and sister, and she taught Sunday school at Carleton Presbyterian Church during this time. Blow never married.

She was considered a member of the St. Louis School, a literary, philosophical, and educational movement. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Henry Blow to be the minister to Brazil in 1869, and Susan went with him as his secretary. She quickly learned Portuguese during the next fifteen months. Her bilingual ability helped to ease trade communications between Brazil and the United States. Blow went abroad to Europe in 1870, along with her mother and siblings. Susan began studying the philosophies of Hegel and the American Transcendentalists while in Europe.

Susan came across the kindergarten teaching methods of German idealist and philosopher Friedrich Fröbel. Fröbel believed in "learning-through-play" and cognitive development. Susan was inspired to bring these ideas to St. Louis, and her father offered to set up a kindergarten as a private school. Susan felt that she was going to be able to serve the children better through the public school system.
In 1871 Blow traveled to New York, where she spent a year being trained at the New York Normal Training Kindergarten, operated by Fröbel devotee Maria Kraus-Boelté. Blow returned to St. Louis in 1873 and opened the nation's first public kindergarten in Des Peres School in Carondelet, which by then had been annexed by the City of St. Louis.

Blow was able to open her school, in part, thanks to the support she received from William Torrey Harris, the superintendent of schools in St. Louis. Harris believed the greatest educational concern of the time was the number of young children who dropped out of school. Blow believed a kindergarten system would improve the dropout rate, for children would be starting school at an earlier age. Although he originally resisted the idea of a public program, he was persuaded by the school board's support of Blow, her background, and her proposal to direct the program herself. In 1874 Blow opened a training school to accommodate the in-demand kindergarten teachers. Those in training spent mornings volunteering in the kindergarten classes and afternoons and weekends studying Fröbel's ideas. Through her work, Blow played a significant role in the history and development of early childhood education. She died in March 1916 in New York City.

Most references state she died on March 26, but her tombstone at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis declares that she died on March 27.

Selected publications

"Dante's Inferno"

Dante's Purgatorio

A Study of Dante

Link to external sources

Susan Elizabeth Blow - Wikipedia