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Elizabeth Kemper Adams

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Elizabeth Kemper Adams
A white woman wearing a high-collared white blouse or dress; her dark hair is in a bouffant updo
Elizabeth Kemper Adams, from the 1910 yearbook of Smith College
Born(1872-10-24)October 24, 1872
Nashotah, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedDecember 14, 1948(1948-12-14) (aged 76)
Brattleboro, Vermont, U.S.
Resting placeConway, Massachusetts, U.S.
EducationKemper Hall
Alma materVassar College
University of Chicago
Occupations
  • Educator
  • historian
RelativesJackson Kemper (great-grandfather)
Scientific career
Thesis The Aesthetic Experience: Its Meaning in a Functional Psychology  (1904)

Elizabeth Kemper Adams (October 24, 1872 – December 14, 1948) was an American psychologist and historian of education. She was a professor of philosophy and first head of the education department at Smith College from 1911 to 1916. In the 1920s, she was national educational secretary of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Early life

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Adams was born in Nashotah, Wisconsin,[1] the daughter of Francis (Frank) Kemper Adams and Mary Lee Whiting Adams. Her great-grandfather was Jackson Kemper, an Episcopal bishop in early Wisconsin.[2] She graduated from Kemper Hall in 1889,[3][4] and from Vassar College in 1893, and completed doctoral studies in philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1904.[5] Her dissertation was titled "The Aesthetic Experience: Its Meaning in a Functional Psychology".[6][7]

Career

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Adams taught at Kemper Hall, Western Reserve University and Vassar College as a young woman.[4] She served as an alumna trustee of Vassar College.[8] She also wrote poetry published in The Atlantic.[9][10] She joined the faculty at Smith College as a philosophy professor in 1905, and became the first director of the school's education department in 1911. She retired from Smith College in 1916.[6]

After Smith, Adams continued doing research and giving lectures on women's education.[11] During World War I she worked in the United States Employment Service in Washington, D.C.,[12][13] and published a study of women in professional employment for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in 1921.[14][15]

Adams was educational secretary of the Girl Scouts' national organization in the 1920s.[16] She spoke to the Eleventh Recreation Congress on "The Energies of Girls" in 1924,[17] traveled nationally, including to Hawaii, as a Girl Scouting leader in 1924,[12][18] and co-wrote a study of leadership training for the Girl Scouts in 1927.

Publications

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  • "To Master Edmund Rostand" (1901)[19]
  • "The Lift of the Heart" (1904)[9]
  • "Some Fundamentals in the Teaching of Written Composition" (1904)[20]
  • The Aesthetic experience: Its meaning in a functional psychology (1906)[21]
  • "I Died This Year Though Still I Glimpse the Sun" (1907)[10]
  • "Psychological Gains and Losses of the College Woman" (1910)[22]
  • The Vocational Opportunities of the College of Liberal Arts (1912)[23]
  • Women Professional Workers: A Study Made for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (1921)[14]
  • College Students and their Communities (1923)
  • "Girl Scouts Stand for Health" (1923)[24]
  • "The Energies of Girls" (1925)[25]
  • A Five-Year Experiment in Training Volunteer Group Leaders, 1922-1927 (1927, with Eleanor Perry Wood)

Personal life

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Adams died in Brattleboro, Vermont in 1948,[26] at the age of 76, after a long illness. Her grave is in Conway, Massachusetts.[27] The historical society in Conway has an unpublished manuscript of later poetry by Adams.[28]

References

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  1. ^ "Obituary for Elizabeth K. Adams (Aged 76)". The Boston Globe. December 15, 1948. p. 35. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Jackson Kemper". Anglican History. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  3. ^ "Are Given Degrees". Kenosha News. June 7, 1910. p. 1. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "Honor Miss Adams". Kenosha News. June 16, 1904. p. 1. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Furumoto, Laurel; Scarborough, E. (2002), "Placing women in the history of psychology: The first American women psychologists.", Evolving perspectives on the history of psychology., Washington: American Psychological Association, pp. 527–543, doi:10.1037/10421-025, ISBN 1-55798-882-X, retrieved September 23, 2022
  6. ^ a b "Collection: Elizabeth Kemper Adams Papers". Smith College Finding Aids. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  7. ^ Castronovo, Russ (May 15, 2009). Beautiful Democracy: Aesthetics and Anarchy in a Global Era. University of Chicago Press. pp. 10–12. ISBN 978-0-226-09630-8.
  8. ^ "Contemporary Notes". Vassar Quarterly. 4 (3): 21. May 1919.
  9. ^ a b Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (July 1, 1904). "The Lift of the Heart". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  10. ^ a b Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (October 1, 1907). "I Died This Year Though Still I Glimpse the Sun". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  11. ^ "Dr. Elizabeth Kemper Adams to be Speaker at W.C.D. Commencement". Newark Post. April 21, 1920. p. 4. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b "Co-Eds to Hear Vocation Expert". The Oklahoma Daily. January 29, 1924. p. 1. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Eyre, Mary Brooks (1925). "New Methods of Examination". The American Journal of Nursing. 25 (1): 35–42. doi:10.2307/3409572. ISSN 0002-936X. JSTOR 3409572.
  14. ^ a b Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (1921). Women Professional Workers: A Study Made for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. Macmillan.
  15. ^ Huneault, Kristina; Anderson, Janice (2012). Rethinking Professionalism: Women and Art in Canada, 1850-1970. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7735-3966-2.
  16. ^ "Girls' Leader is Honor Guest". Star-Gazette. March 5, 1925. p. 17. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Pangburn, Weavery (December 1924). "The Eleventh Recreation Congress". The Playground. 18 (9): 517.
  18. ^ "Girl Scouts". The Honolulu Advertiser. March 23, 1924. p. 14. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (February 1901). "To Master Edmund Rostand". The Vassar Miscellany. 30 (5): 227–228.
  20. ^ Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (1904). "Some Fundamentals in the Teaching of Written Composition". The Elementary School Teacher. 4 (6): 391–406. doi:10.1086/453339. S2CID 144305612.
  21. ^ Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (1906). The Aesthetic Experience: Its Meaning in a Functional Psychology ... University of Chicago Press.
  22. ^ Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (April 1910). "The Psychological Gains and Losses of the College Woman". Publications of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. 3 (21): 11–27.
  23. ^ Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (April 1912). "The Vocational Opportunities of the College of Liberal Arts" Journal of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae 5(3): 256-266.
  24. ^ Adams, Elizabeth Kemper (May 1923). "Girl Scouts Stand for Health". Mother and Child. 4 (5): 199–204.
  25. ^ Adams, Elizabeth Kemper. The energies of girls. Girl Scouts, Incorporated, 1925.
  26. ^ "Elizabeth K. Adams Dies in Brattleboro". The Bennington Evening Banner. December 15, 1948. p. 4. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ "Obituary for Elizabeth K. Adams (Aged 76)". The Boston Globe. December 15, 1948. p. 35. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  28. ^ “"Conway and Other Poems," by Elizabeth Kemper Adams,” Conway Historical Society, accessed September 23, 2022
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