The journals of S. Elizabeth Dusenbury, 1852-1857: portrait of a teacher's development

Abstract

The journals of Elizabeth Dusenbury Vincent, written between 1852 and 1857, trace the development of a young middle class New York woman toward intellectual fulfillment. The second daughter of an ambitious, driving lumber baron, she found herself torn between the expectations of an evangelical Presbyterian family and church and her own yearning for learning. Two years at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary left her with the feeling there was a wide gulf between herself and those about her. She set and pursued her own course of study which led her to Joliet, Illinois, as a teacher in the first public high school of that city;Her journals present a picture of the continuing conflict between the evangelical Protestant culture and Elizabeth's hunger for knowledge. Beyond this, the journals bring into sharp focus the struggle for public education and the driving force of one woman to make "learning and good" opposite sides of the same coin;An analysis of her daily life and work as reported in her Journals, when correlated with contemporary events, lead to a number of findings and conclusions. Culture bound, Elizabeth Dusenbury's individuality lifts her from the stereotypical cast of the nineteenth-century woman. It was not economic pressure or a religious calling which sent her west to teach in the first high school in Joliet, Illinois; rather it was the need to escape a home situation she found intolerable;Her religious conscience appeared unmoved by the two great social reforms of the day. The journals evince little interest on Elizabeth's part in either abolition or temperance;With more education than the average woman received in the nineteenth century, Elizabeth Dusenbury found herself poorly prepared for teaching. The home reading curriculum she designed for herself was likely a precursor to the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle which her husband, John Heyl Vincent, unveiled in the Chautauqua pavillion in 1878.