Crocker, Lucretia. Methods of Teaching Geography. Notes of Lessons. Printed at the Request of the Teachers in Attendance. Boston, Mass Boston School Supply Company, 1884
Second Edition (a year after the first edition) of the author's only book. 12mo; 71pp; (1-blank), (12-globes), (6-atlases), (8-maps, charts, diagrams), including 7 illustrations of globes; original decorated brown cloth, gilt lettering on spine; little soiling on back cover, few moderate smudges or light stains in text; contemporary owner's signature on ffe in pencil, but generally very good +. The ads on front endpapers are for Hughes' Educational Wall Maps, with descriptions and prices; ads on back endpapers are for four different Philips' Historical Readers. The globes are made by Joslin and the atlases are those of Philips. The advertised charts, etc. are all kinds, geographical, astronomical, ethnological, and so forth. The Boston School Supply Company were wholesalers of this type of item. The text includes a 2 1/2 page list of recommended geography books. Lucretia Crocker (1829-1886) was an important Boston educator and school administrator who had a longstanding interest in improving geography instruction. Beginning as an inspiring teacher in geography, science and mathematics, and in 1857 becoming professor of mathematics and astronomy at Antioch College under President Horace Mann, Crocker began to gravitate toward a variety of educational projects. In 1864 she assisted her formal pupil, Mary L. Hall, with writing OUR WORLD, FIRST LESSONS IN GEOGRAPHY. Crocker then served on a committee of the American Unitarian Association to select books for Sunday School libraries, was an active member of the New England Freedmen's Aid Society, served as chairman of the executive committee of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes, and was a founding member of the Woman's Education Association of Boston. Coming under the influence of the famous zoologist Louis Agassiz, Crocker began to focus on the improvement of science teaching and on spreading knowledge of science to the general public. In 1873 she headed the science department of the newly founded Society to Encourage Studies at Home. In 1874, a legislative act made it possible, for the first time, for women to serve on the Boston School Committee, and Crocker and five other women, including Lucretia Peabody Hale and Abby W. May, were duly elected. The following year Crocker was one of six persons to serve on the prestigious and influential board of supervisors, a post she stayed in, with responsibility for the natural science, until her death. "Her longstanding interest in upgrading geography instruction was reflected in her METHODS OF TEACHING GEOGRAPHY: NOTES ON LESSONS (1883)...Lucretia Crocker virtually revolutionized science teaching in the Boston schools. In close consultation with leading scientists at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she insisted on the best in equipment and technical reference works for school libraries. She introduced zoology and other new subjects...In recognition of her contribution, she was in 1880 elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a signal tribute to one who had never been a practicing scientist." - NAW. RLIN / OCLC locates only 1 copy of the 1883 edition and 7 copies of this 1884 edition. NAW I, pp. 407-409. Cheney, Memoirs of Lucretia Crocker and Abby W. May. Timelines of American Women's History, p. 177.
$US750
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