"Our Tools of Learning" : George Arthur Plimpton's Gifts to Columbia University

Education for Women > Page 4

HANNAH MOORE

Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education… in two volumes… the Tenth Edition

London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davis, 1806

Plimpton 376 1806 M81 v.1

Gift of George Arthur Plimpton

[MARY ANN VENNING]

Rudiments of Conchology: Designed as a Familiar Introduction to the Science, for the Use of Young Persons. With Explanatory Plates, and reference to the collection of shells in the British Museum

London: Printed for Harvey and Darton, 1826

Plimpton 594 1826

The text of this work is in the form of a dialogue between a father, and his two children, Lucy and Charles. Not only does the book treat the children as equals, it includes information useful for field trips. For instance, Chapter V begins: “Lucy. We have been to the British Museum; we were so desirous of ascertaining whether we could distinguish other shells than our own, which we have so frequently examined.”

Gift of George Arthur Plimpton

Mary Lamb

Oil on canvas, England, 19th century

Plimpton Portrait Collection

Bequest of Mrs. George Arthur Plimpton, 1950

EMMA WILLARD

An Address to the Public …proposing A Plan for improving Female Education

Middlebury, Vermont: Printed by J. W. Copeland, 1819

Plimpton A376 1819 W66

Emma Willard opened the Middlebury Female Academy in 1814. In the year that this pamphlet was published, she founded the Female Academy in Waterford, New York, but it closed in 1821 for lack of funds. Later that year, the city of Troy asked her to reopen the school there, and it became the Troy Female Seminary, later renamed the Emma Willard School.

Gift of George Arthur Plimpton

JOSEPH EMERSON

Female Education. A Discourse, Delivered at the Dedication of the Seminary Hall in Saugus, January 15, 1822

Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong and Crocker and Brewster, 1822

Plimpton A376 1822 Em3

Gift of George Arthur Plimpton

JOHN STUART MILL

The Subjection of Women

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1869

This volume stayed in the Plimpton family until October, 9, 2008, when it was presented to the Rare Book & Manuscript Library by George Arthur Plimpton’s grandson. It provides proof of Plimpton’s early support for women’s rights: on the free endpaper he wrote his name and the date, October 13, 1877, the year after he graduated from college.

Gift of Francis T. P. Plimpton, Jr. in Honor of this Exhibition

 

Rare Book & Manuscript Library / Butler Library, 6th Fl. East / 535 West 114th St. / New York, NY 10027 / (212) 854-5153 / rbml@libraries.cul.columia.edu