Eastern High School - Echo Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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PROLOGUE THE STORY BEFORE THE STORY The Baltimore Public School System had been making history for more than a decade before QtHigh Schools, were thought of, and for almost two decades before they were thought of in connection with ufemalesiL-history well worth reading, too, for anyone inter- ested in Baltimore and in education and in human nature. The story began on the last day of February, 1826, with an Act of the General Assembly authorizing the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore uto establish Public Schools? and setting a certain period within which this must be done. The Act reminds one of the fairy tales in which a specific. task, like the answering of a riddle or the freeing of a captive princess, must be accomplished within a certain time Cia year and a day? perhapsi or not at all; but it was far more important than any of the fairy-tale provisions! For this Act gave Baltimore the opportunity to secure for herself tche independent organization of her Public School System, free from other legislation than her own, and the appropriation of her revenue for the instruction of her own population? Enter next, Suspense! Procrastination, inaction on the part of the City Council and Mayor of Baltimore, for reasons unknown to the historian, while the time alloted by Act of Assembly uwas fast consuming? . Then, before the time was quite consumed, action! An Ordi- nance of March 1, 1828, provided m for the organization of a Board of School Commissioners iZi for the presenting of an annual report by these Commissioners to the Council on the f1rst Monday in January 60 for the establishment of six male and six female schools on the Monitorial Planibk But there was something else extremely important that the Ordinance failed to provide for, namely, the means for the organiza- tion and support of these dozen schools! And so the newly ap- pointed Commissioners were definitely put Qton the' spoth and Sus- pense made a second entrance. iThe Commissioners refer, with iI.e., the plan of having a large number of pupils under one instructor, who was assisted in keeping order and hearing the lessons by monitors. XIII

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As the work on the history progressed, Miss Hartman became the chief historian. She continued the research and wrote the Pro- logue, Chapters I, II, and III, and the first part of Chapter IV. Miss Cairnes and Miss Deem finished Chapter IV and wrote Chapter V. The names of the 13,264 graduates were compiled by Mrs. Dean, assisted by Miss Neilson and Miss Denowitch. Miss Gallagher was the chief artist. She made the plans for the drawings in the book; and the jacket, the cover and the inside cover are the work of her own hands. Miss Hilda Plitt, an alumna, designed the chapter head- ings; and Mary Talbot, of the Class of 1945, drew the designs on the backbone, the sub-title page and the title page, the ex libris and the first school building. The committee wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the kindness and the skill of Mr. Sidney C. Schultz, associate of Messrs. H. G. Roebuck and Son, and to extend. to this entire publishing organization thanks and appreciation for all their help in making this volume possible. Although the members of the committee have completed their book with a feeling of satisfaction, they are not unaware of its short- comings. They know that the several authors diHer somewhat in style; that the careful reader will notice here and there a broken thread that would have run firmly through the narrative if one author had written it all; that the historical material available was too ex- tensive to be contained in a volume of the size projected, and that, as a result, many interesting events and ideas had to be omitted. Fur- thermore, they know all too well that the work was done under the stress of conducting classes and carrying other daily responsibilities. They take pride and pleasure, nevertheless, in the book over which they have labored; and they modestly hope that a friendly public will find this history to be good reading and that each former student of the school will discover many pages that are of particular interest to her. XII

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more dignity, to the dilemma,i in which they found themselves, due to ccthe disproportion between the duties devolving upon the Commissioners and the means furnished for their accomplishmentfii There was, to be sure, the Cityis distributive share of the school fund for 1825326327328, but this amounted to only $1431.41 and well deserved, when mentally applied to the establishment of twelve schools, the contemptuous epithet of the harassed gentlemen of the Board- iipittancef, tween duties and means presently presented itself to the Council in such a way as to call for further legislation, and accordingly a Supplementary Ordinance was passed in April, 1829. But talas for the Commissioners hopesU the remedy therein designed did not lay in the providing of funds to sustain the schools called for in the original Ordinance, but in reducing the number of schools to'be established-a meager one or moreii now, instead of the ambitious Rsix male and six femaleii! Thus the Board was still in a quandary, for it was an earnest, conscientious, impartial body, well qualified to set a worthy precedent for all future Boards; it considered it necessary, if any schools were established, to establish four at once, one for males and one for females in the eastern and western parts of the city, respectively; and there was the pittancei, received from the Treasurer of the State. And the time was now almost com- pletely consumed! Two motives, however, inspired the Board to act before it was too late, and under this double stimulus it made the decision that repre- sents a true climax in this story. The record of this memorable event gives an enlightening glimpse of one aspect of the cityis life at the close of the 1820is and of the Boardis deep sense of the im- portance of the situation confronting it: fThe BoardJ conscious of the magnitude of the trust com- mitted to them and at the same time aware of the anxiety with which a large portion of their fellow-citizens were looking forward to the commencement of a system of public instruction as the means of an efficient and economical education of their children, at length determined to proceed with the means at their command. The momentous step was taken on July 21, 1829, when it was resolved to establish four schools, relying on the countenance and support of the City Council to carry into execution that which every member of both branches hie, of the General Assemblyl almost XIV