National Louis University - National Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 21 text:

THE NATIONAL 9' E mul llIllllmmllllllllllllllllmlnllllnmlululnluul ummm:ullllulllnllr j 4 To Miss Baker, the President of their College, the students here express their admiration and loyalty. In one small person she embodies the qualif ties that spell National for them, and with her inspiring dignity has won the sincere love of each student. F 'J i 3 lullllllmn r muluum Seventeen

Page 20 text:

in 1 EDNA DEAN BAKER President of the College

Page 22 text:

THE NATIONAL a -------------------------------------.------------------- --------- f Elizabeth H afrfrison HE death of Elizabeth Harrison, founder and President Emeritus of the National Kindergarten and Elementary College, on October 31, 1927, was an inestimable loss to the College and brought to a close a career which, in achievement and benefit to humanity, has few equals in our own or other generations. Miss Harrison, who was born in Kentucky in 1849, received her early education in Davenport, Iowa, and later attended the Froebel Kindergarten Training School in Chicago, the St. Louis Kindergarten Training School, Madam Kraus Bolte's School in New York and studied with outstanding edu' cators in Europe. In the early eighties Miss Harrison opened a kindergarten in Chicago and realizing the need of mothers for education in the care and training of their children she opened classes for the mothers of her kindergarten children. The outgrowth of these classes was the organization of the Chicago Kindergarten College fnow the National Kindergarten and Elementary College in 1886 with Miss Harrison and Mrs. ohn N. Crouse one of her kindergarten mothers as co principals. The growth of the College in forty one years from a handful of mothers meeting in one small room to a College with a yearly enrollment of 700 can be explained only through a realization of the splendor of the vision which Miss Harrison had caught the indomitable will with which she faced the task of making the vision a reality and the service and sacrifice which she willingly poured out to attain the goal. A brilliant lecturer Miss Harrison was one of the first women to appear on the program of the National Education Association' she was a leader in the International Kindergarten Union and many other organizations and the author of books on Child Study unsurpassed for clearness of vision and sym- pathetic understanding ofthe little child. In 1920 owing to failing health Miss Harrison resigned from the pres idency of the College and from that time until her death lived in San Antonio Texas where the end came quietly. Her work is not ended' it lives on in her books and in the lives of those she touched. Even to the students who did not have the opportunity of knowing her she is a wonderfully real person. Through contact with those who knew and loved her we have come to know her toowtall slender dark her fine eyes and her understanding smile-and Miss Bakers words have brought her close to us: Elizabeth Harrison was the most inspiring woman I have ever known. Cver and over again this tribute has been paid-I cannot suggest all that con tributed to that inspiration for like every truly great personality she eludes definition. When she entered a room no matter how silently you felt her pres ence. As you turned to look you discovered her with a look of keenest inter est in her face whether it was a little child a group of students or a work of art that she was observing. It was an intensely human face full of light especially when she smiled and often vibrant with feeling. It was the sort of face that impelled your conidences' you liked to talk to Miss Harrison. Nor was she an entirely silent listener- she contributed to the conversa tion-a word of appreciation of encouragement of joyous comradeship of 9 , I , L s I , 1 1 f f 3 3 , 7 5 7 7 f 1 J 7 5 5 7 7 7 1 1 L s L 5 1 s 1 u L f , 1 7 f 7 , Q , 7 7 9 9 L s ' 3 , 5 5 AX Q' Y uulluumr mul lllm X ' lx- ' Q l Eighteen