George Barrell Emerson

George Barrell Emerson (September 12, 1797 – March 14, 1881) was an American educator and pioneer of women's education.

George Barrell Emerson
Born	(1797-09-12)September 12, 1797
Died	March 14, 1881(1881-03-14) (aged 83)
Spouse(s)	Olivia Buckminster (1st), Mary Rotch Flemming (2nd)
Signature

Emerson School for Girls, Boston, ca.1850; photo by Southworth & Hawes (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Biography

He was born in Kennebunk, Massachusetts (since 1820 in Maine). He graduated from Harvard College in 1817, and soon after took charge of an academy in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Between 1819 and 1821, he was the tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard, and in 1821 was chosen principal of The English High School for Boys in Boston. In 1823 he opened the Emerson School for Girls in the same city, which he conducted until 1855, when he retired from professional life. He was one of the founders of the Boston Society of Natural History, which he became the president of.^[1] Later he was appointed by Governor Everett chairman of the commissioners for the zoological and botanical survey of Massachusetts.^[2] He died in Newton, Massachusetts.

Family

He was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson.^[3] He married his first wife, Olivia Buckminster on May 9, 1824.^[4] After her death on July 10, 1832, he married Mary Rotch Flemming on November 24, 1834.^[5]

Legacy

• Emerson Preparatory School in Washington, D.C. was named in his honor.^[6]

Further reading

Works by Emerson

• An address, delivered at the opening of the Boston Mechanics' Institution, February 7, 1827.
• The school and the schoolmaster. Part I by Alonzo Potter; Part II. by George Emerson. Boston: W.B. Fowle & N. Capen, 1843.
• Report on the Trees and Shrubs growing naturally in the Forests of Massachusetts (Boston, 1846)
• Manual of Agriculture (with C. Flint; 1861)
• “Education in Massachusetts: early legislation and history,” a lecture of a course by members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, delivered before the Lowell Institute, February 16, 1869.
• “What we owe to Louis Agassiz, as a teacher.” An address by George B. Emerson, before the Boston Society of Natural History, January 7, 1874.
• Reminiscences of an Old Teacher (1878)

Works about Emerson

• Biography at Harvard.edu - Biography and story of the founding of the Arnold Arboretum