Hallowell, Anna (1831–1905)

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Hallowell, Anna (1831–1905)

American welfare worker and educational reformer who was the first woman to be chosen as a member of the Board of Public Education in Philadelphia. Born on November 1, 1831, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died on April 6, 1905, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; daughter of Morris Longstreth and Hannah Smith (Penrose) Hallowell.

Anna Hallowell was born in Philadelphia in 1831, the eldest child of Quakers, Morris Longstreth Hallowell and Hannah Penrose Hallowell . Anna and her six brothers and sisters learned to hate the institution of slavery from the example of their parents; Anna's father was a silk importer who risked financial ruin at the hands of his Southern business associates to speak out against slavery. Anna's personal activism at first focused on abolishing the institution of slavery, and later included the eradication of poverty through education reform. At 15, Anna Hallowell began her work with the poor by bringing black children to her parents' yard to play. By the time she reached her 20s, she was serving on the board of the Home for Destitute Colored Children, where she also worked as its secretary.

In 1859, Hallowell further delved into the abolitionist cause by attending the trial of fugitive slave Daniel Dangerfield to protest the Fugitive Slave Act. With the onset of the Civil War, Hallowell's brothers served in the Union army, and Hallowell converted the family home into a hospital where she nursed her injured brothers and their comrades.

In the late 1870s, Hallowell did relief work with the many freed slaves who had fled to Philadelphia after the war. In 1878, she joined others to establish the Society for Organizing Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicancy which later became the Society for Organizing Charity. She served on the Society's Committee on the Care and Education of Dependent Children. In 1883, when the group was reorganized as the Children's Aid Society, Hallowell became a member of its first board of directors.

Through her work Hallowell soon came to believe that the solution to the problems of poverty was in the education of the city's children. In 1879, she began a personal project to establish free kindergartens in poor neighborhoods. With the aid of several friends, she enrolled 60 children in kindergarten. Two years later, she organized the Sub-Primary School Society with partial funding of the kindergartens by the city. By January of 1887, the Board of Public Education took control of all 27 kindergartens. Hallowell continued to work toward improving education for children and was instrumental in introducing both manual training and domestic science into the classroom. She eventually became the first woman to be chosen as a member of the board of public education. While in this role, she introduced training courses for kindergarten teachers into the Philadelphia Normal School for Girls. She remained on the board for 14 years where she continued to introduce innovative courses of study.

Hallowell focused attention on the importance of appointing women as inspectors for state prisons, asylums, and hospitals for women and children, and in 1882 was appointed by the president of the State Board of Charities to the position of chair of a committee of women visitors for Philadelphia County. She remained in this position for 17 years.

In 1890, she undertook one of her most challenging projects: the rehabilitation of the James Forten School, a run-down building with an unsavory reputation. Hallowell oversaw the remodeling of the building, hired trained teachers, and added such courses as carpentry, sewing and cooking, and art and music to the curriculum. Within ten years, the student enrollment more than doubled.

In 1893, with Mary E. Mumford (1824–1935), Hallowell founded the Civic Club, an organization of upper-class women working for social reform. She chaired discussion programs as head of the club's education department. Anna Hallowell died on April 6, 1905, in Philadelphia of heart disease and chronic bronchitis. She was cremated and her ashes were buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery.