Searching for interesting tidbits about the early history of our original Free Academy, I turned to the digital archive collection at City College. There I noticed an interesting Free Academy Report from November 14, 1849, the year that our predecessor, the Free Academy, opened. It was a report of a “Special Committee, appointed to inquire into the propriety and expediency of establishing a Female Free Academy.”

The road to establishing an academy on par with the male Free Academy, later to be the College of the City of New York was a long one, with the 19th century “cult of true womanhood” attitude to women a significant barrier.

This early Free Academy Report seems to be the first official recognition of the need for higher education for women.

“It is no longer questioned, that the free privileges of an Academic course are to be afforded to the male pupils of our common schools. The thing now proposed is to offer the same advantages to female pupils. The blessings of a superior education are placed within the reach of half the children of the city. It is now proposed to place the same blessings within the reach of the other half. “[1]

The negatives for female education included an argument that there is no “public advantage” for educating women since:

“They are not to distinguish themselves in the pursuits of business or in the walks of science. They are not to benefit mankind by discoveries, or by the wonder-working results of combined intelligence and industry. Their sphere is not in the business of the world, but in the quiet of the family.” [2]

This argument was expanded upon in the pages that followed, but an argument favoring female education was also given. “The influence of female intelligence and refinement is one of the most marked features of American civilization.” [3] The committee went on to say that a Free Academy for females will benefit the whole community. Also, the characteristics of the “cult of true womanhood” were reinforced by saying how important motherhood and marriage were. The argument was also presented but disputed, that opening such an academy to all classes of women was undesirable. “It is, assuredly, a most difficult matter to reason with social prejudice.” [4] The final plea for the academy was the need for the proper instruction of teachers. “Not only are they fitted by nature to become the best teachers of the young, but they will always be the most economical teachers.” [5] It was left up to the Legislature to decide the fate of a female academy.

The New York Herald a few months later reported on this “secret” report, and noted that the committee unanimously supported establishing a female academy.

“The report more than verges on the idea of the physical and mental equality of the female, and her consequent right to perfect social and political equality…There is a manifest difference, both in body and mind, between the male and female in mankind…If the principle contended be sound, it will result, when pushed to its legitimate consequences, in the election, some fine day, of a female President of the United States, female Senators, a female Mayor, a female General, a female Captain, and in fact, a female everything.” [6]

There was really very little attention given to this issue in the years that followed. In 1854 the Laws Relative to the Public Instruction in the City of New York there was again a discussion of establishing such an institution, and intermittently there were discussions of female Normal Schools. There was no action taken until 1869 when a Female Normal and High School was recommended. [7]

This year is the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Normal School, now Hunter College, the second municipal college in New York City. It was twenty years in the planning stage, but finally women had a college of their own.

Notes

[1] The Free Academy in New York, v.10131-v10138, November 14, 1849, p.2.

[2] Ibid, p.4-5.

[3] Ibid p.9.

[4] Ibid, p.15.

[5] Ibid, p.22.

[6] “Free Academy for Females,” New York Herald, February 5, 1850, p.21.

[7] Sandra Roff, “Teaching the Teachers: Black Education in Nineteenth Century New York City,” New York History, Spring 2018, v.99, issue 2, p. 183-195.