Article 5: Transatlantic Dialogue: Pestalozzian Influences on Women’s Education in the Early Nineteenth Century America

Historical accounts of Swiss educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) have focused primarily on his achievements and the achievements of his male disciples in and outside Switzerland (Morf 1887; Guimps 1890; Pinloche 1901; Jedan 1981). This research will add a new chapter to the study of Pestalozzi by revealing the role and contribution of his female disciples in Switzerland and the United States. Although women who practiced Pestalozzianism significantly influenced the development of pedagogy in the early-nineteenth century, their names rarely appear in connection to Pestalozzi and some are absent from the historical record. Instead, the beginnings of Pestalozzianism in the United States are typically linked to William McClure, Joseph Neef, and Robert Owen in the first half of the nineteenth century, and Edward Sheldon’s teaching practices in the second half of the nineteenth century.