Schaffer Law Library Blog

KATE STONEMAN’S DAY JOB

We remember Kate Stoneman for two things: (1) as the first woman admitted to the New York State Bar, in 1883; and (2) as the first woman graduate of Albany Law School, in 1898. Stoneman, of course, accomplished much more than this, both as a leader in the women’s suffragist movement, and as a temperance and peace activist. We tend to forget, however, that she studied law only as an avocation, that she did not earn her living by it.¹ She had a day job.

Stoneman graduated from the New York State Normal School² (now the University at Albany) in 1866, at the age of 25. After she taught school for several months, the Normal School hired her back as “Teacher of Drawing and Penmanship,” a position she held for forty years.³ The Normal School in those days offered a two-year program leading to a certificate that licensed holders to teach in the state’s public schools. What part did the Teacher of Drawing and Penmanship play in this program?

By Stoneman’s time, public schools had higher ambitions than just inculcating the 3 R’s. Perhaps these higher ambitions were best stated by Andrew Sloan Draper, State Commissioner of Common Schools (and Albany Law School alumnus, class of 1871):⁴[The public schools] cannot teach him [the student] all he is ever to know. They can

arouse his faculties. They can give him the elements of an education upon which he

can build for himself and they can stimulate his ambition so that he will want to build

for himself. If they do this they will do much.⁵In this newer educational environment, the teacher had to be trained not only to inculcate the “elements” (basic literacy and numerosity), but also to arouse in students ambitions and abilities to educate themselves once they left school (and it must be remembered that up until after World War I, over 90% of the population left school after the 8^th grade, at around the age of 13). The two subjects Kate Stoneman taught played essential roles in both aspects of a teacher’s training.

Penmanship

Younger people today (those born, say, after 1960) have childish handwriting: a sort of round, joined printing that can only be described as infantile. Older people have somewhat better handwriting, but nothing like the beautiful hands of their grandparents. In the old days, public-school graduates, if nothing else, displayed a high standard of penmanship; teaching penmanship was an essential skill of the public school teacher. Penmanship was a required first-year course at the Normal School, and Miss Stoneman taught it. Her standard was the Spencerian style, which came in “business” and “ornate” varieties; even the former would be impressive enough for an engraved wedding invitation nowadays. (The somewhat simpler Palmer method came into use only in the later 1890’s.)

Drawing

Drawing–what we would call art education–played a central role in the second aspect of the teacher’s task: teaching students interests that they would carry with them even after they left school (the theory being that students would develop not only an appreciation for art but also a skill of practical use in the working world). Drawing was a required subject in both years of the Normal School’s curriculum. Student had to demonstrate mastery of “linear drawing” (of geometric forms) for admission; Miss Stoneman taught them how to teach not only this subject, but also free-hand drawing and drawing from models.

The subjects Kate Stoneman taught were thus central to the broader view of teacher education that the State Normal School sought to encourage. If nothing else, their mastery presumably gave Kate Stoneman the best penmanship of any lawyer in New York State.