Once in a while, I find something that intrigues me, that leads me down a new path. Almost always I find something wonderful along that path even if the path doesn't seem to take me anywhere equally wonderful. (Or something like that. Metaphor is weak today.)
So yesterday, I ran across a paper on the internet. It was entitled "'Modernity' in Education around 1900," written by Jürgen Oelkers and sourced as "Opening lecture Conference 'Pragmatism in the Reticle of Modernization - Contexts, Concepts, Critiques' Centro Stefano Franscini Ascona, 7 September 2008." [https://www.ife.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:ffffffff-bb47-55f9-0000-0000209b615d/Ascona2008english.pdf, accessed March 26, 2025]. I think I was searching for information about Standard Hall, the location at which Felix Adler delivered what is called the "Founding Address" in 1876. Since Oelkers mentions that lecture and its location, Google gave me this new path to follow.
Oeklers' bibliography included two Adler references that I had not seen before.
Adler, F. (1880): Educational Needs. In: The North American Review Vol. 136, No. 316 (March), p. 290-295.
Adler, F. (1889): The Democratic Ideal in Education. With an Illustration from the Workingman's School and Free Kindergarten, New York. In: The Century Vol. XXXVIII, New Series Vol. XVI (May to October), p. 927-930.
So I looked them up. Well, I looked up the first one, which took me further down that branch of the path to The North American Review. I have yet to backtrack and follow the other branch (The Century), but I'm sure that will also be interesting. The NAR branch was a bit of a challenge since the serial is still published, but its earlier volumes are no longer archived by the publisher. Fortunately, The Hathi Trust has archived several volumes of the journal. The NAR was founded in 1815 in Boston. Oelkers references the 136th volume and gives the date as 1880, so it took a bit of searching to find that the 136th volume was published from January to June of 1883. As it happens, the NAR issues two volumes per year.
A bit more search showed that Adler's article was part of a set of articles on the same topic by four contributors, including:
- G. Stanley Hall (earned the first PhD in psychology in the US);
- Thomas Hunter (founder of the Female Normal and High School, now Hunter College);
- Mary Putnam Jacobi (American physician, first woman graduate of a pharmacy college in the US).
- Moncure D. Conway's name comes up often because of his association with the South Place Chapel in London, which was renamed the South Place Ethical Society when Stanton Coit replaced him as "leader." Later, Conway replaced Coit, who moved on to the London Ethical Society. South Place was eventually renamed as Conway Hall. Did he lead South Place as an Ethical Society when he replaced Coit? It's possible, of course, but I think Conway is an important historical figure to whom we owe some concern for accuracy. That would also entail more research as well.
- Edwin P. Whipple's article is not directly related to Ethical Culture except to the extent that it relates to the two named writers who influenced and/or caught the attention of Ethical Culture leaders. M. M. Mangasarian delivered two lectures at Carnegie Hall in 1894 concerning Carlyle and then Emerson. Other leaders talked about them as well. While this article doesn't seem like a candidate for the Bibliography, I'd certainly keep it handy for reference if I were to write about what various lecturers in the Movement had to say about Emerson and Carlyle.
- Frederic Henry Hedge's article doesn't seem to point toward Ethical Culture either. He was however, one of the early Transcendentalists and, although he left that Movement eventually, he remained within the circle of friendships that arose from it. His focus on ethics, especially in a journal that published Adler, warrants some attention, at the very least. (I may have talked myself into adding this one to the Bibliography.)
- O. B. Frothingham was Adler's mentor in the Free Religious Association. Adler left the FRA in 1882 because it seemed unable to walk the talk, but he hosted the memorial service for Frothingham at Carnegie Hall before the New York society for Ethical Culture in 1895. As ubiquitous as Frothingham's name is whenever the early years of Ethical Culture are discussed, I tend to think we don't know enough about the man, his work, and his influence on Felix Adler. Yet another path to follow? (Yes.)
Oelkers, Jürgen. "'Modernity' in Education around 1900," in Pragmatism and Modernity. edited by Daniel Tröhler, Thomas Schlag, and Fritz Osterwalder. 57-79. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Adding it to the Bibliography now.