Emma Miller Bolenius

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Emma Miller Bolenius
BornMay 3, 1876
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
DiedJuly 25, 1968 (aged 92)
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Other namesEmma Miller Whitney
Occupation(s)Educator, magazine writer, textbook author

Emma Miller Bolenius (May 3, 1876 – July 25, 1968) was an American educator and textbook writer.

Early life and education[edit]

Bolenius was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Robert Miller Bolenius and Catherine Mathiot Carpenter Bolenius.[1] Her father wrote Germans in Pennsylvania (1906).[2] She graduated from Maryland College for Women in Lutherville in 1896,[3] earned a bachelor's degree at Bucknell University, and a master's degree at Columbia University.[4]

Career[edit]

Bolenius taught at Maryland College, and at schools in Ohio and New Jersey, and was a professor of English and History at Roanoke Women's College.[4][5] She was known for promoting the "project method" of teaching spoken English: assigning students a real-life situation of "socialized recitation", for example, presenting an award or campaigning for office, to focus and motivate their composition and speech.[6][7] Her pedagogy blended language instruction with "wholesome moral lessons"[8] and the Americanization goals common in public education at the time.[9]

Publications[edit]

Bolenius was best known as a textbook author.[7][10] One journal reviewed her first book, The Teaching of Oral English (1914) as "a delightfully unique textbook that reads like a novel".[11] Bolenius wrote a monthly column on language for McCall's Magazine;[12] she also wrote a monthly column titled "Where Girls May Meet" for the journal American Motherhood, responding to the letters she received from girls.[13][14] Her publications included the following titles:

  • "The Dear Friend from France" (1909, short story)[15]
  • The Teaching of Oral English (1914)[16]
  • Teaching Literature in the Grammar Grades and High School (1915)[17]
  • "The ph Group of Words: How to Enliven Your Work in Language" (1916)[18]
  • "Ingenious Devices Contrived by the Bride and the Handyman" (1916)[19]
  • "Words and How to Use Them" (1916)[12]
  • Everyday English composition (1917)[20]
  • Advanced Lessons in Everyday English (1921)[21]
  • First Grade Manual: A Help-Book for Teachers (1923)[22]
  • Second and Third Grade Manual: A Help-Book for Teachers (1923)[23]
  • Literature in the Junior High School (1926)[24]
  • Mother Goose Book: A Work and Play Book for Silent Reading (1928, with Marion George Kellogg and Gustaf Tenggren)[25]
  • American Literature (1933, co-edited with Thomas H. Briggs and Max J. Herzberg)[26]
  • New Frontiers (1940, co-edited with Thomas H. Briggs, Max J. Herzberg, and Lucile Prim Jackson)[27]
  • Romance (1941, co-edited with Thomas H. Briggs, Max J. Herzberg, and Lucile Prim Jackson)[28]
  • The boys' and girls' readers (a series, multiple dates, also known as The Bolenius Readers; illustrated by Mabel Betsy Hill and others)[29]

Personal life[edit]

Emma Bolenius married radio producer Edwin Morse Whitney in 1933.[30] She lived in Pawling, New York, from 1945 to 1968, and died in 1968, aged 92 years, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.[31][32]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Daughters of the American Revolution (1908). Lineage Book. The Society. p. 318.
  2. ^ Bolenius, Robert Miller (1906). Germans in Pennsylvania. Papers read before the Lancaster County historical society ... October 5, 1906 ... Reprinted from the New era.
  3. ^ "Maryland College". The Baltimore Sun. 1896-06-03. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-05-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b Leonard, John W. (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. p. 112.
  5. ^ "Teachers Conference Room". Catholic School Journal. 16: 509. March 1917 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ "New Books". Pennsylvania School Journal. 70: 200. January 1922.
  7. ^ a b "Lancastrian's Textbooks Used All Over Country". Lancaster New Era. 1927-01-04. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-05-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Elfenbein, Andrew (2018-01-16). The Gist of Reading. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-1-5036-0410-0.
  9. ^ Enoch, Jessica (2008-05-16). Refiguring Rhetorical Education: Women Teaching African American, Native American, and Chicano/a Students, 1865-1911. SIU Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-8093-2835-2.
  10. ^ "Personalities". Lancaster New Era. 1931-07-15. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-05-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ J. J. S. (1916). "Review of Bolenius, The Teaching of Oral English". The Quarterly Journal of Public Speaking. 2: 103.
  12. ^ a b Bolenius, Emma Miller (August 1916). "Words and How to Use Them". McCall's Magazine. 43: 58 – via Internet Archive.
  13. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (December 1914). "Where Girls May Meet". American Motherhood. 26: 424–427.
  14. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (October 1916). "Where Girls May Meet". American Motherhood. 26: 270–272.
  15. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (February 22, 1909). "The Dear Friend from France". San Antonio Light. p. 4. Retrieved May 10, 2022 – via Newspaper Archive.
  16. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1914). "The teaching of oral English". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  17. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1915). Teaching literature in the grammar grades and high school. Robarts - University of Toronto. Boston, Houghton Mifflin company.
  18. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1916). "The ph Group of Words: How to Enliven Your Work in Language". The Elementary School Journal. 17 (4): 281–285. doi:10.1086/454546. ISSN 0013-5984. JSTOR 993912. S2CID 144409833.
  19. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (August 1916). ""Ingenious Devices Contrived by the Bride and the Handyman"". McCall's Magazine. 43: 56–57 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1917). "Everyday English composition". HathiTrust Digital Library. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  21. ^ "Advanced lessons in everyday English, by Emma Miller Bolenius". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  22. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1923). "First grade manual : a help-book for teachers". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  23. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1924). "Catalog Record: Second and third grade manual; a help-book." HathiTrust Digital Library. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  24. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1926–1928). "Literature in the junior high school". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  25. ^ "Review of Mother Goose Book. A Work and Play Book for Silent Reading". The Journal of Education. 109 (12): 352. 1929. doi:10.1177/002205742910901216. ISSN 0022-0574. JSTOR 42841400. S2CID 220811955.
  26. ^ Smith, Dora V. (1933). Briggs, Thomas H.; Herzberg, Max J.; Bolenius, Emma Miller (eds.). "A Usable Anthology of American Literature". The School Review. 41 (10): 796–798. doi:10.1086/439583. ISSN 0036-6773. JSTOR 1080324. S2CID 147371456.
  27. ^ Briggs, Thomas H.; Jackson, Lucile Prim; Bolenius, Emma Miller; Herzberg, Max J., eds. (1941). "New Frontiers". The Journal of Education. 124 (3): 105. doi:10.1177/002205744112400322. ISSN 0022-0574. JSTOR 42847691. S2CID 220815251.
  28. ^ Thornsburgh, Zada (1942). "Review of Romance". The English Journal. 31 (3): 252–253. doi:10.2307/805624. ISSN 0013-8274. JSTOR 805624.
  29. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1923). "The boys' and girls' readers". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  30. ^ "Authoress Becomes Bride; Miss Emma M. Bolenius Married to Edwin M. Whitney". Lancaster New Era. 1933-07-29. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-05-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "Emma Whitney, Author, Dies". Lancaster New Era. 1968-07-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-05-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ^ "Mrs. Whitney, Pawling Author". Poughkeepsie Journal. 1968-07-27. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-05-10 – via Newspapers.com.