Emma Jacobina Christina Marwedel
Emma Jacobina Christina Marwedel was a pioneering figure in kindergarten education, born in Minden, Germany, in 1818. As the eldest of five children, she took on parental responsibilities at a young age after the death of her mother, leading her to develop a keen interest in the welfare of working women. Influenced by the German educator Friedrich Froebel, Marwedel promoted educational theories that emphasized play as a crucial element in child development. Emigrating to the United States in 1870 at the invitation of educator Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Marwedel initially aimed to establish a kindergarten training school in New York. However, after several challenges, she founded the Pacific Model Training School for Kindergartners in Los Angeles, the first of its kind in California, where she implemented Froebelian methods.
Throughout her career, Marwedel was instrumental in advancing the kindergarten movement in California, helping to establish the first free kindergarten in the state and serving as the first president of the California Kindergarten Union. Despite facing personal and professional obstacles, including health issues and financial difficulties, she remained committed to her educational ideals, advocating for a structured approach to early childhood education. Marwedel passed away in 1893, leaving behind a legacy that significantly influenced the development of kindergarten education in America. Her contributions are documented in several publications, underscoring her role as a crucial advocate for educational reform.
Subject Terms
Emma Jacobina Christina Marwedel
- Emma Jacobina Christina Marwedel
- Born: February 27, 1818
- Died: November 17, 1893
Pioneer in kindergarten education, was born in Minden, Germany, the eldest of five children—three daughters and two sons—of Captain Hein-rich Ludwig Marwedel, a district assistant judge in M in den, and Jacobina Carolina Christiana Maria (Brokmann) Marwedel. The Marwedels, who were members of the Evangelical Lutheran church, held a relatively high social position in the community. Jacobina Marwedel died at an early age, and Emma Marwedel assumed responsibility for raising her younger brothers and sisters. When her father died, the family was left without any financial support. Women in the Marwedels’ social class were not expected to work, but Marwedel was obliged to seek employment. This experience instilled in her a deep interest in the welfare of working women.
Little is known of Marwedel’s education in Germany, but she was apparently well versed in educational theories and in the history of education. At some point she came under the influence of the German educational reformer Friedrich Froebel, who had developed a curriculum based on the systematic use of toys and games that was intended to stimulate children to reach their full potential. It is not known whether Marwedel ever studied directly under Froebel, but she was probably an acquaintance of his wife, who ran a training school for kindergarten teachers in Hamburg.
In 1864 Marwedel joined the board of an association for the promotion of public education in Leipzig, and the following year she became a member of the first German association for the advancement of women. By 1867 she was the first director of Hamburg’s Girls’ Industrial School. Prior to that appointment she had toured Britain, France, and Belgium, studying European industrial schools and the working conditions of women. Her research findings, which led her to support a plan for the establishment of free cooperative school workshops, was published in Why Do We Need Female Industrial Schools and How Shall They Be Established? (1868).
The book was read by the American educator Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, who was already acquainted with the kindergarten work of Froebel and who had dedicated herself to developing the kindergarten movement in America. At Peabody’s invitation Marwedel emigrated in 1870 to the United States. She had originally intended to set up a training school for kindergarten teachers in New York, but was unable to proceed with her plan. With the support of a real-estate development company, she started a horticultural school for young women on Long Island, but the venture ended when the company went bankrupt. Marwedel then moved to Washington, D.C., and in 1871 established a private school that offered a training course for kindergarten teachers as well as kindergarten and primary-level classes for children.
Marwedel ran the school for five years. In 1876, sponsored by the pioneer clubwoman Caroline Maria Seymour Severance, the Froebel Union of New England, and the U.S. Bureau of Education, she took up residence in Los Angeles and founded the Pacific Model Training School for Kindergartners and the California Model Kindergarten. The former was the first kindergarten training school in the state. Its curriculum was based on Froebelian play theories, and it emphasized practical education and physical culture. Its program, like that of Marwedel’s school in Washington, put Froebel’s educational philosophy into action.
Marwedel’s lack of administrative ability, combined with her poor command of English, hindered her enterprise. Attempts to make the school more successful by moving it to Oakland in 1877 and Berkeley in 1879 did not succeed. Finally Marwedel established her Pacific Kindergarten Normal School in San Francisco in 1880. Five years later she retired.
Although her own schools were not successful, Emma Marwedel proved an active crusader for the cause of kindergarten reform. She was one of the main organizers in 1878 of the San Francisco Kindergarten Society, which established the Silver Street Kindergarten, the first free kindergarten in California. The following year she helped set up the California Kindergarten Union and served as its first president; the union was dedicated to spreading Froebelian ideology and doctrines. Marwedel also began an industrial night school for boys.
Marwedel was convinced that an educational system based on a scientific approach to the physical and psychological development of young children and on industrial-arts training for older children, would bring about a society free of insanity and crime whose citizens, both male and female, would enjoy productive labor. Her educational ideas were contained in her principal publications: Conscious Motherhood; or the Earliest Unfolding of the Child in the Cradle, Nursery, and Kindergarten (1877); The Missing Link, the Continuation of the Three-Fold Development of the Child from the Cradle to the Manual-Labor School (1889); and The Connecting Link, to Continue the Three-Fold Development of the Child from the Cradle to the Manual-Labor School (1891). She also invented a set of colored blocks and charts to be used in the kindergarten curriculum. Despite poor health and financial difficulties, Marwedel attended numerous educational meetings at which she publicized her ideas and theories. Largely as a result of her work, California became one of the leaders in the kindergarten movement.
Marwedel died of senile gangrene and malnutrition in San Francisco at the age of seventy-five. After Unitarian funeral services, she was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland.
Emma Marwedel’s works, in addition to those already mentioned, include An Appeal for the Justice to Childhood (n.d.) and Games and Studies in Life Forms and Colors of Nature for Home and School (n.d.). The best accounts of her life can be found in F. H. Swift, Emma Marwedel, 1818-1893: Pioneer of the Kindergarten in California (1931); Committee of Nineteen, Pioneers of the Kindergarten in America (1924); W. S. Monroe, “Emma Marwedel and the Kindergarten,” Education, February 1894; and E. P. Peabody, “Industrial Schools for Women,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, May 1870. Other references can be found in E. Weber, The Kindergarten: Its Encounter with Educational Thought in America (1969) and A. Sayder, Dauntless Women in Childhood Education, 1856-1931 (1972). See also Notable American Women (1971) and the Dictionary of American Biography (1933).