Myrtilla Miner - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Myrtilla Miner was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

educator and abolitionist whose school for African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s, established against considerable opposition, grew to a successful and long-lived teachers institution.

Miner was educated at the Clover Street Seminary in Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

(1840-44), and taught at various schools, including the Newton Female Institute (1846-47) in Whitesville, Mississippi, where she was refused permission to conduct classes for African American girls. In 1851, with encouragement from Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher was a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century...

and with a board of trustees which included Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins was a wealthy American entrepreneur, philanthropist and abolitionist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland, now most noted for his philanthropic creation of the institutions that bear his name, namely the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Johns Hopkins University and its associated...

and other Quaker philanthropists, Miner opened the Normal School for Colored Girls

Normal School for Colored Girls

The Normal School for Colored Girls established in Washington, D.C. in 1851, was an institution of learning and training for young African-American women, especially so that they might become teachers...

in Washington, DC. The school was eventually merged with other local institutions to form the University of the District of Columbia

University of the District of Columbia

The University of the District of Columbia is a historically black, public university located in Washington, D.C. UDC is one of only a few urban land-grant universities in the country and a member of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...

.

Miner guided the school through its fruitful early years but had to lessen her connection because of failing health. In 1857, Emily Howland

Emily Howland

Emily Howland was a philanthropist and educator. An active abolitionist, Howland taught at Normal School for Colored Girls in Washington, D.C. from 1857 to 1859. During the Civil War she worked in Arlington, Virginia teaching freed slaves to read and write as well as administering to the sick...

took over leadership of the school and in 1861 Miner went to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

in an attempt to regain her health. A carriage

Carriage

A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...

accident in 1864 ended that hope and Miner died shortly after her return to Washington, DC.

Miner Elementary School in Washington, DC is named in her honor.

External links

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