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

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

Early life and education

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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

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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

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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

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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

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  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.