Mary Sheldon Barnes

Mary Sheldon Barnes
Mary Sheldon Barnes, date unknown
Born	Mary Downing Sheldon September 15, 1850(1850-09-15) Oswego, New York, United States
Died	August 27, 1898(1898-08-27) (aged 47)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Educator Historian

Mary Downing Sheldon (September 15, 1850 – August 27, 1898) was an American educator and historian. Her teaching style and publications were considered ahead of their time; she utilized the a source method that encouraged students to develop their own researching utilizing primary sources and their own problem solving skills. Sheldon was teacher of and major influence on author and socialist Anna Strunsky^[1].

Early life

Mary Downing Sheldon was born in Oswego, New York, the oldest of five children, to Fraces Stiles and Edward Austin Sheldon. Her father was the founder of the Oswego State Normal and Training School, where she would graduate from in 1869. After graduation, she taught there for two years, before becoming enrolled in the University of Michigan, graduating in classical studies in 1874. Sheldon returned to Oswego State Normal, where she would teach history, Latin, Greek and botany. In late 1876 she would begin teaching history at Wellesley College for two and a half years. Her teaching style was considered unorthodox at the time, focusing on the case method process. In 1879 she resigned due to poor health and internal conflicts at the college, leaving behind teaching to travel abroad and rest for a year. In 1882 she returned to Oswego Normal to write her work Studies in General History, which was published in 1885.^[2]

Teaching and writing career

On August 6, 1885 she married Earl Barnes, a former student, who was eleven years younger than her. In 1891 Barnes was appointed head of the department of education at Stanford University, and in March 1892 Sheldon joined the department of history at Stanford. At Stanford she taught 19th-century European and Pacific Slope history. The couple wrote Studies in American History which was published in 1891, and again in 1896. Sheldon would go on to publish Studies in Historical Method, which was directed towards teachers and layman historians interested in learning about historical method. In 1897, the couple resigned from Stanford to travel and write in Europe.^[2]

Death and legacy

On August 27, 1898 she died of heart disease in London. Her teaching method encouraged students to "study the primary sources in an 'independent and solitary' way using her questions as guides to problem solving...in order to develop the students abilities to observe, weigh evidence, to generalize and to exercise creative historical imagination." This approach was described as progressive for the time, utilizing a case method that "hastened the improvement of more conventional history textbooks."^[2] In 1985 and 1986 the Mary Sheldon Barnes and Earl Barnes Papers were donated to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College by Betty Barnes, the daughter-in-law of Earl Barnes, and his second wife, Anna Koehler Barnes.^[3]

References

1. ^ James Boylan (1998). "Revolutionary Lives". Books. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/boylan-revolutionary.html. Retrieved 13 Aug 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Mary Sheldon Barnes Papers". Sophia Smith Collection. Smith College. 2001. http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss2_bioghist.html. Retrieved 13 Aug 2011. 
3. ^ "Mary Sheldon Barnes Papers". Sophia Smith Collection. Smith College. 2001. http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss2_admin.html. Retrieved 13 Aug 2011.