Women of distinction/Chapter 37
CHAPTER XXXVII.
JOAN IMOGEN HOWARD, A. M.
This very excellent lady, of whom the race is proud, Joan Imogen Howard, was born in the city of Boston, Mass. Her father, Edwin F. Howard, is an old and well-known citizen of that city, and her mother, Joan L.
JOAN IMOGEN HOWARD, A. M.
Howard, now deceased, was a native of New York. She has one sister, Miss Adeline T. Howard, the principal of the Wormley School, Washington, D. C., and one brother, E. C. Howard, M. D., a prominent physician in the city of Philadelphia. Having a mother cultured, refined and intellectual, her earliest training was received from one well qualified to guide and direct an unfolding mind. At the age of fourteen, having completed the course prescribed in the Wells Grammar School, Blossom Street, Boston, she graduated with her class and was one of the ten honor pupils who received silver medals. Naturally this souvenir of her girlhood is greatly prized. Her parents encouraged her desire to pursue a higher course of instruction, and consequently, after a successful entrance examination, she became a student of the Girls' High and Normal School, as it was then called. She was the first colored young lady to enter and after a three years' course to graduate from this, which was at that time the highest institution of learning in her native city.
A situation as an assistant teacher in Colored Grammar School No. 4, now Grammar School No. 81, was immediately offered. Here she has labored ever since, endeavoring to harmoniously develop the pupils of both sexes who have been committed to her care, so that their physical, intellectual and moral powers might be so trained as to produce human beings of a high order. Many of her pupils have become men and women of worth and hold positions of honor and trust.
For several years an evening school, which was largely attended and of which she was principal, was carried on in the same building.
As time advances more is required of all individuals in every branch of labor. Teaching is no exception, and in recognition of this she took a course in "Methods of Instruction" at the Saturday sessions of the Normal College of New York City. She holds a diploma from this institution (1877), and thus has the privilege of signing "Master of Arts" to her name. This year (1892) still another step has been taken, for after a three years' course at the University of the Cit' of New York she has completed the junior course in the Department of Pedagogy and received the degree of "Master of Pedagogy."
The position on the Board of Women Managers of the State of New York for the Columbian Exposition was entirely unsought by her. Her experience has been a very pleasant one thus far, as she has received the most courteous treatment from the other ladies with whom she is associated in this vast undertaking. Her special position on the Board is as one of five of the Committee on Education.