Lucy Sprague Mitchell (July 2, 1878 – October 15, 1967) was an American educator and children's writer, and the founder of

Bank Street College of Education Bank Street College of Education is a private school and graduate school in New York City. It consists of a graduate-only teacher training college and an independent nursery-through-8th-grade school. In 2020 the graduate school had about 65 ful ...

Early life and education

Lucy Sprague was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois, the daughter of Otho A. S. Sprague and Lucia Atwood Sprague. Her father was a businessman. She attended Radcliffe College from 1896 to 1900, graduating with honors in philosophy. During her time at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

, Mitchell lived with

Alice Freeman Palmer Alice Freeman Palmer (born Alice Elvira Freeman; February 21, 1855 – December 6, 1902) was an American educator. As Alice Freeman, she was president of Wellesley College from 1881 to 1887, when she left to marry the Harvard professor George H ...

and George Herbert Palmer on Quincy Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Because of the college's strict codes of gender segregation at the time, Mitchell had to circumvent the all-male

Harvard Yard Harvard Yard is the oldest and among the most prominent parts of the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The yard has a historic center and modern crossroads and contains List of Harvard College freshman dormitories, most ...

in order to reach

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Museum of Comparative Zoology The Museum of Comparative Zoology (formally the Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology and often abbreviated to MCZ) is a zoology museum located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three natural-history r ...

, where she worked in the Radcliffe Zoological Laboratory. Her sister Mary married scientist Adolph C. Miller. Pianist

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (October 30, 1864 – November 4, 1953), born Elizabeth Penn Sprague, was an American pianist and patron of music, especially of chamber music. Biography Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's father was a wealthy wholesale ...

was her first cousin.

Career

Mitchell was the first dean of women at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

, where she lectured in the English Department and promoted educational and career opportunities for women students from 1903 to 1912. She was succeeded by her assistant, fellow Radcliffe alumna Lucy Ward Stebbins. In 1916, influenced by the work of

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...

, Mitchell cofounded the Bureau of Educational Experiments (BEE) in New York City to study and develop optimal learning environments for children. The BEE evolved into the Bank Street College of Education. Mitchell wrote over twenty books, including ''North America'' (1931), ''Streets: Stories for Children Under Seven'' (1933), ''Horses Now and Long Ago'' (1938), ''The Here and Now Story Book'' (1938), ''See What's in the Grass'' (1945), ''Our Children and Our Schools'' (1950), and ''Believe and Make Believe'' (1956). She also wrote a memoir of her marriage, ''Two Lives: The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself'' (1953).

Personal life

Lucy Sprague married economist

Wesley Clair Mitchell Wesley Clair Mitchell (August 5, 1874 – October 29, 1948) was an American economist known for his empirical work on business cycles and for guiding the National Bureau of Economic Research in its first decades. Mitchell was referred to as Thor ...

in 1912. They raised four children together, including social scientist

Arnold Mitchell Arnold Mitchell (February 18, 1918 – July 17, 1985) was a social scientist and consumer futurist who worked for SRI International and created a noted psychographic methodology, Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles (VALS). Early life and edu ...

. W. C. Mitchell died in 1948. Lucy Sprague Mitchell died in 1967, aged 89 years, in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

holds a collection of her papers. Joyce Antler published a book-length biography of Mitchell, ''Lucy Sprague Mitchell: The Making of a Modern Woman'' (Yale University Press 1988).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Lucy Sprague 1878 births 1967 deaths American educators American women children's writers American children's writers Radcliffe College alumni Deans of women Presidents of Bank Street College of Education Women heads of universities and colleges