Representative women of New England/Mary D. H. Prang

by Mary H. Graves

MARY DANA HICKS PRANG, art educator, residing in Boston, was born in Syracuse, N.Y., October 7, 1836, daughter of Major and Agnes A. (Johnson) Dana. The Dana family to which she belongs has a record in New England of over two hundred and fifty years, its immigrant progenitor, Richard Dana, having come to this country in 1640, and settled in Cambridge, Mass. From Richard¹ the line continued through Daniel,² Thomas,³ Daniel,⁴ Daniel,⁵ to Major Dana, above mentioned, who was of the sixth generation, Mrs. Prang being of the seventh. Mrs. Prang’s father was a prosperous merchant, a man of sterling character, who supported every forward movement. Among his remarkable qualities were a memory that never failed and an usual appreciation of beauty of effect, of fine design, and of harmony of color. Her mother, who was a brilliant woman, a poet and artist, was a leader in the literary society of Syracuse. Benevolent enterprises received her encouragement, and she was an inspiration to all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance. She lived to the advanced age of ninety-four years.

Mary Dana was an observant little girl, and at the age of two years had learned her letters from large handbills. For some time she was a pupil in a private school close by her home. Throughout her school life she was found equal to children three or four years older. She was graduated from the Allen Seminary, Rochester, N.Y., in 1852, after a course of study in mathematics, the languages, and history, with general study of the sciences; and later she pursued special studies at Harvard and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

On her twentieth birthday she became the wife of Charles Spencer Hicks, a promising young lawyer of Syracuse. In less than two years her husband was drowned. On April 15, 1900, she married Louis Prang, of Boston, the distinguished art publisher.

Owing to financial reverses in 1858, she received private pupils, the greater number being in drawing. Her work with these pupils led her to a deep consideration of the influence of art instruction on education. Drawing was commonly regarded as an end to be attained only by the specially gifted. Close study and wide observation confirmed her in the belief that drawing should be a study not for the few only, but for all, a means of expression for every child, and therefore should be an integral part of public school education.

Receiving the appointment of supervisor of drawing in the public schools of Syracuse, she visited several of the larger cities in the country, to observe school conditions. She found that drawing had a place in nearly every course of study, but that there was actually very little work of merit accomplished. More favorable conditions existed in Boston than elsewhere, but even in that city drawing was not given the prominence to which she believed it justly entitled. Strengthened in her judgment respecting the value of art-teaching in the public schools, she continued her work in Syracuse with increased enthusiasm.

About this time Walter Smith was called to Massachusetts to become the head of art education in the State. He established the Normal School in Boston, and gave considerable imMARY D. H. PRANG petus to the study of art. Mrs. Prang visited him in Boston, and, introducing his books in Syracuse, found them of great service in making possible the study of historic ornament, supplying in some measure the examples necessary for her work.

Mrs. Prang^s remarkable physique and excellent health enabled her to complete successfully an unusual amount of labor. Several of her classes in the high school numbered seventy or eighty pupils each, but Mrs. Prang worked with the strength of her convictions, and with a joyousness of spirit that communicated itself to her pupils.

In order that the children might be properly taught, she formed teachers^ classes that were conducted after school hours. In addition she closely supervised the work in all the schools, and was ever ready to help the teachers with pertinent suggestions and cheerful encouragement. Her supervision of the schools of Syracuse extended over more than ten years; and there are teachers in the field to-day, occupying high positions, who are proud to trace the beginning of their successes to the influence of Mrs. Prang, with whom they were associated as high school students or as grade teachers.

Exhibitions of public school drawings were held at the high school building, and, while children and teachers were thus encouraged and stimulated, the general public became educated as to the possibilities of children in this direction. These exhibitions, together with exhibitions made at the State Teachers' Association and at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, were all factors in the progress of art education in the public schools. In Syracuse they attracted the attention of broad-minded people, and comprehensive reports upon them were made by physicians, architects, and other people of education, among whom were Dr. Martin B. Anderson, President of Rochester University, and Dr. Andrew D. White, President of Cornell University. The public schools of Syracuse became well known as foremost in the country in art education.

Endeavoring in every way to spread the influence of art, Mrs. Prang assisted largely in the development of the Social Art Club of Syracuse, the purpose of which was the reading of the history of art and the study of historic and current art. Mrs. Prang was president of the club for five years, and through her efforts its members were able to gather illustrations and to pursue a systematic course of reading relating to ancient, early Christian, and modern art. The club was extremely popular, the wailing list being filled with names of women of the highest social standing. The present president, formerly a student with Mrs. Prang, has held the position for twenty-five years. The Social Art Club was the second club formed in Syracuse, being antedated only by the Portfolio Club, an association of Mrs. Prang's pupils.

From the beginning of Mrs. Prang's connection with the Prang Educational Company in 1878, she was adviser on all the educational phases of the work. Even before her name appeared as joint author of the various publications prepared by the company, all questions involving educational influence and value were brought to her for judgment and advice. Her wide experience and sympathetic insight as to the needs of the teachers contributed largely toward making possible the wide introduction of the Prang work in the public schools of the country. Her wisdom and catholicity helped to make the Prang work acceptable to the utilitarian, to the lover of beauty in form and color, and to the educator. The spirit of the work in its power of developing and uplifting was never forgotten.

Mrs. Prang was among the first to point out that the instruction in art given in the public schools must of necessity cover entirely different ground from that given in the art schools and studios. She taught clearly the difference in the purpose of the two— the one being intended for those specially gifted by nature, while the other means the development of the art instinct, the power of art expression in every child. Advocating these views, she is a frequent speaker at art and educational associations. The difficulties attending the introduction of a comparatively new work and the lack of public school training on the part of supervisors led them to seek frequent conferences with Mrs. Prang, and many super visors submitted to her criticism outlines for work in their schools before giving the work- to teachers and pupils. The need of closer and more systematic instruction for teachers and supervisors becoming apparent, the Prang normal art classes for home study in form, drawing, and color, with instruction by corre- spondence, were organized in 1887. They were designed to assist public school teachers in preparing themselves to teach the subjects of form, drawing, and color. The advantages of these classes were quickly seized upon by hundreds of teachers in all grades, by princi- pals of schools, and by supervisors.

Much of the beneficent and far-reaching influence of this movement is uncjuestionably due to the personality of Mrs. Prang ^as director. Her beautiful spirit made itself distinctly felt even through the cold medium of dictated letters and typewritten correspondence. Her cheerful greeting to the new student, perhaps in Maine, perhaps in California, established from the first a sense of welcome and an as- surance of sympathy.

This instruction by correspondence came like a ray of light in the darkness to many a discouraged, conscientious teacher, struggling in her own out-of-the-way little corner with the great problems of education. For to Mrs. Prang, and to those who shared her faith and her enthusiasm, art education in the public schools meant the uplifting of all the studies to a higher plane. In all her teachings the thought was to lead beyond the actual thing taught to its relation to nature and to human life. Those who were fortunate enough to become students with Mrs. Prang will look back upon the association with a deep sense of pleasure and gratitude.

As Mrs. Prang, from her first decision in 1868 to make public art education her life-work, strenuously devoted herself to its promotion, her work as an author has been largely in that direction. She was joint author with John S. Clark of "The Use of Models" (1886); with John S. Clark and Walter Scott Perry of " The Prang Shorter Course* in Form Study and Draw- ing," "Form Study without Clay," "The Prang Complete Course in Form Study and Drawing," "The Prang Elementary Course in Art Instruction"; and with John S. Clark and Louis Prang of " Suggestions for Color Instruc- tion" (1893). Her latest work is "Art In- struction for Children in Primary Schools," in two volumes (1899).

In the intervals of this very busy life Mrs. Prang has found time to share in other work for the people. She was one of the charter members of the Massachusetts Floral Emblem Society, which was organized July 4, 1894, by Mrs. Ellen A. Richardson, at Winthrop, Mass. One object of the society is to bring about a more rational celebration of the Fourth of July, and to that end the society endeavors to cultivate a love for the beautiful in the minds of school children by the distribution of flowers on that day. Mrs. Prang was presi- dent of the society in 1898 and 1900, and she inaugurated the public distribution of flowers to the children of Boston, in 1898 flowers being given to twenty-five hundred children and in 19(X) to nearly four thousand. In March, 1900, and agani in February, 1901, Mrs. Prang ap- peared before the Legislative committee to advocate the adoption of a floral emblem for the State of Massachusetts.

Mrs. Prang is a member of the Wintergreen Club, the New England Women's Club, the Equal Suffrage Society for Good Government, the Twentieth Century Club, Woman's Edu- cational and Industrial Union, the Boston Business League, the Woman's Alliance, the Eastern Kindergarten Association, the Walt Whitman Fellowship, the Copley Society, the Unity Art Club, the Public School Art League, the Harvard Teachers' Association (of Cambridge, Mass.), the Massachusetts Forestry Association, the Massachusetts Floral Emblem Society, the Massachusetts Industrial Art Teachers' Association, the Social Service League (of New York City), the Onondaga County Historical Association and the Social Art Club (both of Syracuse, N.Y.), the Eastern Art Teachers' Association, the Western Drawing Teachers' Association, the National Educational Association, the American Association for Physical Training, the Massachusetts Prison Association, the Massachusetts Society for Aiding Discharged Convicts, the American Park and Outdoor Association and the Appalachian Mountain Club. She is also a proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum and a subscriber to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.