Louisa May Alcott Cabinet Photograph with original poem by Alcott on the back. (Mather Collection).
Over the weekend, the Williams Monroe Special Collections, at the Concord Free Public Library in Concord, Massachusetts, unveiled its newest collection of Alcott Family works, generously gifted to the library in honor of Sant Bani School by Timothy Mather, a longtime supporter of the school. Tim gifted the library his curated collection of Alcott family letters, artwork, books, manuscripts, and photographs. This was assembled with the help of Kent Bicknell, founding head of Sant Bani School, who has placed a similar collection of Alcott artifacts at the library in the past. The donation was made with the intention that it would “be treasured, enhance current holdings, stay together, and be available for all to access.” (From a New Eden in Concord to Little Women). It was also Tim’s intention that our school be associated with the collection going forward. Head of School Elizabeth Clayton and Director of Advancement Amy Paganelli were able to attend the unveiling, where Kent was a featured guest speaker along with the foremost scholar in Alcott studies, Professor Daniel Shealy. Sant Bani School is honored to be named and acknowledged in this landmark collection, linking the Alcotts’ educational philosophy to our own work as educators.
SBS alumni may remember reading A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott with Kent’s 12th Grade English class, a work that Kent acquired and published in 1995. Many of us have known and loved Louisa May Alcott’s most famous work, Little Women. Kent’s interest in the entire Alcott family, and the 19th-century Transcendentalist movement of Concord, Massachusetts, was closely aligned with his educational philosophy when serving as Head of School for 44 years. He makes the comparison to Bronson Alcott’s Temple School in Boston (1834-1839). Kent says, “Alcott believed that each child carried a divine individuality best nurtured through active conversation; he understood learning as character building; and he stressed a reverence for life extending even to animals. In both traditions, education is not merely preparation for life; it is a way of living.” (From a New Eden in Concord to Little Women).
In a 1839 article of Boston’s Parley’s Magazine, provided by Kent Bicknell, it was written of the Temple School: “Most of the boys and girls appear very happy. They do not feel as if they were in a prison, and only waited with all the patience they could muster to hear the master say, ‘The school is dismissed.’ They love the school room as well as they do their own homes.” Anyone who spends an afternoon at pickup time at Sant Bani School has witnessed a similar scene: students dragging their feet on the way to their cars, and no one appearing in a rush to leave campus. This is our goal with maintaining small class sizes, light-filled, colorful classrooms, and dedicated teachers who go by their first names: a school that feels like home.
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Record of Mr. Alcott’s School, Exemplifying the Principles and Methods of Moral Culture. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1874.
Thank you to Tim Mather and Kent Bicknell for their work on this special and unique collection, and to Tim for his contribution in our name to the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library. Click here for a Concord Bridge article to learn more about the Mather Alcott Collection.