Elizabeth Harrison came of a family of English origin, which was established in Virginia in 1699. She was born in Athens, Kentucky, the daughter of Isaac Webb Harrison and Elizabeth Thompson Bullock. A few months after her birth her parents moved to Midway, Kentucky.
When Elizabeth was about seven, her parents moved to Davenport, Iowa, where she received her elementary and high-school education. Becoming enthusiastic over the possibilities of this innovation - the kindergarten - she enrolled in the training class conducted by Mrs. Alice H. Putnam, graduated in 1880. The introduction to educational philosophy and practice which she here received led her to pursue further study under the direction successively of two of the pioneers of the kindergarten in America - Susan Elizabeth Blow in St. Louis, and Marie Kraus-Boelte in New York. In 1890, accompanied by Mrs. Crouse, she went to Germany where she studied for some months under two pupils of Froebel, Frau Schrader and the Baroness von Marenholz-Bulow.
In 1883, Elizabeth Harrison and Mrs. Putnam organized the Chicago Kindergarten Club for teachers and in 1884 she founded a free training class in a mission kindergarten. Two years later, with the cooperation of Mrs. John N. Crouse, she established a school dedicated to the training of mothers and teachers of young children. Of this institution, which in 1891 was incorporated as the Chicago Kindergarten College and in 1916 became the National Kindergarten and Elementary College, she was president for thirty-three years.
In 1890, Elizabeth published her first series of lectures in book form, under the title A Study of Child Nature (1890). This publication has passed into fifty editions and has been translated into eight foreign languages. She was one of the first women to appear on the program of the National Education Association, was a speaker of note, and in demand as a lecturer. In 1894 she helped to organize a "convention of mothers” which ultimately grew into the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. She was one of the promoters of the Chicago “Literary Schools” in which Denton J. Snider and William Torrey Harris took prominent part; in fact, these schools, which were held annually for eight years under the auspices of the Chicago Kindergarten College, may be said to have had their origin in a class of mothers organized for Dr. Snider by Miss Harrison in 1886.
In 1912 the National Kindergarten Association sent Harrison to Rome to investigate the work of Mme. Montessori. Her report, Montessori and the Kindergarten (1913), was published by the United States Bureau of Education. She was also the author of several volumes of stories for children and suggestions regarding kindergarten methods and child psychology, which served, at the time, to interpret and popularize tile Child Study movement in its effort to create a better understanding of the child and his needs. In 1920 she retired from active teaching, becoming president emeritus of the National Kindergarten and Elementary College. This institution is a memorial to her steadfast purpose and above all to her capacity to lend herself to progressive measures in education. She approved of drastic changes in equipment, material, and technique when she might in her strategic position have offered disintegrating opposition. The closing years of her life were spent quietly in San Antonio, Texas, whither she had gone because of her frail health, and where she died.
Harrison was a member of the Chicago Kindergarten Club.
Quotes from others about the person
"Elizabeth Harrison has done more good than any woman I know. She has brought light and power to all the educational world. " - Jane Addams, Nobel Peace Prize winner
