Emily Anne Eliza Shirreff

Background

Emily Anne Eliza Shirreff was a pioneer in the movement for the higher education of women and the development of the Froebelian principles in England.

Education

Emily and her sisters were educated from an early age by a French governess called Adele Piqet, who had a limited education. Emily was a bright scholar at an early age but after suffering from a severe illness at the age of seven she had to relearn the alphabet.

At the age of 14 she was sent to a boarding school in Paris but the rough conditions at the school affected Emily’s poor health and she was removed a year later. In 1829, her father took command of HMS Warspite and moved his family to Avranche in Lower Normandy. In 1831 her father was appointed to Gibraltar and did not think it his daughters needed another governess, bringing their formal education to an end.

Maria and Emily continued to improve their education through ‘self-improvement’ by travelling extensively to France, Spain and Italy, reading in their father’s extensive library, and became acquainted with many intellectuals of the age through their father's contacts.

Career

Both she and her sister Maria (Mrs William Grey) took a keen interest in bettering women's equipment for educational work, and, in 1858, she published Intellectual Education and its Influence on the Character and Happiness of Women. Before that the sisters had written in collaboration a novel, Passion and Principle (1841), marked with that serious sense of the deficiencies in women's education, to remedy which they did so much, and Thoughts on Self-Culture addressed to Women (1850).

In 1869 Emily Shirreff was for a short time honorary mistress of Girton College, and she served for many years on the council of that institution and of the Girls' Public Day School Company. She took a leading part in establishing and developing the Maria Grey Training College for teachers.

She was a firm believer in Froebel's system and wrote a short memoir of him, and several books on kindergarten methods. She died in London on the 20th of March 1897.

Achievements

• Her publicationa are:
  
  Shirreff, Maria Georgina; Shirreff, Emily (1841), Passion and Principal. Edited by Captain Schmier. London.
  
  Grey, Maria Georgina; Shirreff, Emily (1850), Thoughts on Self-Culture Addressed to Women. London
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1858). Intellectual education and its influence on the character and happiness of women. John W Parker and Son. New editions 1862 and 1863.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1863). "Our Modern Youth". Fraser's Magazine.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1864). The Chivalry of the S. London: Emily Faithful for the Ladies' London Emancipation Society.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1864). Kindergarten, Principles of Froebel’s System and their bearing on the Education of Women. London: Emily Faithful for the Ladies' London Emancipation Society.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1872). The work of the National Union. London: William Ridgeway.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1870). "College Education for Women, " The Contemporary Review.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1872). Why should we learn?. London: John W Parker & Son.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1875). The Enjoyment of Life, a lecture by E A E Shirreff delivered at the College of Men and Women, Mar 20, 1875. London: William Ridgeway.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1877). The Claim of Froebel’s System to be called "The New Education": a paper read at the meeting of the Froebel Society, London, June 5, 1877. New York: E Steiger.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1877). The Kindergarten in Relations to Schools: papers read before the Society of Arts, December 12, 1877. Reading: W Millard.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1880). On Connection between the Kindergarten and the School: A lecture on Mme. Portugall’s Synoptical Table. London: Sonnenschein &Allen.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1880). ‘Wasted Forces’ Froebel Society’s Tract No. 5. London: Sonnenschein &Allen.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1884). Home Education in Relation to the Kindergarten: Two Lectures. London: J Hughes.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1884). The Kindergarten at Home. London: J Hughes.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1885). Kindergarten Teachers and Their Qualifications: Annual Address delivered before the Froebel Society. London: William Rice.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1887). A short sketch of the Life of Frederick Froebel. London: Chapman & Hall.
  
  Shirreff, Emily (1892). Moral Training: Froebel and Herbert Spencer. London: Philip and Son.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Short history of slavery

    (This volume is produced from digital images from the Corn...)

  • A Few more words on the chivalry of the South

    (This volume is produced from digital images from the Corn...)

  • The Kinder-Garten: Principles of Frobel's System and Their Bearing on the Education of Women, Also Remarks on the Higher Education of Women 1882

    (Originally published in 1882. This volume from the Cornel...)

Membership

In 1874 she joined the Women's Peace and Arbitration Auxiliary, (later the London Peace Society).

Emily was also the vice-president of the Parents’ National Union.

She was the president of the Froebel Society.

Personality

Emily had suffered from ill health all her life and became less active towards the end of her life.

Interests

• Emily was also interested in other areas of research and supported women's suffrage. Her opposition of the continuation of the use of slaves in southern US was aired in her 1864 paper, The Chivalry of the South. She also wrote a biographical sketch of Henry Thomas Buckle, who had been a close friend, for a posthumous edition of his works in 1872.

Connections

Father:

William Henry Shirreff

He was a Royal Navy officer, Captain of the frigate HMS Andromache, HMS Warspite and Gibraltar.

Sister:

Maria Georgina Grey

She was an educationist and writer in the United Kingdom who promoted women’s education and was one of the founders of the organisation that became the Girls' Day School Trust.