James Hosmer Penniman

Background

James Hosmer Penniman was born on November 8, 1860 in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. He was the son of James Lanman and Maria Davis (Hosmer) Penniman. Both parents were of distinguished colonial ancestry. His father was a graduate of Yale College, as were also a number of relatives. Among his ancestors on his father's side were Roger Wolcott and Matthew Griswold, both governors of Connecticut, Judge Charles Church Chandler, a member of the Continental Congress, and Judge James Lanman, senator from Connecticut. On his mother's side were the Rev. Peter Bulkeley and James Hosmer, founders of Concord, Massachusetts, and Dr. Jonathan Prescott and his son, Col. Charles Prescott, distinguished colonial gentlemen. His mother grew up in Concord at the time when it was an intellectual center. Thus, through inheritance and environment, she developed ability, character, and charm of personality that undoubtedly exercised a strong influence upon her son.

Education

James Hosmer Penniman prepared for college at the Free Academy of Norwich, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College in 1884.

Career

In 1885 James Hosmer Penniman spent as a private tutor in Glyndon, Maryland, he began teaching in DeLancey School, Philadelphia, and became head of the Lower School in 1900, a position which he held until his retirement in 1913. In connection with his teaching he wrote a number of articles and books, including A Graded List of Common Words Difficult to Spell (1891); Prose Dictation Exercises from the English Classics (1893); The School Poetry Book (1894); Practical Suggestions in School Government (1899); New Practical Speller (1900); Books, and How to Make the Most of Them (1911); and Children and Their Books (1921). Meanwhile he became a collector of Washingtoniana and an authority on the history of America in the eighteenth century, writing George Washington as Commander-in-Chief (1917); George Washington as Man of Letters (1918); George Washington at Mount Vernon (1921); Our Debt to France (1921); What Lafayette Did for America (1921); and Philadelphia in the Early Eighteen Hundreds (1923).

James Hosmer Penniman had planned and largely completed at the time of his death a two-volume work on George Washington that was to have been published in 1932, and had proposed as a part of the celebration of the bi-centennial of Washington's birth the building of the "Highway of the Thirteen Original States" from Washington to "Mount Vernon. " His mother having died in 1914, he founded in her honor in 1915 the Maria Hosmer Penniman Memorial Library of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1920 he established the Penniman Memorial Library of Education at Yale University, which contains more than 80, 000 volumes and has become one of the largest libraries of education in the world, and in 1921 he founded the Penniman Memorial Library of Education at Brown University.

James Hosmer Penniman died suddenly at his home in Philadelphia on April 6, 1931 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts.

Achievements

• James Hosmer Penniman was a distinguished educator and author. He manifested filial devotion and his desire to foster education and research by establishing in honor of his parents memorial libraries of education in the university of Pennsylvania, Yale University and Brown University.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The School Poetry Book

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • George Washington as Commander-in-Chief (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from George Washington as Commander-in-Chief Rev...)

  • Books and how to Make the Most of Them

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • Children and Their Books

Interests

• A man of varied interests, James Hosmer Penniman had a keen relish for sport, especially professional baseball, and a fondness for animals that found expression in a delightful book, The Alley Rabbit (1920).

Connections

Father:

James Lanman Penniman

Mother:

Maria Davis Hosmer Penniman

Brother:

Josiah Harmar Penniman

References

• A history of the class of eighty-four, Yale College, 1880-1914