Today's Hours:
Louisa E. Harris was born on November 5, 1823. A resident of Roxbury Massachusetts, she enrolled in the first class at Lexington Normal School on October 17, 1839 and stayed until 1840. After graduation, she returned to her hometown and took a teaching position at a local public school. After leaving that position, she privately tutored boys, became head assistant in the Dearborn School, taught at a private seminary in Somerville, and then returned to the Dearborn school. She completed her thirty-three years of teaching in East Boston in the 1870s.
In addition to her professional duties, Harris found time to maintain a vast network of friends over the years. This network included many friends from her Normal School days, such as Sarah W. Wayman from Roxbury. Harris spent much of her free time attending lectures given by leading speakers from the time. These lectures covered topics such as religion, education, morals and ethics, politics, and social issues, which were of interest to contemporary audiences.
Harris attended the first meeting of her Lexington Normal School class in September 1850; the reunion celebrated their graduation ten years earlier. From then on, the class held annual meeting until 1865. The class met on an irregular basis until the last formal meeting in 1895. Harris faithfully attended all these meetings, highlighting her fondness for her Normal School days.
Harris’s family – father, mother, two brothers, and sister, Laura – lived in Roxbury, Massachusetts until 1842, when they relocated to Canton, Massachusetts. Although Harris visited her family frequently, she remained in Roxbury and rented a room in a boarding house. For the rest of her life, she continued to live in boarding houses located close to her teaching positions and continued to visit her parents and siblings during her frequent school vacations.
After her retirement from teaching, Harris turned her hand to writing both fiction and poetry. She died on April 30, 1906.
The Papers of Louisa E. Harris consist of ten volumes of journals begun by Harris prior to her start at Lexington Normal School. The first two volumes describe her experiences at the Normal School as well as her early teaching experiences. The eight volumes after 1843 describe her feelings, social activities, and family news and contain little on the educational practices of the time. From the 1880s to 1905, Harris reread these journals and occasionally penciled remarks in the margins. Some volumes have pages removed or entries cut out. Descriptions of individual volumes follows.
Journal entries; some fiction and poetry writing.
Charles E. Eschenburg, M.D., 1989.
Ten volumes.
January 1863 to June 1866; 1876