Home Om558_1062399_407

Reference URL

Add tags

Comment

Save to favorites

To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed the entire object, paste this HTML in website

To link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Betsy Cowles Phrenological Description

you wish to report:

Your comment:

Your Name:

Submit

Cancel

...

Title	Betsy Cowles Phrenological Description
Subject	Ohio Women Science and Technology Arts and Entertainment Phrenology
Place	Ashtabula (Ohio) Ashtabula County (Ohio)
Description	Phrenology, which was based on the belief that the shape of a person's head indicated his or her intelligence and character, was popular in the nineteenth century. This pamphlet provides a description of the head of Betsy Cowles. She received marks ranging from fourteen to eighteen, which meant that the areas of her head ranged in size from "full" to "large." The pamphlet is approximately ten pages long and measures 6.5" x 8" (16.51 x 20.32 cm). Born in Connecticut, Betsy Mix Cowles (1810-1876) became one of Ohio's leading female educators. She also played a leading role in the abolition and suffrage movements in Ohio. The Cowles family moved to Austinburg, Ohio in 1811. As a young woman, Cowles began teaching in northeastern Ohio and in New York. She studied infant schools in New York and returned to open her own infant school in Kinsman, Ohio. When Oberlin College announced its new Ladies' course, Cowles enrolled. She graduated in 1840 and went to teach in Portsmouth, Ohio. From 1843-1848 Cowles was the principal of the female department. In 1858 Cowles became one of the first female superintendents of schools in Painesville, Ohio. Cowles became involved in the anti-slavery movement in Ashtabula County, and organized the Ashtabula County Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. She counted as close friends notable abolitionists such as Frederick Douglas and Abby Kelley Foster. Suffrage was also important to Cowles. She presided at the Woman's Rights Convention in Salem, Ohio in 1850, and gave a report on "Labor and Wages" at the 1851 Akron Woman's Rights Convention, where Sojourner Truth delivered her "Ain't I a Woman" speech.
Date of Original	1850 - 1876 circa
Collection	Betsy Mix Cowles Papers
Source	Unpublished material (archives/manuscripts) Box 2, folder 32
Submitting Institution	Kent State University
Type	Text
Format	manuscripts

Title	Om558_1062399_407
Rights	For rights and reproduction requests, go to the Ohio Historical Society's Audiovisual and Graphic Reproduction Services page at http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/audiovis/photodup.html; Online access is provided for research purposes only. For rights and reproduction requests or more information, go to http://www.ohiohistory.org/images/information
File Name	Om558_1062399_407.tif
Image Height	3112
Image Width	2528
File Size	1112.91 KB

Find results with:

Searching collections:

Home Om558_1062399_407

Betsy Cowles Phrenological Description

Object Description

Description

Tags

Comments

Betsy Cowles Phrenological Description

Betsy Cowles Phrenological Description

	All
	Pages Enter page numbers or page ranges separated by commas. For example: 1,3,5-12