Missouri Historical Society
Missouri Women
In History
Susan E. Blow
In 1873 Susan Elizabeth Blow established the first public
kindergarten in the United States at St. Louis. The daughter of
Henry Taylor Blow, prominent St. Louisan, she was associated
with the esotoric group which founded the St. Louis Movement,
based on the transcendental philosophy of the Concord School of
Thought. She became interested in the educational philosophy of
Friedrich Froebel, founder of the kindergarten in Germany in
1837. Susan studied a year with Marie Kraus-Boelte, pioneer New
York kindergarten worker and a disciple of Froebel. After her
return to St. Louis in 1873 she established a little class in her
home which became the nucleus around which a class was formed
in September of that year in the Des Peres School in Carondelet
with the assistance of Dr. William Torrey Harris, St. Louis superintendent of schools. Two years later 95 pupils were enrolled in the
Des Peres School kindergarten. In his 1875-1876 report. Dr. Harris
devoted 40 pages to the kindergarten. A demonstration kindergarten at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition brought the idea to
the attention of a wider public. In 1878, Susan, after a year of
studying in Europe and visiting kindergartens in Germany, was
placed in charge of the first normal training school for kindergarten teachers at St. Louis. In 1889 she moved to Boston. The
later years of her life were spent in New York where she was
connected with the graduate department of the New York Kindergarten Association. She was the author of a number of published
works. She died, March 26, 1916. Her full-length portrait, by Gari
Melchers, hangs in the Governor's reception room of the Missouri
state capitol.
