Amy Morris Homans

Amy Morris Homans (November 15, 1848 – October 29, 1933) was an American physical educator. She was the director of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, from its founding in 1889, through its reorganization as the Department of Hygiene and Physical Education at Wellesley College, until she retired in 1918. She founded the Association of Directors of Physical Education for Women.

Amy Morris Homans
An older white woman, seated, with white hair parted center and dressed in an updo; she is wearing a black dress, and has one hand near her heart, and one hand in her lap
Amy Morris Homans, from the 1915 yearbook of Wellesley College
BornNovember 15, 1848
Vassalboro, Maine
DiedOctober 29, 1933
Wellesley, Massachusetts
OccupationPhysical educator
RelativesAmy Morris Bradley (aunt)

Early life and education

Homans was born in Vassalboro, Maine,[1] the daughter of Harrison Homans and Sarah Bliss Bradley Homans. Educator Amy Morris Bradley was her aunt. She attended Vassalboro Academy and Oakgrove Seminary. [2]

Career

Homans taught at Oakgrove Seminary, from 1867 to 1869. She went South to work with her aunt as a teacher and school principal in Wilmington, North Carolina from 1869 to 1877. In 1877, she became the executive secretary of Boston philanthropist Mary Tileston Hemenway. With Hemenway's support, Homans founded the Boston School of Household Arts in 1886, and became founding director of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics in 1889.[3][4] Her program was based on Swedish "medical gymnastics" as popularized by Pehr Henrik Ling.[5][6][7] She retired as director in 1918, succeeded by Roxana Vivian;[8] by that time, the school was the department of hygiene at Wellesley College.[2][9] She founded the Association of Directors of Physical Education for Women in 1910,[10][11] which became the National Association of Physical Education of College Women.[12]

Homans was a vice-president of the Woman's Education Association of Boston.[13] was elected Fellow #12 in the National Academy of Kinesiology (formerly American Academy of Physical Education),[14] and received the American Physical Education Association's first Honor Award in 1931. Also in 1931, she received an honorary doctorate from Russell Sage College.[15] She is recognized as "a great champion for women's pursuit of leadership in physical education and sport."[16] Her students taught throughout the United States and organized local Homans Clubs.[17]

Publications
  • "Some Problems in the Administration of a Department of Hygiene and Physical Education in a Woman's College" (1913)[18]
  • "The Field of Physical Education" (1920)[19]

Personal life and legacy

Homans died in 1933, in Wellesley, Massachusetts.[3][20] The National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education (NAKHE) awards an annual Amy Morris Homans Lectureship, established by NAKHE president Celeste Ulrich. Betty Spears published a book-length biography of Homans, Leading the Way: Amy Morris Homans and the Beginnings of Professional Education for Women (1986).[21]

References
  1. Skarstrom, William (1941-10-01). "Life and Work of Amy Morris Homans". Research Quarterly. American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. 12 (sup3): 615–627. doi:10.1080/10671188.1941.10624705. ISSN 1067-1188.
  2. Rathbone, Josephine L. (1960-04-01). "Amy Morris Homans". Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation. 31 (4): 37–109. doi:10.1080/00221473.1960.10611245. ISSN 0022-1473.
  3. Coleman, Mary Channing (December 1933). "Amy Morris Homans: In Memoriam". The Journal of Health and Physical Education. 4 (10): 25. doi:10.1080/23267240.1933.10619631. ISSN 2326-7240.
  4. Guttmann, Allen (1991). Women's Sports: A History. Columbia University Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-231-06957-1.
  5. Oglesby, Carole A.; Henige, Kim; McLaughlin, Douglas W.; Stillwell, Belinda (2021-03-18). Foundations of Kinesiology. Jones & Bartlett Learning. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-1-284-23282-0.
  6. Verbrugge, Martha H. (1988). Able-bodied Womanhood: Personal Health and Social Change in Nineteenth-century Boston. Oxford University Press. pp. 175–176. ISBN 978-0-19-505124-7.
  7. Tomko, Linda J. (2000-01-22). Dancing Class: Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Divides in American Dance, 1890–1920. Indiana University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-253-02817-4.
  8. "Miss Homans' Retirement". American Physical Education Review. 23: 256. April 1918.
  9. College, Wellesley (1911). Annual Reports [of] President and Treasurer. p. 8.
  10. O'Connor, Karen (2010-08-18). Gender and Women's Leadership: A Reference Handbook. SAGE. p. 884. ISBN 978-1-4129-6083-0.
  11. "The Association of Directors of Physical Education for Women". American Physical Education Review. 23: 51–53. January 1918.
  12. "Finding Aid for the National Association for Physical Education of College Women Papers, 1924-1978". University of North Carolina Greensboro. 2010-07-31. Archived from the original on 2010-07-31. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  13. Womans Education Association, Boston (1896). Annual Report.
  14. Cardinal, Bradley J. (2022). "The National Academy of Kinesiology: Its founding, focus, and future". Kinesiology Review. 11 (1): 6–25. doi:10.1123/kr.2021-0064.
  15. Ainsworth, Dorothy S. (May 1932). "The History of the Eastern Association of Directors of Physical Education for College Women". Journal of Health and Physical Education. 3: 3–6. doi:10.1080/23267240.1932.10626467.
  16. Ransdell, Lynda B. (2014-04-03). "Women as Leaders in Kinesiology and Beyond: Smashing Through the Glass Obstacles". Quest. 66 (2): 150–168. doi:10.1080/00336297.2014.895953. ISSN 0033-6297. S2CID 145505797.
  17. "Directors Organize". Los Angeles Evening Express. 1916-10-26. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-03-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Fourth International Congress on School Hygiene, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A., August 25-30, 1913. Transactions. Courier Company of Buffalo. 1913. pp. 560–566.
  19. Shouse, Catherine Filene (1920). Careers for Women. Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 386–389. ISBN 9780848239701.
  20. "Miss Amy Homans Dies at Wellesley". The Boston Globe. 1933-10-30. p. 15. Retrieved 2022-03-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. Spears, Betty (1986). Leading the way : Amy Morris Homans and the beginnings of professional education for women. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-25107-X. OCLC 12558591.
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