Beulah Elfreth Kennard

Beulah Elfreth Kennard (August 3, 1869 – November 8, 1949) was an American lecturer and writer. She served as the educational director of the Association of Department Store Workers, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Women Workers, and president of the Pittsburgh Playground Association from 1900 to 1918.[1]

Beulah Elfreth Kennard

Early years and education

Beulah Elfreth Kennard was born on August 3, 1869, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Reverend Joseph Spencer Kennard and Nancy Reid Jeffers.[2][3]

She was a graduate of Chicago schools, 1887; and received an honorary A.M. degree from the University of Pittsburgh, 1912.[4]

Career

Kennard opened Pittsburgh's first public playground at the Forbes School Yard on July 6, 1896.[5] She went on to become president of the Pittsburgh Playground Association from 1900 to 1918.[6]

Kennard favored woman suffrage; and served on the Advisory Board Pennsylvania State Suffrage Association. She was a member of the Board of Public Education, 1912–13; as well as the D.A.R., Twentieth Century Club, Tuesday Musical Club. She was a contributor to various publications on the subjects of play and children's reading. In religion, Kennard was a Baptist.[4]

In 1918, a playground was named in her honor. In 1944, that playground was to be renamed to honor a local judge, Ralph H. Smith.[6] Local opposition prevented the park from changing name, and it is still called "Kennard playground".

Selected works
  • "The educational director"[7] (1918)
  • "Department store merchandise manuals"[8] (1920)

References
  1. "Woman Club Leader Dies". The Pittsburgh Press. December 20, 1930. Retrieved 2010-10-16. To Mrs. Kirk and Miss Beulah Kennard, Pittsburgh owes, to a large extent its playgrounds ...
  2. Daughters of the American Revolution 1899, p. 111.
  3. Beulah Elfreth Kennard passport application of 5 November 1918.
  4. Leonard 1914, p. 31.
  5. Ted Flickinger (July 1, 1998). "It all starts with citizens". Parks & Recreation. Retrieved 2010-10-16. Shortly after moving to Pittsburgh, Beulah Kennard realized that the busy industrial city provided no Play activities for children, so with the help of The local civic club, she opened Pittsburgh's First playground in the Forbes School Yard on July 6, 1896.
  6. "Renaming of Playground. Kennard is 'Hurt' by Roberts' Petition". The Pittsburgh Press. March 12, 1944. Retrieved 2010-10-16. Council acts favorably on a petition presented yesterday by the Soho Community Assn. The petition was offered by Prothonotary David Roberts, president of ...
  7. Kennard, Beulah Elfreth (June 8, 1918). "The educational director". New York, The Ronald press company. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  8. Kennard, Beulah Elfreth (June 8, 2009). "Department Store Merchandise Manuals". BiblioBazaar. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Google Books.

Attribution

Media related to Beulah Elfreth Kennard at Wikimedia Commons

Leonard, John W. (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915 (Public domain ed.). American commonwealth Company. p. 31.

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