Maria L. Baldwin (1856-1922)
Maria
Baldwin was a notable figure both locally and nationally. Educated in
the Cambridge school system, she graduated from Cambridge High School in
1874, and from the City's teacher training school in 1875. She began
her teaching career in Chestertown, Maryland, but was hired by the
Cambridge School Department in 1882 (after some pressure from the local
African-American community).
She was a teacher at the Agassiz until her appointment as principal
in 1889. In 1916, when she was made master, she became one of two women
in the Cambridge school system and the only African-American in New
England to hold such a position. To keep up with her field she took
courses at Harvard and other institutions, and she in turn taught in the
summer normal courses for teachers held at Hampton Institute in
Virginia and the Institute for Colored Youth in Cheyney, PA.
She organized the first Parent-Teacher group in the Cambridge Public
Schools, introduced new methods of teaching mathematics, began art
classes, and inspired the beginning of a museum of science program
within the school system.Under her leadership, the Agassiz became the
only public school in Cambridge (and perhaps anywhere in the US) to
establish an "open-air" classroom (then thought to be good for frailty
and pulmonary ills and wise measure for healthy children as well). She
was also the first to introduce the practice of hiring a school nurse.
Baldwin's concern for children's well-being is legendary and she was
an inspiration to generations of students, parents, educators and
community members, not just in the public schools, but beyond.
She belonged to numerous civic and educational organizations. She
lectured widely. Her home on Prospect Street was headquarters for
various literary activies. There, for years, she held a weekly reading
class for Negro students attending Harvard University, which counted
among its regulars W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois remembered her reverently and
honored her as "Man of the Month" in the NAACP journal, The Crisis in
1917, writing of her: "The school [ Agassiz ] composed of kindergartners
and eight grades, is one of the best in the city and is attended by
children of Harvard professors and many of the old Cambridge families.
The teachers under Miss Baldwin, numbering twelve, and the 410 children
are all white. Miss Baldwin thus, without a doubt, occupies the most
distinguished position achieved by a person of Negro descent in the
teaching world of America, outside cities where there are segregated
schools."
Another of Baldwin's students, the poet e.e. cummings, related that
his father enrolled him at the Agassiz in 1904 because of Miss Baldwin's
reputation. In his book, SIX NONLECTURES, he wrote of her: " Miss
Baldwin, the dark lady mentioned in my first nonlecture (and a lady if
ever a lady existed) was blessed with a delicious voice, charming
manners, and a deep understanding of children. Never did any semidevine
dictator more gracefully and easily rule a more unruly and less graceful
populace. Her very presence emanated an honour and a glory....From her I
marvellingly learned that the truest power is gentleness."
Upon her death in 1922, Baldwin was greatly mourned. Her friends,
pupils and colleagues at the school established a scholarship for
Agassiz pupils and named the school's auditorium in her memory. The hall
was rededicated in 1990. Architectural elements from the hall are
retained in the new building and may be seen in the library media
center.
On May 21st, 2002 the Cambridge School Committee unanimously voted to rename the Agassiz School to the Maria L. Baldwin School.