Leading beyond the Schools: Community Involvement in Bloomington, Boston, and Chicago

Abstract

“Miss Raymond has been a remarkably busy woman during all these years, not only in educational work, but she has been active in religious, art, literary and benevolent enterprises.”¹ She was active with the Methodist church in Bloomington and was assistant superintendent of the First M.E. Sabbbath School, where she worked closely with her future husband F. J. Fitzwilliam, who was also active with the Sunday school program. She was active in literary affairs in Bloomington, Illinois, where she served as president of the library board and worked closely with Georgina Trotter in building it. She was also president of the Illinois Plato club while in Chicago. Historian Steven Rockefeller in his book on John Dewey discusses The Plato Club and Dewey’s involvement with it together with Jane Addams of the Hull House.² Likewise, Allen Davis in his book on Jane Addams discusses both The Plato Club and the relationship between John Dewey and Jane Addams. He observes that Hull House was an educational institution and that Jane Addams was known as a progressive in education who was appointed to several school-related committees.³ Regarding her benevolent work, the Leader article suggests Raymond founded the Bloomington Benevolent Society and prompted the organization of the Industrial School and Home of this city.

Biography is not taxonomy with the specimen to be reclassified according to the latest findings-it is the story of one life as seen by another, with both always growing and changing.

—Elinor Langer, Josephine Herbst (1983) in The Challenge of Feminist Biography: Writing the Lives of Modern American Women