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Darwin Correspondence Project

Caroline Augusta Smith (1827–1846)
Caroline Augusta Kennard (1846–1907)

1827–1907

American feminist. Née Caroline Augusta Smith; married Martin Parry Kennard, a businessman in Boston, Massachusetts, and anti-slavery activist, in 1846. Moved to Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1854. Interested in the botany of ferns and mosses. Published a biography of Dorothea Dix (1888). A science scholarship was established in her name at Radcliffe College by her sister, Martha T. Fiske Collord.

Further Reading

Further Information:

Caroline Augusta Kennard (née Smith) was born in 1827 in New Hampshire. In 1846, she married Martin Perry Kennard (also known as Marten P. Kennard), with whom she had five children. Martin Kennard maintained a successful business as a jeweller at Bigelow Brothers & Kennard in Boston and served as an Assistant Treasurer of the Sub-Treasury of the United States in Boston, appointed by Presidents Hayes and Grant (1879-1887) and later by President Harrison (1891-1895). The Kennard family resided in Brookline, Massachusetts, which in the late nineteenth century was known for its country estates ofwealthy Boston merchants.

In many ways, Kennard’s public life was closely tied to the social world of elite educated, Boston women during the late nineteenth century. She was a member of a host of women’s groups focused on reforming education, improving the status of women in society, and promoting issues related to the woman’s movement. Along with prominent Bostonians like Julia Ward Howe, Caroline M. Severance, Edna D. Cheney, Lucy Stone, Lucy Goddard, Elizabeth P. Peabody, and Dr. Marie E. Zakrenska, Kennard was a member of theNew England Woman’s Club, the first woman’s club in the United States. During Kennard’s membership tenure in the 1880s and 1890s, she was active on the board of directors and served as a vice-president in 1893-94. She also participated in a number of annual meetings for the Association of the Advancement of Women. In 1896, for instance, Kennard read a paper at the 24th Annual Association for the Advancement of Women meeting entitled “Housekeeping a profession” which argued that housekeeping should be measured in economic terms like any other profession. Along with other prominent Bostonian women, Kennard also joined theWomen’s Educational and Industrial Union and participated actively as an officer in the 1880s and 1890s.

Kennard published articles and gave addresses on important issues related to social reform and on prominent American women activists and poets. For instance, Kennard’s contemporaries in Woman’s World commented on her article “Progress in the Employment of Police Matrons,” in which Kennard made a case for why police departments ought to hire female police agents. In 1895, Kennard was one of the first members of the Brookline Education Society, which was founded in 1895 by Mrs. Joshua Crane, Dr. Walter Channing, and many other prominentBrookline, Massachusetts citizens to encourage moral and spiritual development in children at home and in school. At the organizational meeting on May 8, 1895, Kennard presented a paper on a topic related to the importance of nature study in childhood education. Interested in exemplary American women, in 1888, she published a biographical account of Dorothea L. Dix’s life and work. This account was based on a collection of letters (which is now housed in Houghton Library at Harvard University) from Dix’s contemporaries, including Jane Alexander, A.L. Barnett, James Freeman Clarke, John Murray Forbes, Robert Bennet Forbes, Horatio Appleton Lamb, Mary S. Langley, William Henry Lyon, Andrew Preston Peabody, Samuel Edmund Sewall, and Edward Stearns. And in 1897 Kennard gave an extensive review ofThe Works of Anne Bradstreet, in Prose and in Verse, edited by John Harvard Ellis (1867) for the Governor Thomas Dudley Family Association.

Kennard’s interest in science stemmed from her social commitments to the woman movement, her interests in nature study as a tool for educational reform, as well as her place in a tightly knit network of the Bostonian elite. Kennard was one of a handful of American women who carried on correspondence with the British gentleman-naturalist Charles Darwin. On 26 December 1881, Caroline Kennard wrote to Darwin to ask about his position regarding the inferiority of women. Darwin replied on 9 January 1882, referencing his positions in Descent of Man (1872), writing that women had superior moral qualities but inferior intellectual qualities when compared to men. Darwin noted that given the observations of equality among the sexes in native cultures, there might be a possibility that women could indeed be “bread winners,” but suggested that this would cause harm to the domestic sphere. On 28 January 1882, Kennard wrote back to Darwin, countering his argument with her own: namely, that women are indeed “bread winners” and have the same capabilities as men, but are not given the same environment or educational opportunities as men to develop their intellect. Kennard’s scientific activities were not limited to debates about sexual selection in humans. In 1892, for instance, she donated fruit from her own Ricus elastica plant (rubber tree) to the Boston Society of Natural History. Confirming Kennard’s commitment to science, in 1907, Kennard’s sister Martha T. Fiske Collard of New York donated $5,000 to Radcliffe College to establish a scholarship in memory of her sister. The Caroline A. Kennard Scholarship in Science was awarded to one Radcliffe student interested in pursuing her studies in science per year.

Relevant Gender Resources:

http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/women-and-science

http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/womens-scientific-participation

http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/women-as-a-scientific-audience

http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwin-and-gender-introduction

PRIMARY SOURCES:

Darwin Project Database,http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-13579

Darwin Project Database, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-13607

Darwin Project Database, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-13650

Caroline A. Kennard’s Obituary

"Obituary 3 – no Title." 1907.Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Oct 25, 10-10.http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/docview/500922390?accountid=11311.

Census information for Kennard household (via Ancestry.com)

Year: 1850; Census Place: Boston Ward 10, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: M432_337; Page: 386B; Image: 431.

Year: 1860; Census Place: Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Roll: M653_514; Page: 769; Image: 685; Family History Library Film: 803514.

Year: 1870; Census Place: Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_634; Page: 142B; Image: 291; Family History Library Film: 552133.

Year: 1880; Census Place: Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 547; Family History Film: 1254547; Page: 348D; Enumeration District: 508; Image: 0700.

Martin P. Kennard Obituary

Headline: [No Headline]; Article Type: Death Notice Paper: Boston Journal, published as The Boston Journal; Date: 11-14-1903; Issue: 22985; Page: 3; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Caroline Kennard’s Writings

Caroline Augusta Kennard, “Miss Dorothea L. Dix and her Life-Work” [S.I.: s.n., 1888] [http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/3996166]

Headline: Woman’s World. Progress In The Employment Of Police Matrons. Miss Morgan and Her Work–Death; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Trenton Evening Times, published as The Trenton Times.; Date: 10-22-1892; Page: 6; Location: Trenton, New Jersey [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Letters sent to Caroline Augusta Kennard Concerning Dorothea Lynde Dix (MS Am 1838.3). Houghton Library, Harvard University. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00092]

“Huckleberry Cake,”The Kirmess Cookbook (Boston: Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, 1887) p. 13. [http://books.google.com/books?id=eyQEAAAAYAAJ&pg]

Caroline A. Kennard, “The Bradstreet Writings,” in The Governor Thomas Dudley Family Association, Fourth Annual Meeting and Fifth Reunion, October 20, 1896 (S.I. The Association, 1897) pp. 29-36. [http://books.google.com/books?id=bDlKAAAAMAAJ&pg]

Woman’s Clubs in the News [via American Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: New England Women’s Club; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Boston Journal, published as Boston Daily Journal; Date: 05-28-1881; Volume: XLVIII; Issue: 15872; Page: [1]; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: Annual Meeting of the Woman’s Club; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Boston Journal, published as Boston Daily Journal; Date: 05-31-1884; Volume: LI; Issue: 16816; Page: [4]; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: The New England Women’s Club; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Boston Daily Advertiser; Date: 06-01-1885; Volume: 145; Issue: 23560; Page: 8; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: In Aid of Women Annual Meeting of the Women’s Education at and Industrial Union; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Boston Journal, published as Boston Evening Journal; Date: 05-05-1886; Volume: LIII; Issue: 17419; Page: [4]; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: The Women’s Union; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Boston Daily Advertiser; Date: 05-02-1888; Volume: 151; Issue: 24471; Page: 8; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: Local Events. The Woman’s Educational and Industrial Union; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Boston Journal, published as Boston Daily Journal; Date: 05-14-1890; Volume: LVII; Issue: 18680; Page: [5]; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: For The Advancement Of Women. Annual Election Of Officers Of The Association At The Toronto; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: New York Herald-Tribune; Date: 10-18-1890; Page: 7; Location: New York, New York [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: New England Woman’s Club; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Boston Journal, published as Boston Daily Journal; Date: 06-01-1891; Volume: LVIII; Issue: 19008; Page: [3]; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: Noted Women Gather. Plans for the Fall Congress; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: New Haven Register, published as The New Haven Evening Register; Date: 03-17-1894; Volume: LII; Issue: 65; Page: [1]; Location: New Haven, Connecticut [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: Personal and Political; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Boston Daily Advertiser; Date: 06-02-1895; Volume: 165; Issue: 132; Page: 4; Location: Boston, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

Headline: A. A. W. Congress at St John For the Advancement of Women. The Association Entertained; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Springfield Republican, published as Springfield Daily Republican; Date: 09-19-1896; Page: 4; Location: Springfield, Massachusetts [America’s Historical Newspapers Database]

On the Boston Society of Natural History

Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol 25. No. 4, May 1892 (Boston: Printed for the Society, 1892) p.436. [http://books.google.com/books?id=WIosAAAAYAAJ&pg]

On the Caroline A. Kennard Scholarship in Science at Radcliffe College

Radcliffe College. Annual reports of the president and treasurer of Radcliffe College, 1907-1908 (p. 66)http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/viewtext/2573658?op=t&n=988

The Radcliffe Bulletin. No. 9. February, 1908 (Cambridge, MA: The Radcliffe Bulletin) p.7 [GoogleBooks]

Radcliffe Notes, 15 October 1910, Cambridge Chronicle.

[http://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/cgi-bin/cambridge?a=d&d=Chronicle19191108-01.2.29&srpos=4&e=–––-en-20–1–txt-IN-%22Caroline+A.+Kennard%22––]

On the Brookline Education Society

Yearbook of the Brookline Education Society, First Year, 1895-96, Constitution, Officers and Members, with a record of meetings, lectures, and reports of committees, (Brookline, Mass: Riverdale Press: C.A.W. Spencer, 1896). [http://books.google.com/books?id=WI4BAAAAYAAJ&pg]

SECONDARY SOURCE:

Jane Cunningham Croly, Article on “New England Woman’s Club,”The History of the Woman’s Club Movement in America (New York: Henry G. Allen, Co, 1898) pp. 35-53. [http://books.google.com/books?id=OFJKn1HaKiAC&pg]

Sources

Annual reports of the president and treasurer of Radcliffe College, 1907–1908, p. 66

Cassino, Samuel E., comp., The scientists’ international directory (Boston, Mass.: Cassino Art Company, 1885)

Henderson, Harry and Henderson, Albert, The indomitable spirit of Edmonia Lewis: a narrative biography (Milford, Conn.: Esquiline Press, 2014)

Massachusetts, U.S., death records, 1841–1915 (Ancestry.com, accessed 18 November 2021)

Massachusetts, U.S., town and vital records, 1620–1988 (Ancestry.com, accessed 18 November 2021)

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