The period of 1878-1899 was marked by a tremendous growth in the types and numbers of educational institutions available to the public, ranging from nursery schools to new high schools For the youngest learners, determined women educators worked during the 1880s and 1890s to establish kindergartens and to effect a revolutionary change in attitudes toward young children. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, the daughter of two teachers at Phillips Andover Academy and the sister-in-law of the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, led a campaign to popularize the kinds of kindergartens she had discovered while traveling in Germany to observe the work of innovator Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel. The schools were based on the concept of play and exploration. The children were provided with malleable equipment, such as Peg-Boards, perforated cards for wool embroidery, and soft balls. The walls were covered with pictures appealing to...