Anna Eliot Ticknor

Anna Eliot Ticknor (Boston, Massachusetts, June 1, 1823 – October 5, 1896) was an American educator, who launched the first correspondence school in the United States, and pioneered public libraries in Massachusetts.

Distinction In 1873, Ticknor founded the Society to Encourage Studies at Home which was the first correspondence school in the United States. She is attributed as being a pioneer of distance learning in the United States, and the mother of correspondence schools. She served as one of the original appointees to the Massachusetts Free Public Library Commission, which was the first of its kind in the United States. She and Elizabeth Putnam Sohier became the first women appointed to a United States state library agency when they were appointed to that commission in 1890.

Family

Anna Eliot Ticknor was the oldest child of George Ticknor and Anna (Eliot) Ticknor. She was born on June 1, 1823. Her siblings were George Haven Ticknor, who died during his childhood at age 5; Susan Perkins Ticknor, who died in infancy; and Eliza Sullivan (Ticknor) Dexter (1833–1880).

Her paternal grandfather was Elisha Ticknor who was the impetus for the system of free primary schools in Boston, and one of the founders of the first savings bank, Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston, in the United States. Her father was a Harvard University professor. Her society was the first correspondence school in the United States, and an early effort to offer higher education to women.