Anna Hallowell

Anna Hallowell (November 1, 1831 – April 6, 1905) was an American education reformer, feminist, anti slavery activist, and welfare worker.

Early life Anna Hallowell was born to Morris Longstreth Hallowell, a silk importer, and Hannah Penrose Hallowell in Philadelphia in 1831. She came from a Hicksite Quaker family and was the eldest of seven siblings. Her parents were anti-slavery proponents who risked their business speaking against the institution. Hallowell began working against slavery which led her to focus on eliminating poverty through education. In her twenties Hallowell was serving as secretary and on the board of the Home for Destitute Colored Children. 1859 saw Hallowell attending the trial of Daniel Dangerfield, a fugitive being tried under the Fugitive Slave Act. Hallowell's brothers, including Norwood Penrose Hallowell and Edward Needles Hallowell, served in the Union army during the American Civil War and she turned their home into a hospital.

Career In the 1870s Hallowell was working with those freed people who arrived in Philadelphia and with others she established the Society for Organizing Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicancy in 1878, with Hallowell on the committee for the Care and Education of Dependent Children. The organization became known as Society for Organizing Charity and the committee was reorganized in 1883 as the Children's Aid Society with Hallowell as one of its first directors. Such exposure caused Hallowell to conclude that the solution to poverty was through educating the children. From 1879 Hallowell worked to establish free kindergartens in impoverished areas. She arranged for the Sub-Primary School Society to assist with funding of kindergartens in the city and by 1887 there were 27 kindergartens when the Board of Public Education took them over.