A Search for Our Queer Ancestors in Education: Ella Flagg Young

• In Event: LGBTQ+ Histories of Education: Where in the World Do We Stand?

Abstract

Non-normative sexualities and genders have flourished in a variety of historical contexts.[1] For example, after teaching shifted from men's to women's work during the 1800s, then in the early 1900s to work done almost exclusively by unmarried women, new opportunities opened for such teachers to center their lives on other women rather than marrying by default or remaining with their families of birth. Strikingly little scholarship has been published about this moment when teaching arguably became the first public profession in the U.S. hospitable to women who desired or otherwise centered their lives on other women or who crossed normative gender boundaries. However, tantalizing pieces of this puzzle cry out for attention.[2] Despite many methodological obstacles to undertaking such research, an important way to navigate this historical recovery work is by finding and telling stories of individual school workers whose sexualities and/or genders might have transgressed norms during this time. In this presentation the author offers an example of such a recovery project.

The author, who is writing a biography of Ella Flagg Young, describes in this presentation some sexuality and gender transgressing aspects of Young's life. Young was one of the most significant teachers, leaders, and intellectuals of her time. As teaching shifted from men’s to women’s work, she proved so skillful teaching in Chicago’s crowded classrooms that she soon was appointed to principal of the city’s new School of Practice and charged with preparing the system’s future teachers. She then moved into a series of ever more responsible educational positions, culminating in service as Chicago’s superintendent and election to the NEA presidency, the first women. She crossed gender boundaries along the way. She also maintained a long companionate relationship with Laura Brayton. As an indication of the closeness of their relationship, when Young died of the influenza pandemic of 1918 and Brayton was severely incapacitated with the disease for weeks, their closest friends arranged for Young’s burial with space beside her for Brayton’s eventual interment.[3]

For this presentation, the author has utilized archival documents and public records collected as part of her biographical project on Young. These include census and probate records, cemetery interment records, correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, and city directories. The author also has carefully combed through all relevant public reports as well as complete runs of two Chicago newspapers from 1909-1915, and digital searches for events in other years.

The author closes by describing how Young, were she alive today, likely would eschew an identity as LGBTQ+. Nonetheless, she crossed sexuality and gender norms in her day, something that would have led to sanctions on educators only a few years after her death. Her story is important to recover.

[1] John D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, Third Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021).
2 Author (2005).
3 Author (In progress). See also plat information for the Flagg family including Ella Flagg Young’s first and then final positions: Rosehill Cemetery plat and interment records. Rosehill Cemetery Company, Chicago.

Author

• Jackie M. Blount, The Ohio State University
  Presenting Author