William Channing Woodbridge (December 8, 1794November 9, 1845) was an American geographer, educational reformer, and the author of many geography textbooks.
Early life and family Woodbridge's father, William Woodbridge, was a Yale University graduate, minister, and a major advocate for educational change in Connecticut. The senior Woodbridge wrote textbooks on grammar and spelling, and was the first preceptor of Phillips Exeter Academy. He worked with his son on some of the younger Woodbridge's projects. His mother was Ann Channing, the aunt of Bostonian Unitarian theologian William Ellery Channing.
William Channing Woodbridge was born in Medford, Massachusetts. His family soon moved to Connecticut, where his parents taught him Latin, Greek, Chemistry and Mathematics. Throughout his life, he suffered from what was then called scrofula, which today would probably be diagnosed as tuberculosis.
Career at Yale In June 1808, Woodbridge entered Yale as the youngest member of his freshman class. Here, he was inspired by Yale College's president, Timothy Dwight IV. Woodbridge developed an interest in both the American landscape and in the publication of geographies, and was a member of the Society of Brothers in Unity. Many of the values later reflected in his publications were those of Yale at this time. Woodbridge was a true son of the Enlightenment, believing in the importance of reason and observation. However, like Dwight he remained a committed evangelical Christian. Woodbridge rejected the Unitarian ideas which were then influencing so many of his friends and relatives. He believed passionately in science, but he was certain that this knowledge of the material world could only lead people closer to God and to a firmer morality. He believed in the essential unity of all humans. After discussing the location of the various races of mankind, his 1830 edition of Rudiments of Geography reminds readers, "The scriptures inform us that all of these races are brethren of the same family; the children of the same first parents."
Teaching the deaf Upon graduation, Woodbridge briefly attended Princeton University with the hope of studying theology and becoming a missionary. When ill health made this impossible, he turned to teaching. Eventually, he accepted a position as an instructor with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet at the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in Hartford, Connecticut. Here, he pioneered in teaching geography to the disabled. Woodbridge also began work on a small geography text which would eventually be published as Rudiments of Geography.Walters 1993, p. 42-43.Alcott 1858, p. 54-55.Walters, William D. Jr: "William Channing Woodbridge: Geographer," page 42-47, The Journal of Social Studies 16 & 17: 2, 1993.Woodbridge, William Channing: "The Rudiments of Geography, on a new plan designed to assist the memory of comparison and classification: with numerous engravings of manners, customs and curiosities, and accompanied by an atlas", Hartford: S. G. Goodrich, 1921.
Travel to Europe
In October 1820, Woodbridge left his teaching job and traveled to Europe. He was desperate to improve his health and keen to meet prominent European educators and visit their schools. He also wanted to gather material for an expanded geography. He traveled via Gibraltar and Algeciras to Palermo, Livorno, and Rome. He returned to Hartford in July 1821, where he began writing a new and greatly expanded geography that would incorporate what he had learned in Europe. It was eventually published 1824 as A System of Universal Geography.Woodbridge, William Channing: "A System of Universal Geography, Ancient and Modern, on the Principals of Comparison and Classification", Hartford, Oliver D. Cooke and Son, 1824Walters 1993.Alcott 1858. The book would remain in print, with small variations in title, until 1866.
Second trip to Europe For Woodbridge, understanding European thinkers was critical to improving American education. In the fall of 1824, he left the United States for a second and more extended trip across the Atlantic. The small amount of money he earned from books was insufficient to support even his very humble lifestyle. Therefore, he supplemented his earnings by teaching the disabled.Walters Jr, William D: "William Channing Woodbridge: Geographer," page 44, The Journal of Social Studies 16 & 17: 2, 1993 For all of his admiration of European educators and geographers, he decided they were behind the United States in two areas: female education and teaching the disabled. Woodbridge spent the summer of 1826 teaching in Hofwil, Switzerland, where Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg had established an influential experimental school. Woodbridge was in Paris in January 1827, correcting proofs of his new geography textbook. He had made the acquaintance of the great German explorer, scholar, and student of physical geography Alexander von Humboldt. Woodbridge continued to correspond with von Humboldt and incorporated many of von Humboldt's ideas in his geographies. In the introduction to his new geography text he thanked von Humboldt and the Geographical Society of Paris for their assistance.Walters 1993, p. 44-45.Martin, Geoffrey J: "The Emergence and Development of Geographic Thought in New England," page 1–13, Economic Geography 74, March 1998. Woodbridge then went back to Hofwyl, probably sometime in 1828, before returning to New England in 1829.Alcott 1858, p. 55.
Work to improve music education While on his second trip to Europe, Woodbridge observed the teaching of vocal music by Nägeli, Pfeiffer, Kübler and others, and brought home many of their works with him."Educational Labors of Lowell Mason", The American Journal of Education, p. 139-147, 4, 1857. Upon his return to Hartford, he began working with Elam Ives, Jr. to see those Pestalozzian-based teaching methods applied. Their experiment was apparently successful.Ellis, Howard Eber: "The Influence of Pestalozzianism on Instruction in Music," (Doctoral dissertation), 1957, p. 142-145. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (5801396) During this same time, Woodbridge had gone to Boston and met Lowell Mason, whom he persuaded to go and observe Ives' experiments in Hartford.Gilsig, Marcie-Ann: "Elam Ives, Jr. (1802-1864): Musician-Educator" (Doctoral Dissertation) Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (ML31197), 1985, p. 19-20
Woodbridge left Hartford in 1830 and discontinued his relationship with Ives. Instead, he supported Mason (who—at least initially—adopted many of his imported methods) through the Boston Academy of Music, of which he was the corresponding secretary.Pemberton, Carol Ann: "Lowell Mason: His Life and Work" (Doctoral Dissertation) Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (7128272), 1971, p. 178-179. His promotion of Mason through lectures in Boston and through his American Annals of Education eventually helped Mason win support to introduce music education into the Boston public schools, a feat which William Alcott would say was "a service which alone would have made him a public benefactor."
Work with William A. Alcott It was in Hartford, in the spring of 1830, that Woodbridge met William A. Alcott. Alcott would later remember the meeting, writing that he had entered a tavern, just as Woodbridge was leaving. He asked the publican who that was and was told that it was William Channing Woodbridge, who was a great friend of education. Alcott followed Woodbridge down the street and introduced himself. He was astonished when Woodbridge responded to the introduction with a question; "what is the great practical error in all of our school education?" Without hesitation, Alcott replied that it was,"the strange effort to crowd the intellect at the expense of health, morals, and everything else." These words, Alcott wrote, "bound as friends for life."Alcott, William A: "Confessions of a Schoolmaster", (reprinted by New York Arno Press in 1969) 1856 By 1831, Woodbridge had shifted his base of operations from Hartford to Boston. The first joint effort of Woodbridge and Alcott was the publication of an improved educational journal. In 1831, Woodbridge purchased the American Journal of Education, which was renamed the Annals of Education.Jorgensen, E.R. (1984) "William Channing Woodbridge's Lecture 'On Vocal Music as a Branch of Common Education' Revisited." Studies in Music, 18, 2. Over the next five years Alcott and Woodbridge contributed many articles and textbook reviews to the Annals. Woodbridge and Alcott filled the Annals with a wide range of articles on educational topics, reflected on developments in Europe, and pressed for educational reform. They were particularly concerned with women's education and with incorporating the ideas of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and the French reformer Joseph Jocotot into American schools, both of whom had stressed the importance of observation and of geography. By the time hard times swept away their control of the Annals in 1836, its reputation as the leading American educational publication was firmly established.Walters Jr., William D: "Voices for reform in Early American Geographical Education", p. 156-160, Journal of Geography 86:4, July–August 1987.Alcott 1858, p. 59-60.
Publication with Emma Willard For some time Woodbridge had also been associated with Emma Willard. Together they worked on many geography texts. Their complex publication efforts had begun in the early 1820s. When both were growing up, their families lived within five miles of each other in Connecticut. Both shared a passionate interest in causes like educational reform and the education of women. Because it had originally been intended to publish Woodbridge's Rudiments of Geography with an early geography by Willard, and because Willard's Ancient Geography was eventually published with Woodbridge's work as Universal Geography, there was considerable confusion about the role of each author. Emma Willard had to publicly assure readers that the "system of modern geography" had been entirely written and arranged by Woodbridge.Woodbridge and Willard, 1827. Their various combined geographies proved to be very successful. By 1827, they had reached an arrangement to pool and split royalties; Woodbridge would get five sevenths of the money and Willard would receive two sevenths. This seems to have reflected their relative contributions. Woodbridge seems to have done most of the updating as well as handling many of the financial arrangements with the publishers. Throughout Woodbridge's life the two authors remained on cordial terms.Walters Jr., William D: "Emma Willard's Geographies," p. 118-138, Pennsylvania Geographer 37, Spring/Summer 1999. Kim Tolley has recently argued that the Woodbridge and Willard geographies, with their strong emphasis on field work and observation, were important in encouraging American women to develop an interest in scienceTolley, Kim: "The Science Education of American Girls: A Historical Perspective", New York, Rutledge Palmer, 2003 and Daniel H. Calhoun has made the case for their importance in the world view of Americans in the Jacksonian era.Calhoun, Daniel H: "Eyes for the Jacksonan World: William C. Woodbridge and Emma Willard", Journal of the Early Republic 4, 1984
Publication of On the Best Methods of Teaching Geography