Object Details
- Description
- Before compulsory attendance was mandatory, this attendance certificate was awarded to Miss Elizabeth Grant Davidson in 1844 while she was in the second grade. It was presented by her principal, Lydia Scudder English. While some other schools presented awards for academic achievement or to promote self esteem, this type of award was discontinued in the mid 1830’s at Female Seminary of Georgetown. Miss Lydia felt punctuality was as importance as attendance and addressed parents of students late for roll call. To encourage good behavior she presented students with "Rewards of Merit." Rewards of Merit can take the form of certificates, medals, ribbons, booklets and other ephemera that. Certificates were hand done in watercolors or lithographed. The student's name and the name of the presenter would be filled in by hand, much like a modern computer generates award on certificate paper. This certificate of merit depicts a parchment scroll surrounded by a decorative floral motif
- Elizabeth Grant Davidson, born September 1829, was the daughter of Lewis Grant Davidson. She attended Miss Lydia's Female Seminary in Georgetown as a girl and married Charles Dodge on June 12, 1849. They had one daughter, Anne Woodruff Dodge, in 1851; daughter Anna would later married Admiral Lawrence Boggs. Elizabeth died April 11, 1892 in New York City. Both Elizabeth and her head mistress Miss Lydia are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
- Miss Lydia Scudder English was the founder and principal of the Female Seminary in Georgetown from Feb 1826-Summer 1861. It was also known as Miss English's Georgetown Female Seminary, and locally as Miss Lydia's Boarding School. The school began with three pupils but was boarding girls by 1831. A brochure advertised a curriculum that would provide "mental and moral culture necessary" for the girls to become "amiable, intelligent, and useful members of society." The 3 story seminary contained 19 bedrooms, a library, several parlors, and porches on the wings. It even had running hot water and at capacity boarded about 140 girls, many from the South. Locally, many Washington families also sent their girls to this school. It was not unusual for Southern girls to be boarded in Northern schools prior to the Civil War, and as Miss Lydia was pro-Confederate and a slave owner, this school was particularly popular with Southern families. Miss Lydia retired from actively teaching in 1852 but continued as an administrator. Given her secessionist sentiments, it was not surprising that after the First Battle of Bull Run, the Union Army confiscated the seminary and turned it into a Union hospital for officers. It was called Seminary Hospital.
- In addition to letters, diaries, journals, scrapbooks and "Rewards of Merit," eighteenth century school girls, unlike their male counterparts, also left behind embroidered pictures, needlework samplers, and other artistic endeavors. Many of these can be found within the division's textile collections. Two of these may have been produced at Miss Lydia's school. Samplers by Mary Margaret Meem (2004.0246.01) and Elizabeth Orme (T.07319) depict similar cornucopia's and both girls were known to be students at the school about the time the samplers were worked.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- associated institution
- Female Seminary, Georgetown
- associated person
- Davidson, Elizabeth Grant
- issuing authority
- Female Seminary, Georgetown
- author
- English, Lydia Scudder
- Date made
- 1844
- date made
- 1844-02-09
- associated date
- 1844
- Credit Line
- Gift of Edith D. Rawlett In Memory of Randolph M. Rawlett
- Measurements
- overall: 6 in x 5 1/2 in; 15.24 cm x 13.97 cm
- Object Name
- Certificate
- Object Type
- Certificates
