Alcott, William (1798-1859)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

William Andrus Alcott was born 6 August 1798 in Wolcott, Connecticut and died 29 March 1859 in Newton, Massachusetts. A distant cousin to A. Bronson Alcott, his junior by a year, they formed a close bond while growing up together. In his notes to New Connecticut, Bronson Alcott writes:

William Andrews [sic] Alcott. He was my cousin and a little older than myself. Living in sight, we sought each other's society whenever we could steal away from our home duties, hoping to find conversation and reading food for our minds not accessible to us at school ... We read the same books, borrowed any within our reach that promised to be interesting or instructive; formed a Juvenile library, as we called it; corresponded by letters, delivering these at each other's doors; cherished like dreams of the future. Teaching was a desirable occupation and possible for us; we even aspired to authorship. A new spelling-book was thought to be needed, and, should we attain to a position of eminence in medicine or the ministry, might be written. Dr. Alcott's writings on hygiene and primary education were numerous; they had a wide popularity for a time, and might be read still with profit. He was a pioneer in reforms, in methods of teaching and discipline. As a teacher in his district his reputation was second to none. His papers contributed to the "American Journal of Education" contain suggestions to which many of the modern improvements owe their origin. He was for some time associated with Mr. William C. Woodbridge in conducting the "Annals of Education," and succeeded him as its editor. Few men have lived lives of more untiring industry. His modesty was the only impediment to a wide and just appreciation by his contemporaries (151-152).

Alcott's contributions as an editor were extensive. He edited the Boston journal the Moral Reformer, dedicated to eliminating intemperance, gluttony and licentiousness; he was also the editor of the vegetarian Library of Health journal which, in 1840, merged with both the Moral Reformer and the Graham Journal of Health and Longevity. A graduate of Yale Medical School (1827), the recurring theme of Alcott's prolific writings is the moral and spiritual basis of health. He was a founding member of the American Physiological Society (1837) and both a founding member and the first President of the American Vegetarian Society (1850).

Alcott consistently draws links among the economic, social, moral, and spiritual reasons for promoting the “vegetable diet” over an “animal diet.” He draws on a range of scientific and philosophical references to explain: why children should not eat meat, the diseases that stem from meat-eating, and the stimulating nature of meat and spirits. His veg*nism is linked fundamentally to his alignment with the dress reform and Temperance movements, and his interest in  the status of women is reflected in his view that a vegetable diet will save women time in the kitchen. However, his writings are grounded in the contemporary "separate spheres" ideology: that men and sons should help in the kitchen if they are to be good husbands and sons, but the domestic sphere is the domain of women and girls or, more correctly, of salaried housekeepers who are directed in their work by housewives.

IMAGE:   John Chester Buttre, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

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Last updated on May 18th, 2024

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