ALCOTT, William Andrus, M.D. [1798-1859] -- American educator and writer

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Cousin and co-worker of Amos Bronson Alcott, he worked for better schools and better teaching in 19th-century America. He wrote on health and nutrition issues, and was an early advocate of birth control.

He was the apparant inventor of a student desk with individual shelves and a hinged blackboard that could swing forward or back, used in the School of Human Culture opened by his cousin Bronson in 1834.

ALCOTT, William Alexander, author, was born at Wolcott, Conn., August 6, 1798. He first attended a district school in winter, and worked on a farm during the summer, and subsequently by teaching he obtained a primary education and means to study medicine at Yale college. Completing his medical course he began to practise and also to write upon hygiene, confining his work chiefly to dietary subjects. With William Woodbridge he prepared school geographies and maps, and edited Annals of Education and Juvenile Rambles, the pioneer juvenile weekly in America. In 1832 he removed to Boston and there published a book entitled the "Young Man's Guide," treating of physiological principles, that was widely read. This success induced him to write other similar books. In all, he wrote about one hundred works, which have been influential in reforming educational methods, and improving the physical and moral well-being of mankind.

He died in Auburndale, Mass., March 29, 1859.

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Selected Works

Bookmarks (off-site links)