Endowments; Oratory--Study and teaching; Universities and colleges--Finance; Boston (Mass.); School of Expression (Boston, Mass.); Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922
Format
correspondence
Genre
Business correspondence
Origin Information
1886
Physical Description
microfilm, 16 mm, b&w
digitized microfilm
Note (Reel no.)
Reel 81
Note
PDF may contain multiple grant documents.
Curry College is a private college in Milton, Massachusetts. It was founded as the School of Elocution and Expression by Anna Baright in 1879. In 1885 it was taken over and renamed by Samuel Silas Curry... Curry College was founded in 1879 on Boston's Commonwealth Avenue by Anna Baright as the School of Elocution and Expression. Baright graduated from the Boston University School of Oratory in 1877 and was described by one of her professors as 'the greatest woman reader in the country.' This was a significant compliment in an era of oratory when speakers like Charles Dickens and Mark Twain were paid thousands to read lengthy pieces of their work. In 1882, Baright married Boston minister and fellow Boston University alumnus and professor Samuel Silas Curry. The School of Elocution and Expression had many prominent Bostonians on its Board including Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Melville Bell, the father of Alexander Graham Bell, legendary Harvard President Charles W. Eliot and author William Dean Howells, who wrote The Rise of Silas Lapham and was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Among the students in attendance were Smiley Blanton and Sara Stinchfield Hawk, who became pioneers in the field of speech language pathology. In 1885, the school became the School of Expression and, in 1888, the school was chartered by the state. Silas Curry became the head of the school, and Anna Baright Curry became a professor. Former Boston University School of Oratory professor and telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell became the school's first chancellor from 1907 to 1922 when Mr. Bell died. Bell, as a professor at Boston University, taught Samuel Silas Curry and, according to the recollections of Curry's daughter, Silas Curry was present when Bell made the first telephone call in 1876. After Mr. Bell's death, Samuel Silas Curry and Anna Baright ran the school until their respective deaths in 1921 and 1924. In 1932, Curry began a radio broadcasting major, still considered among the oldest of its kind in the country. In 1938, the Massachusetts Legislature gave the institution the power to confer the degrees of Bachelor of Science of Oratory and Master of Science of Oratory. In 1943, the School of Expression became Curry College to reflect its founders. Curry College moved from Commonwealth Avenue in Boston to its current suburban location in Milton, Massachusetts in 1952." [SOURCE: "Curry College." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_College. Accessed 12 Oct. 2018.]
Language
English
Library Location
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University