Born: 1821, United States
Died: 1879
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Mary Eliot Dwight
The following is republished with permission from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
The Industrial School for Girls was originally established 1853 in Winchester, Massachusetts, and moved to Dorchester in 1859 after it outgrew the property, which was not well suited to a school. The Dorchester site was designed by noted architect George Snell. At first a residential school, it served young girls, aged 6 – 15, largely from poor or dysfunctional families. They learned domestic skills with the goal of becoming self-supporting. Two women who were deeply involved with the school in its early days were Emeline Everett and Mary Parkman.
Mary Eliot Dwight was born in 1821, the daughter of noted education reformer Edmund Dwight. Her mother, Mary, a descendent of shipping magnate Samuel Eliot, was frequently ill, and Mary was called on to care for her and her younger siblings. She married Harvard graduate Samuel Parkman, a physician, in 1849. He died from typhoid in 1854, after which Mary’s financial situation deteriorated. She opened a small school to supplement her income and later became secretary of the board of the Industrial School for Girls when it was located in Winchester, MA. She served as vice-president between 1860 – 1862 after the institution moved to Dorchester. She lived in Boston and later Beverly, MA. Parkman promoted public health as a member of the executive committee of the American Social Science Association (ASSA). She served as chairman of the New England Women’s Auxiliary to the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War and later aided in creating a school to train nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital. She died at her Beacon Hill home after having lived out her last years in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, where she wrote reviews of works of fiction for The Nation.