Table Of ContentCOPYRIGHTED
by
EDYTH MAY RENSHAW
1951
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Three Schools of Speech
The Emerson College of Oratory; the School of Expression;
and the Lexand Powers School of the Spoken Word
by
Edyth Renshaw
This dissertation has been approved for final examination
by the student's Dissertation .Committee whose written
approval is on file in the Advanced School
Dissertation Committee
Edward H« Reisner, Chairman
W, Cabell Greet, Member of Committee
Paul Kozelka, Member of Committee
Joseph Wood Krutch, Member of Committee
Jane Dorsey Zimmerman, Member of Committee
Magdalene Kramer, Sponsor ‘
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Teachers College, Columbia University
1950
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THREE SCHOOLS OF SPEECH
• THE EMERSON COLLEGE OF ORATORY; THE SCHOOL OF EXPRESSION
AND THE LELAND POWERS SCHOOL OF THE SPOKEN WORD
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CONTENTS
Paga
PREFACE ................................................................................................................ iV
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... Ti
PART ONE - TEE EMERSON COLLEGE OF ORATORY
I. PHILOSOPHY........................................................................................... 1
XI. PSYCHOLOGY........................................................................................... 14
III. ORAL INTERPRETATION........................................................................ 35
IT. VOICE...................................................................... 77
V. ACTION . ............................ 120
PART TWO - THE SCHOOL OF EXPRESSION (CURRY)
I. PHILOSOPHY........................................................................................... 169
II. PSYCHOLOGY............................................................. 219
III. ORAL INTERPRETATION........................................................................ 245
IV. VOICE......................................................................................................... 282
V. ACTION............................................... 326
PART THREE - THE LELAND POWERS SCHOOL OF THE SPOKEN WORD
I. PHILOSOPHY........................................................................................... 361
II. PSYCHOLOGY........................................................................................... 381
III. ORAL INTERPRETATION........................................................................ 391
IV. VOICE.......................................................................................................... 409
V. ACTION..................................................................................................... 425
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................... 448
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................... 464
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PREFACE
During the four decades from 1880 to 1920 it is generally
conceded that Boston was one of the important centers of educa
tion in elocution. Three of the most prominent schools in the
country were the Emerson College of Oratory, the School of Ex
pression (Curry), and the Leland Powers School of the Spoken
Word. Because these schools were rivals and because the fac
ulty of each was convinced that the theories taught and the
methods used in its own institution were both true and original,
it was inevitable that there emerged the conviction that each
school was unique.
The graduates of these schools who became teachers of
speech in private studios, academies, colleges, and universi
ties a ll over the country spread the idea of the uniqueness of
each of these Boston schools. Consequently there has been much
ai soussion among students and leaders in the field of speech
education about sim ilarities and differences in the theories
presented and in the methods of. teaching used in the three
schools•
Since there has never been" an intensive study of the sim i
larities and differences in these outstanding schools, it seems
appropriate to undertake such a project. In this work the
philosophic principles, the psychological theories as well as
iv
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the theories and methods of teaching oral interpretation, -voice
and action will be surveyed. These principles, theories, and
methods will be compared to discover whether there is any justi
fication for the several claims to uniqueness. Such an analyst
<•«**
should result in a clarification of the contributions made by
each school and of the relationship between the schools.
This work was made possible by the cooperation of the administrators
of Emerson College, Curry College, and the Leland Powers School. The
writer wishes to thank them and many of their former teachers and students
for their contributions to this study. Many librarians, particularly
those at Emerson College and Teachers College, Columbia University, gave
invaluable assistance. To Professor Earl C. Bryan of Texas State College
for Women, who lent many books from his private collection, the writer
also wishes to express thanks. Appreciation is also owed to Professor
E* H. Hunt for his helpful criticism. The writer is especially grateful
to Professor Magdalene Kramer for able direction and generous encourage
ment.
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INTRODUCTION
In two previous studies in the field of speech education
the Emerson College of Oratory, the School of Expression (Curry),
and the Leland Powers School of the Spoken Word have been consid
ered in a general way. In Robb's Oral Interpretation of Litera
ture in American Colleges and U niversities^ some attention is
given to the contribution made by the founders of these schools.
The author, however, stated that her intention was to give an ex
tensive, not an intensive view. While considerable space is given
to an exposition and evaluation of Curry's work in the School
of Expression, Emerson^s contribution is treated briefly and
Powers’ work is dismissed in a few sentences. Farma regarded
the work of these men from a different viewpoint in A Study in
2
Comparative Forms of Delivery. His interest is in the devel
opment of nine forms of delivery. In tracing the development
of these forms and in comparing the style and standards of de
livery advocated by various leaders, he discussed Curry, Emer
son, and Powers as important contributors to developments in
^•Hary Margaret Robb, Oral Interpretatlon of Literature in
American Colleges and Univ ersities. A Historical Study of Teach
ing Methods. New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1941.
^William Joseph Farma, A Study in Comparative Speech Forms
of Delivery with Special Reference to Interpretative Reading,
doctoral dissertation, Madison, University of Wisconsin, 1946.
vi
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v ii
speech education. In neither work, however, is there a detailed
review of the teachings of these men or of the other teachers in
the schools which they founded.
Although Farma indicates some of the similar elements in
the background of Emerson, Curry, and Powers, it is not gener
ally known, the writer believes, that these three men and some
of their colleagues studied with some of the same teachers at
the same time. The two teachers who were acknowledged by Emer
son, Curry, and Powers to be the most influential in their
lives are Lewis Baxter Monroe and Steele Mackaye.
Monroe was a pioneer credited with exerting power in
changing the emphasis in oratory and declamation from outward
form to inner cause. When Boston University opened a School of
Oratory in 1872, Monroe was made head of the school with the
title of Snow Professor of Oratory. At the time of this ap
pointment Monroe was at the height of his career as an educa
tor. He had been supervisor of reading in the city of Boston.
He was the author of a set of readers which were clearly in
the interpretative reading vein. In addition he was a platform
reader of note throughout Hew England. Before Monroe studied
with Mackaye (the American teacher of Delsarte methods), he was
familiar with Swedenborg’s philosophy, from which it is said
Delsarte developed his theories. Moreover, Monroe had already
worked out theories similar to those of Delsarte’s. Therefore,
he found the ideas of Delsarte acceptable and taught them in
his classes.
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vii!
Shortly after his death in 1879 the Boston Herald published
an anticle in which considerable praise was bestowed on Monroe
as an educator who exerted great influence in the field of elo
cution.^ According to this article there were five thousand
students of oratory and elocution in Boston. Monroe is men
tioned as a "leading influence." Among his students who later
became prominent were Charles Wesley Emerson, Samuel Silas
Curry, Anna Baright Curry, Leland T. Powers, Elizabeth Harwood,
Moses True Brown, Edward N. Kirby, Franklin H. Sargent, Mary A.
2
Currier, and Robert Raymond. Emerson, Curry, Powers, and Sar
gent were among those distinguished men who made laudatory
statements concerning Monroe' s effectiveness as a teacher and
his influence in awakening his students to the practical use of
the imagination in elocution. According to Sargent, Monroe was
the originator of the transcendental school of thought in Ameri-
3
can elocution theory.
Before Monroe's death Emerson had completed his work at
Boston University, where he had come rather late in life . He
iFarma, A Study in Comparative Speech Forms of Delivery,
quoting an article in Werner*s Voice Magazine, III (1881), 143
144, reprinted from an article in the Boston Herald, 1880.
^Boston University Yearbook, edited by the University
Council, Boston, H. 0. Houghton and Company, 1873-1880, Vols.
I-VII} and Farma, A Study in Comparative Speech Forms of
Delivery, pp.. 452-453.
3Farma, A Study in Comparative Speech Forms of Delivery,
g. 451, citing Fred Winslow Adams, "Boston as an Elocutionary
Center," Werner's Voice Magazine, XVI (April, 1894), 114-115.
9
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is
had previously been a minister in Vermont, where he was born in
1857.* It was there he had been educated and ordained. It was
there he preached first in Methodist and later in Congregational
churches. It was there he became afflicted with an incipient
form of tuberculosis. When he realized that his lungs were af
fected, Emerson resigned his pastorate and went on a search for
health that was to take him into a new profession.
Since health was his immediate problem, he went fir st on a
rest cure abroad, and then he entered the School of Medicine of
the University of Pennsylvania. It was characteristic of him
to want to know why he was i l l as well as what he could do about
it . After a short course he was graduated, but his thirst for
information was not satisfied. In 1872 he entered Boston Uni
versity to study law and oratory. In 1880 h8 formed his first
classes. Emerson named his school the Monroe Conservatory in
honor of his former teacher.
When Emerson organized his school ks had about a dozen
students. Among the early students were Jessie Eldridge and
Henry Lawrence Southwick. Throughout their lifetim e they con
tinued their association with the school, fir st as teachers and
then as part proprietors and administrators. It was Jessie
Eldridge, then Mrs. H. L. Southwick, who suggested that the
school’s name be changed from the Monroe College of Oratory,
^Untitled article quoting obituary in the Boston Post,
Emerson College Magazine, XVII (December, 1908), 66-69.
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