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The National Council of Women made a declaration to support women of color especially in regards to day nurseries and kindergarten. (Cahan, 1989)

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At the White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, President Roosevelt declared that child care support should only be provided to mothers who have lost their spouse and wish to keep their home and children in it. (Cahan, 1989)

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Mothers Pensions had been passed in 39 states plus Alaska and Hawaii in an attempt to keep children at home with their mothers. (Cahan, 1989. pg.20)

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Abigail Eliot transformed the first US Nursery School to be based on the McMillan sisters work in the UK. This was the starts of the warm welcoming environments in child care and included manipulatives for children to play with independently. ("Our proud heritage: Abigail Eliot and Margaret McMillan—Bringing the nursery school to the United States," n.d.)

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Abigail Adams Eliot (October 9, 1892 - October 29, 1992) was an American educator and a leading authority on early childhood education. She was a founding member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, supervised the Federal Emergency Relief Administration's nursery school program in New England in the 1930s, and co-founded the Eliot Community Mental Health Center in Concord, Massachusetts. The Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study at Tufts University is named for Eliot and her colleague, Elizabeth W. Pearson.

Abigail Adams "Abby" Eliot was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston on October 9, 1892, the youngest child of Reverend Christopher Rhodes Eliot and Mary Jackson (May) Eliot. The Eliots were a prominent Boston Brahmin family. Abby's father was a Unitarian minister and her grandfather, William G. Eliot, was the first chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. Her sister, Martha May Eliot, became a nationally known public health specialist, and her brother, Frederick May Eliot, headed the Unitarian Association of America for many years. The poet, playwright, critic, and Nobel laureate T.S. Eliot was her first cousin.

At Radcliffe in 1914

After serving at the First Parish Church of Dorchester on Meeting House Hill for 13 years, Reverend Eliot became the minister and social worker at the Bulfinch Place Church in the West End, and the family moved to 2 West Cedar Street on Beacon Hill. Eliot graduated from the Winsor School, a private preparatory school on Beacon Hill, in 1910. After receiving her A.B. degree from Radcliffe College in 1914, she spent five years doing social work for Associated Charities and the Children's Mission to Children. From 1919 to 1920 she studied at Oxford University, and briefly worked for the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Committee. The Woman's Education Association of Boston sent her to England for six months in 1921 to study the nursery school movement at the Rachel McMillan Nursery School and Training Centre in London, and to prepare herself to start a similar school in Boston.

In January 1922, with the sponsorship the Woman's Education Association, Eliot co-founded the Ruggles Street Nursery School in Roxbury with Boston philanthropist Elizabeth W. Pearson. In addition to teaching children, the school trained teachers in early childhood education. Eliot served as Director until 1952. She also continued her education, earning her Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1926 and her Ed.D. in 1930. Eliot became a leading proponent of early childhood education, teaching at the Ruggles School and at Wellesley College and giving frequent talks to parent and church groups. In 1923 she helped found the Cambridge Nursery School. She helped organize the National Association for Nursery Education, which became the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and served for a time as its secretary-treasurer.

During the Depression, the Roosevelt Administration's Federal Emergency Relief Administration organized "emergency nursery schools" for needy children. Eliot became a member of the National Advisory Committee for the program, and supervised its New England operations.

The Ruggles Street Nursery School eventually became the Nursery Training School of Boston and moved to 355 Marlboro Street. In 1951 it became the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study at Tufts University and moved to Medford, Massachusetts. The Eliot-Pearson Award, given biennially to honor outstanding contributions in the field of children's media, is known as the "Abby".

Anna E. Holman

After retiring in 1952, Eliot taught for two years at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California. In 1954 she returned to Massachusetts and taught for several years at the Brooks School and Garland Junior College. She served on many boards and committees for child guidance and mental health and on the Radcliffe College Board of Trustees. She also continued to give lectures, and helped found the Walden Clinic, which became the Eliot Community Mental Health Center in Concord, Massachusetts.

Eliot's partner for more than 50 years was poet and teacher Anna E. Holman, who had been her classmate at Radcliffe. They shared the Grindall Reynolds House in Concord from 1954 until Holman's death in 1969. She died of a heart attack on October 29, 1992, aged 100, at the New England Deaconess Home in Concord.

1. ^ "Eliot, Abigail Adams, 1892-1992. Papers of Abigail Adams Eliot, 1858-1979: A Finding Aid". Harvard University Library. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016.

2. ^ Parry, Manon S.; Tedeschi, Sara K. (August 2004). "Martha May Eliot: Spinster in Steel Specs, Adviser on Maternity". American Journal of Public Health. 94 (8): 1322. doi:10.2105/AJPH.94.8.1322. PMC .

3. ^ Robbins, Paula. "Abigail Adams Eliot: Nursery School Movement Pioneer, 1892-1992". Harvard Square Library.

4. ^ Ohles, Frederik; Ohles, Shirley M.; Ramsay, John G. (1997). "ELIOT, Abigail Adams". Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 100-101. ISBN 9780313291333.

5. ^ "Abigail Adams Eliot, 100, Dies; Expert in Nursery School Training". The New York Times. November 2, 1992. p. D11.

6. ^ Tucker, Cynthia Grant (2010). No Silent Witness. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 249. ISBN 978-0-19-539020-9.

7. ^ "Anna Holman Taught Science, Fair Planner". The Boston Globe. Concord. April 15, 1969. p. 40 - via Newspapers.com.

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Abigail Adams Eliot (October 9, 1892 - October 29, 1992) was an American educator and a leading authority on early childhood education. She was a founding member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, supervised the Federal Emergency Relief Administration's nursery school program in New England in the 1930s, and co-founded the Eliot Community Mental Health Center in Concord, Massachusetts.

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The National Association for Nursery Education (NANE) was founded by Abigail Eliot. ("Our proud heritage: Abigail Eliot and Margaret McMillan—Bringing the nursery school to the United States," n.d.)

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74 colleges across America had nursery schools. 66 stated this was for the purpose of furthering child development. 47 reported use for training quality educators. (Cahan, 1989.pg. 23)

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Aid to Dependent Child (ADC) was passed as part of the Social Security Administration. With the increased disdain for child rearing outside the home, the government put into place a program to support children lacking parental support. (Cahan, 1989. pg. 20)

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The Lanham Act provided funding for child care facilities for children of mothers working in defense industries during World War II. ("History of federal funding for child care and early learning," n.d.)

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US Office of Education pamphlet, Nursery Schools Vital to the War Effort, indicated that skilled teachers with specialized training in nursery school education were essential to the war effort. ("Historical timeline: Preparation for the care and education workforce in the United States - Transforming the workforce for children birth through age 8 - NCBI bookshelf," 2015)

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Notes

[1] "Annual Report 1942-1943," Council of Social Agencies, Portland Oregon, 1944. Page 7, Folder 7, Box 25, Defense Council Records, OSA. Quoted in "With Mother at the Factory...Oregon's Child Care Challenges." In Life in the Home Front: Oregon Responds to World War II, Oregon Secretary of State, https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/ww2/Pages/services-child-care.aspx
[2] Interview with Jean E. Amonson, by Karen Beck Skold, Feb. 13, 1976, 4.
[3] Lydia Kiesling, "Paid Child Care for Working Mothers? All It Took Was a World War," New York Times, Oct. 2, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/paid-childcare-working-mothers-wwii.html.

Sources

Amonson, Jean E. Oral History Interview. By Karen Beck Skold. Women Workers and Childcare during World War II, Mss 1803, Karen Beck Skold Research Papers, Oregon Historical Society. February 13, 1976. https://digitalcollections.ohs.org/sr-1677-interview-with-jean-e-amonson.
Enoch, Jessica. "There's No Place Like the Childcare Center: A Feminist Analysis of in the World War II Era." Rhetoric Review 31, no. 4 (2012): 422-42.
Herbst, Chris M. "Universal Child Care, Maternal Employment, and Children's Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from the US Lanham Act of 1940." Journal of Labor Economics 35, no. 2 (2017): 519-64.
Kiesling, Lydia. "Paid Child Care for Working Mothers? All It Took Was a World War." The New York Times, October 2, 2019, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/paid-childcare-working-mothers-wwii.html.
Tuttle, William M. "Rosie the Riveter and Her Latchkey Children: What Americans Can Learn About Child Day Care from the Second World War." Child Welfare 74, no. 1 (1995): 92-114.
Koshuk, Ruth Pearson. "Developmental Records of 500 Nursery School Children." The Journal of Experimental Education 16, no. 2 (1947): 134-48.
Article by Ella Wagner, PhD, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

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Childcare on the World War II Home Front (U.S. National Park Service)

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Notes [1] "Annual Report 1942-1943," Council of Social Agencies, Portland Oregon, 1944. Page 7, Folder 7, Box 25, Defense Council Records, OSA. Quoted in "With Mother at the Factory...Oregon's Child Care Challenges." In Life in the Home Front: Oregon Responds to World War II, Oregon Secretary of State, https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/ww2/Pages/services-child-care.aspx [2] Interview with Jean E.

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NANE became the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). ("Our proud heritage: Abigail Eliot and Margaret McMillan—Bringing the nursery school to the United States," n.d.)

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We use cookies to analyse how visitors use our website and to help us provide the best possible experience for users.

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Head Start was founded, providing affordable care to lower income families. ("Historical timeline: Preparation for the care and education workforce in the United States - Transforming the workforce for children birth through age 8 - NCBI bookshelf," 2015)

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Nixon vetoed the Comprehensive Child Development Act (CDA), which would have built the groundwork for free universal childcare for lower-income families and a tiered rate for the rest of the population. Instead, he signed legislation that expanded the 1954 childcare tax credit for middle-class families. (Guettler, 2025)

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The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) was created to provide subsidies to working families to help support cost of child care. ("History of federal funding for child care and early learning," n.d.)

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The NAEYC began approving standards for initial licensure programs in early childhood professional preparation. This would provide better quality educators in the field. ("Historical timeline: Preparation for the care and education workforce in the United States - Transforming the workforce for children birth through age 8 - NCBI bookshelf," 2015)

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CCDBG was reauthorized to include Early Head Start which provided grants to facilities who provide care to infants and toddlers. ("History of federal funding for child care and early learning," n.d.)

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President Biden signed an executive order focused on improving access to affordable, high-quality child and long-term care. ("Just a moment..," n.d.)

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References

Cahan, E. D. (1989). Past Caring. Research Connections. https://researchconnections.org/sites/default/files/pdf/rc2088.pdf

Guettler, J. (2025, May 14). Lawmakers let universal child care legislation die 50 years ago. Let’s not repeat this history. Start Early. https://www.startearly.org/post/lawmakers-let-universal-child-care-legislation-die-50-years-ago-lets-not-repeat-this-history/

Historical timeline: Preparation for the care and education workforce in the United States - Transforming the workforce for children birth through age 8 - NCBI bookshelf. (2015, July 23). National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK310533/

Historical timeline: Preparation for the care and education workforce in the United States - Transforming the workforce for children birth through age 8 - NCBI bookshelf. (2015, July 23). National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK310533/

History of federal funding for child care and early learning. (n.d.). Just a moment... https://bipartisanpolicy.org/download/?file=/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/WEB_BPC_ECH-History-Brief_R01.pdf

Just a moment... (n.d.). Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/federal-child-care-legislation-over-the-past-decade/#:~:text=In%20February%202023%2C%20the%20U.S.,the%20House%20and%20the%20Senate

Our proud heritage: Abigail Eliot and Margaret McMillan—Bringing the nursery school to the United States. (n.d.). NAEYC. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2016/our-proud-heritage#:~:text=Prior%20to%20the%20nursery%20school,the%20nursery%20school%2C%20Margaret%20McMillan