Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton was more than just Alexander Hamilton’s wife. A Swiss developmental psychologist shares a birthday. Plus, a poem from Willa Cather.
The date is August 9th, Friday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY.
Today is the birthday of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American humanitarian. She is also, of course, the wife of Alexander Hamilton.
Elizabeth Schuyler, sometimes affectionately referred to as Eliza or Betsey, was thrown into high society from her birth in 1757. Eliza was born into large Dutch family and it is unclear how many siblings she had since not all of them lived to adulthood. Her family’s prominence in early America meant she was surrounded by the foremost thinkers of the new nation. She even had a chance to meet Benjamin Franklin.
When she was 22, Eliza was sent from the Schuyler residence in Albany, NY to Morristown, NJ to live with a maternal Aunt.
Rather Fortuitously, George Washington’s army was stationed in Morristown and Eliza, in need of society, became friends with Martha Washington and began a courtship with Alexander Hamilton, one of George Washington’s aides.
A short several months later, Eliza’s father visited Morristown and Hamilton took the opportunity to ask for Eliza’s hand in marriage. Surprisingly, Philip Schuyler accepted the match, despite Hamilton’s uncertain financial situation. No one was in the room where it happened so we can’t know if Hamilton had to do some serious persuading, or if Philip saw something promising in the young Hamilton.
The couple would be a force to be reckoned with. Eliza supported Hamilton in his work, particularly his writing. Drafts of The Federalist Papers and Hamilton’s defense of a plan for a national bank are inked in Eliza’s hand. Eliza would rekindle her friendship with Martha Washington during their husbands’ time at the White House, the first entertainers for guests of the newly independent America.
On the whole the Hamiltons maintained a solid marriage raising 8 of their own children, despite an embarrassing extramarital affair on the part of Hamilton.
When Hamilton died in a duel, Eliza and much of the nation was understandably heartbroken. The information we have regarding Alexander Hamilton survives in large part because of Eliza’s work after his death to preserve his legacy.
Eliza was also instrumental in the development and operation of the Orphan Asylum Society, now known as Graham Windham. She was one of three founding members of the organization in 1806 and served as VP or president for a combined forty-two years.
Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton had a reputation as strong-willed and occasionally impulsive and lived to be 97.
(Check out Ron Chernow’s book on Alexander Hamilton for his lauds of Eliza Hamilton or take a look at Tilar Mazzeo’s book Eliza Hamilton for more facts. if you’re looking for something more dramatized, there is a best-selling fictional take on her story My Dear Hamilton.)
And today is the birthday of Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist.
Piaget is remembered for his work in child development and developmental psychology.
Interested in how knowledge is acquired, Piaget found himself working at a school in France after receiving his own education. While grading tests for his superior, he noticed that children of certain ages consistently gave wrong answers to certain questions. The pattern was too obvious to be ignored.
He began to study more seriously how children acquire knowledge and mentally mature, giving us what is known as “Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.”
Piaget became a big proponent of education, serving as Director of the International Bureau of Education, a part of UNESCO. He once said, “only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse.”
Prairie Spring
Willa Cather
Evening and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent;
The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.
Against all this, Youth,
Flaming like the wild roses,
Singing like the larks over the plowed fields,
Flashing like a star out of the twilight;
Youth with its insupportable sweetness,
Its fierce necessity,
Its sharp desire,
Singing and singing,
Out of the lips of silence,
Out of the earthy dusk.