Lillian Belle Sage

Lillian Belle Sage was born in Norwich, New York, the daughter of WIlliam A. Sage and Venette Dyer Sage. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1899,{{Cite news |date=1915-04-07 |title=Miss Lillian B. Sage Dies; Head of Biology Department of Washington Irving High School. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1915/04/07/archives/miss-lillian-b-sage-dies-head-of-biology-department-of-washington.html |access-date=2022-03-09 |issn=0362-4331}} and earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1901.{{Cite journal |date=April 1908 |title=Registered Investigators at the New York Botanical Garden, 1907-1908 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QntMAAAAMAAJ&dq=Lillian+Belle+Sage+botany&pg=RA1-PA75 |journal=Journal of the New York Botanical Garden |volume=9 |pages=75}}

Sage taught school in Norwich, Olean,{{Cite news |date=1915-04-22 |title=Miss L. B. Sage Former Olean Teacher Dies |pages=6 |work=Times Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97232974/miss-l-b-sage-former-olean-teacher/ |access-date=2022-03-09 |via=Newspapers.com}} and Albany as a young woman. In 1902 she joined the faculty of Washington Irving High School in New York City, "the largest girls' school in America".{{Cite news |date=1914-09-23 |title=Miss Sage's Lecture |pages=1 |work=The St Johnsbury Caledonian |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97233458/miss-sages-lecture/ |access-date=2022-03-09 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1914-09-16 |title=A School of 6000 Girls |pages=1 |work=St. Johnsbury Republican |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97234062/a-school-of-6000-girls/ |access-date=2022-03-09 |via=Newspapers.com}} As head of the biology department, she worked with another Cornell alumna, Florence Wells Slater, to make innovative science education a specialty at Irving. She designed and built the school's vivarium to support the study of animal life for thousands of city school students.{{Cite news |last=Rodman |first=Henrietta |date=1915-04-08 |title=Teachers Stirred by Lockwood Bill |pages=5 |work=New-York Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97232781/teachers-stirred-by-lockwood/ |access-date=2022-03-09 |via=Newspapers.com}} She also wrote and staged pageants at the school, and built greenhouses on the roof of the school, where students raised plants and flowers for the flower shows she also began. She led the effort to install a pipe organ and chimes at the school, in her capacity as president of the Patrick F. McGowan Memorial Association.

Outside Washington Irving High School, Sage was a member of the Teachers League,{{Cite news |date=1913-11-03 |title=Teachers League's Executive Committee and Delegates |pages=29 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87723792/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle/ |access-date=2022-03-09 |via=Newspapers.com}} the High School Teachers' Association of New York City, the Torrey Botanical Society,{{Cite journal |last1=Gager |first1=C. Stuart |last2=Robinson |first2=Winifred J. |date=1907 |title=Proceedings of the Club |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40594567 |journal=Torreya |volume=7 |issue=12 |pages=237–243 |jstor=40594567 |issn=0096-3844}} and the Bronx Zoological Society. She helped teach summer geology courses for science teachers at Cornell University.{{Cite book |last=Cornell University |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9OUSAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Miss+L.+B.+Sage%22&pg=PA183 |title=The Register |date=1902 |publisher= |pages=183 |language=en}} She read the proofs for Liberty Hyde Bailey's textbook, Botany: An Elementary Text for Schools (1901).{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Liberty Hyde |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h4EcAAAAIAAJ&dq=L.+B.+Sage+Norwich&pg=PR12 |title=Botany: An Elementary Text for Schools |date=1901 |publisher=Macmillan |pages=xi-xii |language=en}} She donated plant samples to the New York state botanist.{{Cite book |last=New York State Museum and Science Service |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GUAJAQAAMAAJ&dq=L.+B.+Sage+Norwich&pg=RA1-PA31 |title=Bulletin |date=1909 |publisher=University of the State of New York |pages=11 |language=en |chapter=Report of the State Botanist (1908)}} She served on the council of Camp Fire Girls, along with Jane Addams, Jessica Blanche Peixotto, and Ernest Thompson Seton, among others.{{Cite book |last=Gulick |first=Luther |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FvqDbf4az0IC&dq=%22Miss+L.+B.+Sage%22&pg=PA2 |title=Camp Fire Girls |date=2009 |publisher=Applewood Books |isbn=978-1-4290-9103-9 |pages=2 |language=en}}

• "A Practical and Profitable Experiment in the New Method of Teaching Geology" (1901){{Cite journal |last=Sage |first=Lillian Belle |date=April 1901 |title=A Practical and Profitable Experiment in the New Method of Teaching Geology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ES05AAAAMAAJ&dq=Lillian+Belle+Sage+Geology&pg=PA463 |journal=Education |volume=21 |pages=463–468}}
• "The Practical Use of Biology" (1909, with Henry R. Linville, Edgar A. Bedford, Martha F. Goddard, {{Interlanguage link|Elsie M. Kupfer|lt=Elsie M. Kupfer|ast|Elsie M. Kupfer}}, and Benjamin C. Gruenberg){{Cite journal |last1=Linville |first1=Henry R. |last2=Bedford |first2=Edgar A. |last3=Goddard |first3=Martha F. |last4=Kupfer |first4=Elsie M. |last5=Sage |first5=Lillian B. |last6=Gruenberg |first6=Benjamin C. |date=1909 |title=The Practical Use of Biology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M1FLAAAAMAAJ&q=Sage&pg=PA121 |journal=School Science and Mathematics |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=121–130|doi=10.1111/j.1949-8594.1909.tb01383.x }}
• "Who has a Better Chance?" (1913){{Cite journal |last=Sage |first=Lillian Belle |date=July 17, 1913 |title=Who Has a Better Chance? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PL4cAQAAMAAJ&dq=Lillian+Belle+Sage+Education&pg=RA2-PA66 |journal=The Journal of Education |pages=66–68}}
• "A Teacher's Prescription" (1915){{Cite journal |last=Sage |first=Lillian Belle |date=January 1915 |title=A Teacher's Prescription |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=StfNAAAAMAAJ&dq=Lillian+Belle+Sage+Education&pg=PA178 |journal=School and Home Education |volume=34 |pages=178}}

Sage died in April 1915, a few months after she became unconscious from a blood clot in her brain. She was 44 years old.{{Cite news |date=1915-04-14 |title=Death of Miss Lillian B. Sage |pages=8 |work=The St Johnsbury Caledonian |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97232682/death-of-miss-lillian-b-sage/ |access-date=2022-03-09 |via=Newspapers.com}} In November 1915, she and three other deceased teachers were remembered at an event in the library of Washington Irving High School, and a reproduction of Romney's "The Stafford Children" was chosen to recall her love of children and nature.{{Cite news |date=November 11, 1915 |title=Memorial to Four New York Teachers |pages=7 |work=Norwich Sun |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-nov-11-1915-3083753/ |access-date=March 8, 2022 |via=NewspaperArchive.com}}

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• [http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/WashingtonIrvingHS.html Details about the pipe organ at Washington Irving High School], New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists

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Category:1870 births

Category:1915 deaths

Category:People from Norwich, New York

Category:American educators

Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni

Category:Cornell University alumni