Sarah Wool Moore

Sarah Wool Moore was born on May 3, 1846, in Plattsburgh, Clinton County, New York{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=517}} to Charotte Elizabeth (née Mooers) and Amasa Corbin Moore.{{sfn|The Burlington Free Press|1909|p=5}}{{sfn|Tuttle|1909|p=29}} Her family were some of the most prominent citizens in Clinton County. Her father was an attorney, her paternal grandfather, Pliny Moore, had been a judge and was the first permanent settler of Champlain, New York.{{sfn|Tuttle|1909|p=29}}{{sfn|Hurd|1880|p=117}} He had originally been from Sheffield, Massachusetts, and served in the American Revolutionary War. Pliny's wife, Mary Corbin,{{sfn|Hurd|1880|pp=258–259}} was the daughter of Captain John Corbin who had come to the area from Connecticut.{{sfn|Hurd|1880|p=260}} Moore was the maternal granddaughter of Hannah (née Platt){{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|1907|p=148}} and Benjamin Mooers,{{sfn|The Burlington Free Press|1909|p=5}}{{sfn|Tuttle|1909|p=66}} who was the founder of Beekmantown, New York.{{fact|date=April 2025}} He was also the first sheriff of Clinton County and served as country treasurer for forty-two years. He served as an Assemblyman in the New York State Assembly for four terms and in the Senate for one term. He was a Major General in the War of 1812 and commanded the New York Militia at the Battle of Plattsburgh.{{sfn|Hurd|1880|p=237}}

Moore grew up as one of ten children in the home known as General Mooer's House, which is now recognized with a New York State Historic Marker.{{sfn|The Chazen Companies|2010|p=81}} She was the next to the youngest child in the family, but became the youngest child when her brother Arthur died just prior to his seventh birthday.{{sfn|Moore|1903|pp=82–84}} She attended Packer Collegiate Institute, graduating in 1865.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=517}}

For a decade she taught art and then between 1875 and 1884, Moore furthered her own education, traveling in Europe and studying for five years at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under the tutelage of August Eisenmenger. She returned to the United States and in 1884 became the head of the art department at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In addition to directing the department, she lectured on art history, drawing and painting.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=517}} When she was hired, the art department was under the Agricultural Division of the Industrial College and Moore struggled to gain recognition for the department. Because the school did not authorize a fine arts college until 1912,{{sfn|Kinsey|1995|p=265}} the art and music teachers had to charge their students for classes.{{sfn|The Catalogue|1889|p=87}} In 1888, Moore founded the Hayden Art Club, which would become the Nebraska Art Association, pioneering the art movement in the state.{{sfn|Brush and Pencil|1903|p=469}}{{sfn|The Lincoln Evening Journal|1926|p=11}} Resigning in 1892, she returned to New York,{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=517}} after presenting regent Charles Gere, founder of the Nebraska State Journal, with a portrait she had painted of him.{{sfn|Lincoln Daily News|1892|p=5}}{{sfn|University of Nebraska–Lincoln|2005}} In 1898, Moore began giving art classes and lectures in Brooklyn.{{sfn|The Courier|1898|p=6}}

In 1900, Moore was the driving force in founding the Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants (often called the Society for Italian Immigrants), which originally had goals to facilitate new Italian immigrants in their assimilation to a new country and help them navigate among steerers and labor bosses who wanted to profit off of their labor.{{sfn|Iorizzo|Mondello|1971|p=100}}{{sfn|Baily|1999|p=207}} These grifters recommended boarding houses or jobs in which they got kickbacks for placing boarders or workers. To combat them, Moore and other social workers for immigrants made lists of honest boarding houses and employers. They hired agents to meet immigrants' ships to avoid con men.{{sfn|Baily|1999|p=207}} Quickly, Moore recognized that without language skills, workers being hired in large numbers for infrastructure projects were at a disadvantage and needed to quickly learn the language of their new home. As secretary of the organization, Moore pressed for the development of schools in the labor camps.{{sfn|Iorizzo|Mondello|1971|p=100}}{{sfn|Harris|1902|pp=2–3}}{{sfn|The Daily Colonist|1911|p=8}} Her focus was on adult education and her innovative approach did not teach language in the same way that schools typically taught children.{{sfn|Claghorn|1914|p=267}}

In 1902, Moore published an English-Italian reader to assist immigrants in learning English.{{sfn|The Florida Star|1902|p=8}} The book was described as a useful handbook to teach immigrants language they would need in their business dealings and daily lives.{{sfn|Harris|1902|pp=2–3}} In 1905, she began a school at the Aspinwall labor camp, where laborers were working at the filtration plant. Teaching night courses to help the immigrant population learn English, as well as rudimentary writing, arithmetic and geography, Moore appealed to the state legislature for government funding to cover the costs of teaching.{{sfn|The Pittsburgh Press|1906|p=17}}{{sfn|McDonald|1915|pp=72–73}} In the meantime, she led a campaign speaking at various churches and YWCA facilities to enlist both volunteers to assist with the teaching and make donations to support the schools.{{sfn|The Gazette Times|1906|p=10}} A bill was presented to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1907 to authorize schools for labor camp workers if they made application to the local school boards for night classes.{{sfn|The New York Tribune|1907|p=56}} Expanding from the program developed for Aspinwall, Moore opened schools in the work camps at the Stoneco quarry in 1907; at Wappingers Falls; at Brown's Station, New York, for the Ashokan Reservoir; and in Valhalla for workers at the Kensico Reservoir.{{sfn|The New York Times|1911|p=19}}{{sfn|McDonald|1915|pp=72–73}}{{sfn|Musso|2012|pp=1B-2B}}{{sfn|Fogelsonger|1911|pp=688–689}} In 1907, Wool was given a commendation for her work in establishing schools by the Commissioner of Emigration for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Society for Italian Immigrants was recognized with an honorary award for assisting immigrants.{{sfn|Bollettino dell'Emigrazione|1907|pp=281–282}}

Moore died on May 19, 1911, in Valhalla, New York.{{sfn|The New York Times|1911|p=19}} In 1953, the Frank M. Hall Collection of contemporary art was shown at the University of Nebraska Galleries in Morrill Hall. The collection, known as one of the largest collections of American contemporary art owned by a university at that time, had begun when Moore taught a painting class to Anna Reed Hall and sparked her interest in collecting.{{sfn|The Lincoln Star|1953|p=32}} Her work in the labor camps, inspired women's groups in Canada to propose similar educational facilities be established for their workers{{sfn|The Daily Colonist|1911|p=8}} and in Pennsylvania, the bill that she urged appropriated $100,000 to establish 200 work camp schools for immigrants of various nationalities.{{sfn|Hall|1907|pp=892–893}}

• {{cite book|ref=none|last1=Perrot|first1=George|last2=Moore|first2=Sarah Wool (translator)|title=Art history in the high school|date=1900|publisher=C. W. Bardeen|location=Syracuse, New York|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t2t43mr6h|oclc=16055376}}
• {{cite news|ref=none|last1=Moore|first1=Sarah Wool|title=Must Help Italians Along|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8642425/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|publisher=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|date=November 10, 1901|location=Brooklyn, New York|page=14|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite book|ref=none|last1=Moore|first1=Sarah Wool|title=An Illustrated English-Italian Language Book and Reader|date=1902|publisher=D.C. Heath & Company|location=Boston, Massachusetts|url=https://archive.org/stream/anillustrateden00moorgoog#page/n0/mode/1up|oclc=894204498}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Moore|first1=Sarah W.|title=Near Recollections: Notes on Camp School, No. 1, Aspinwall, Pennsylvania|journal=The Survey|date=March 1907|volume=17|pages=894–902|url=https://archive.org/stream/surveychar17survuoft#page/894/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|publisher=Survey Associates for the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York|location=East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania}}
• {{cite book|ref=none|last1=Moore|first1=Sarah Wool|title=Libro illustrato di lingua inglese: an illustrated English-Italian language book and reader|date=1908|publisher=D.C. Heath & Company|location=Boston, Massachusetts|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn6nnr|oclc=30106548}}
• {{cite journal|ref=none|last1=Moore|first1=Sarah Wool|title=The Teaching of Foreigners|journal=The Survey|date=June 4, 1910|volume=24|pages=386–392|url=https://archive.org/stream/thesurvey24survuoft#page/386/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|publisher=Survey Associates for the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York|location=East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=Baily|first=Samuel L.|title=Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New York City, 1870 – 1914|url=https://archive.org/details/immigrantsinland0000bail|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/immigrantsinland0000bail/page/207 207]|year=1999|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, New York|isbn=0-8014-3562-5}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|The Chazen Companies|2010}}|last1=Chazen Engineering, Land Surveying & Landscape Architects Company|title=Town of Plattsburgh Comprehensive Plan|url=http://townofplattsburgh.com/dept_planning/planning_files/Comprehensive%20Plan%20(No%20Appendix).pdf|website=Town of Plattsburgh|publisher=Plattsburgh Town Board|accessdate=January 29, 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129202246/http://townofplattsburgh.com/dept_planning/planning_files/Comprehensive%20Plan%20(No%20Appendix).pdf|archivedate=January 29, 2017|location=Plattsburgh, New York|date=December 2010}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Claghorn|first1=Kate Holladay|title=Book Reviews|journal=The Survey|date=December 5, 1914|volume=33|pages=265–267|url=https://archive.org/stream/surveycharityorg33survrich#page/267/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|publisher=Survey Associates for the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York|location=East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania}}
• {{cite book |last1=Daughters of the American Revolution|title=Lineage book|volume=63|date=1907|publisher=Harrisburg Publishing Company|location=Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|url=https://archive.org/stream/lineagebook6362daug#page/148/mode/2up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Fogelsonger|first1=H. M.|title=Recent Social Progress|journal=The Inglenook|date=July 18, 1911|volume=13|issue=29|pages=687–689, 710|url=https://archive.org/stream/inglenook1911132752bret#page/688/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|accessdate=January 30, 2017|publisher=Brethren Publishing House|location=Elgin, Illinois}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hall|first1=Robert C.|title=Camp Schools and the State|journal=The Survey|date=March 1907|volume=17|pages=892–893|url=https://archive.org/stream/surveychar17survuoft#page/892/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|publisher=Survey Associates for the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York|location=East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania}}
• {{cite news |last1=Harris|first1=Sarah B|title=Observations|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8641892/harris_sarah_b_observations_the/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|publisher=The Courier|date=May 31, 1902|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|page=2|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}} and {{cite news|ref=none|last1=Harris|first1=Sarah B|title=Observations (continued)|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8641932/harris_sarah_b_observations/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|publisher=The Courier|date=May 31, 1902|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|page=3|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hurd|first1=Duane Hamilton|title=History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York: with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers|date=1880|publisher=J.W. Lewis & Company|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofclinton00hurd#page/117/mode/1up/search/%22pliny+moore%22|oclc=5692695869}}
• {{cite book |last1=Iorizzo|first1=Luciano J.|last2=Mondello|first2=Salvatore|title=The Italian-Americans|url=https://archive.org/details/italianamericans00iori|url-access=registration|year=1971|publisher=Twayne Publishers|location=New York City}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kinsey|first1=Joni L.|editor-last=Trenton|editor-first=Patricia|title=Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890–1945|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0PoEZcs_csC&pg=PA265|year=1995|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, California|isbn=978-0-520-20203-0|chapter=IX. Cultivating the Grasslands: Women Painters in the Great Plains|pages=243–273}}
• {{cite book |last1=McDonald|first1=Robert Alexander Fyfe|title=Adjustment of School Organization to Various Population Groups |series=Contributions to Education|volume=75|date=1915|publisher=Teachers College, Columbia University|location=New York City|url=https://archive.org/stream/adjustmentschoo01mcdogoog#page/n84/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22}}
• {{cite journal|ref={{harvid|Bollettino dell'Emigrazione|1907}}|last1=Ministero Degli Affari Esteri Commissariato dell'Emigrzione|title=Diploma d'onore|journal=Bollettino dell'Emigrazione|date=1907|issue=18|url=https://archive.org/stream/bollettinodelle04emigoog#page/n997/mode/1up/search/sarah|accessdate=January 31, 2017|trans-title=Honorary Award|publisher=Tipografia Nazionale de G. Bertero E. C. Via Umbria|location=Rome, Italy|language=Italian}}
• {{cite book |last1=Moore|first1=Horace Ladd|title=Andrew Moore of Poquonock and Windsor, Conn., and his descendants|date=1903|publisher=Journal Publishing Co.|location=Lawrence, Kansas|url=https://archive.org/stream/andrewmooreofpoq00moor#page/n99/mode/2up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|oclc=11388762}}
• {{cite news |last1=Musso|first1=Anthony P.|title=Community was home to quarry workers|url=http://www.wappingershistoricalsociety.org/StonecoMusso.pdf|accessdate=January 30, 2017|newspaper=The Poughkeepsie Journal|date=April 11, 2012|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160903032805/http://wappingershistoricalsociety.org/StonecoMusso.pdf|archivedate=September 3, 2016|location=Poughkeepsie, New York}}
• {{cite book |last1=Tuttle|first1=Maria Jeannette Brookings|title=Three centuries in Champlain valley; a collection of historical facts and incidents|date=1909|publisher=Saranac chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution|location=Plattsburgh, New York|url=https://archive.org/stream/threecenturiesin00tutt#page/29/mode/1up/search/%22Amasa%22|oclc=670380102}}
• {{cite book |editor-last1=Willard|editor-first1=Frances Elizabeth|editor-last2=Livermore|editor-first2=Mary Ashton Rice|title=A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life|date=1893|publisher=Charles Wells Moulton|location=Buffalo, New York|url=https://archive.org/stream/womanofcenturyfo00will#page/517/mode/1up/search/Sarah+Wool+Moore|oclc=751955051}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Lincoln Evening Journal|1926}}|author=|title=Art Association Accepts Paintings|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8644751/lincoln_evening_journal/|accessdate=January 30, 2017|newspaper=The Lincoln Evening Journal|date=January 2, 1926|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|page=11|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The New York Tribune|1907}}|author=|title=Camp Schools: Teaching Italian Laborers to Read|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8640229/newyork_tribune/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|publisher=The New York Tribune|date=February 17, 1907|location=New York City|page=56|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Gazette Times|1906}}|author=|title=The Clubs|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8642560/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|newspaper=The Gazette Times|date=November 21, 1906|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=10|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Burlington Free Press|1909}}|author=|title=Dinner to MacDonough|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8638009/dinner_to_macdonough_the_burlington/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|newspaper=The Burlington Free Press|date=August 13, 1909|location=Burlington, Vermont|page=5|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite journal|ref={{harvid|Brush and Pencil|1903}}|author=|title=Gleanings from American Art Centers|journal=Brush and Pencil|date=March 1903|volume=11|issue=6|pages=465–473|jstor=25505875|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and the Brooklyn Museum|location=New York City|issn=1932-7080}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Lincoln Star|1953}}|author=|title=Hall Collection on 25th Anniversary to be Shown in Entirety at Morrill Hall|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8642185/the_lincoln_star/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|publisher=The Lincoln Star|date=October 4, 1953|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|page=32|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Florida Star|1902}}|author=|title=Indian River Ripples|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8640801/indian_river_ripples_the_florida_star/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|publisher=The Florida Star|date=May 9, 1902|location=Titusville, Florida|page=8|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|University of Nebraska–Lincoln|2005}}|author=|title=Library (Old)|url=http://historicbuildings.unl.edu/building.php?b=12|website=Historic Buildings|publisher=University of Nebraska–Lincoln|accessdate=January 30, 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316184517/http://historicbuildings.unl.edu/building.php?b=12|archivedate=March 16, 2016|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|date=2005}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The New York Times|1911}}|author=|title=Moore, Sarah Wool|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8637104/moore_sarah_wool_the_new_york_times/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 21, 1911|location=New York City|page=19|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Pittsburgh Press|1906}}|author=|title=More Schools for Italians|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8641003/more_schools_for_italians_the/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=June 10, 1906|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=17|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite journal|ref={{harvid|The Catalogue|1889}}|author=|title=School of the Fine Arts|journal=The Catalogue|date=1889|pages=87–88|url=https://archive.org/stream/registercatalogu188889univ#page/87/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|accessdate=January 29, 2017|publisher=The University of Nebraska|location=Lincoln, Nebraska}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Daily Colonist|1911}}|author=|title=Teaching Foreigners|url=https://archive.org/stream/dailycolonist53555uvic#page/n7/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|accessdate=January 30, 2017|newspaper=The Daily Colonist|date=July 25, 1911|location=Victoria, British Columbia, Canada|page=8}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|Lincoln Daily News|1892}}|author=|title=(untitled)|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8644784/untitled_lincoln_daily_news_lincoln/|accessdate=January 30, 2017|publisher=Lincoln Daily News|date=November 12, 1892|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|page=5|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Courier|1898}}|author=|title=(untitled)|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8641292/untitled_the_courier_lincoln/|accessdate=January 29, 2017|publisher=The Courier|date=December 3, 1898|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|page=6|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}

{{refend}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Sarah Wool}}

Category:1846 births

Category:1911 deaths

Category:People from Clinton County, New York

Category:Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni

Category:University of Nebraska faculty

Category:American women artists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:20th-century American writers

Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century

Category:American women academics