Sarah E. Hooper

Sarah Emery Hooper (1822–1914) was an American activist and educator known for founding the Boston Cooking School.

Personal life

She was born in 1822 in Buxton, Maine to Samuel Jose and Sarah (Emery) Jose.^[1] In 1845 she married Samuel T. Hooper and soon thereafter moved with him to Melbourne, Australia.^[2] They returned to the US shortly before the onset of the American Civil War.^[2]

Career

During the American Civil War, she worked closely with the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), a private relief agency created by federal legislation in 1861 to support sick and wounded soldiers.^[1]

Hooper took an active role in many organizations, including Boston's Women’s Education Association,^{[note 1]} which focused on the education of women. In the 1870s, as the Women’s Centennial Committee of Massachusetts worked to organize a women's pavilion for the 1876 Centennial Exposition to be held in Philadelphia, Hooper was vice-president of its executive committee.^[3]

Boston Cooking School

According to Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln, the first principal of the Boston Cooking School:^[4]

The determining influence in the organization of the Boston Cooking School was the return of Mrs. Sarah E. Hooper from a long sojourn in Australia. She had seen the work at the South Kensington School^{[note 2]} on her way through London and came home filled with enthusiasm to have similar work in Boston, especially for the benefit of the poor and those who would work out as cooks.

Hooper persuaded Boston's Women’s Education Association, of which she was an active member, to authorize $100 to launch a cooking school in Boston. As a result, the Boston Cooking School opened on March 10, 1879, at 158½ Tremont Street.^[4] The school became famous following the 1896 publication of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by its principal at the time, Fannie Merritt Farmer.

After the school was incorporated in 1883, Hooper became the first president of the Boston Cooking School Corporation, which managed its business and finances.^[4]

Notes

^ Not to be confused with the Women's Educational and Industrial Union
^ The National School of Cookery, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London had been founded in 1873 as The Popular School of Cookery.

References

^ ^a ^b "Mrs. Sarah E. Hooper". The Christian Register and Boston Observer: 212. February 26, 1914. Retrieved January 22, 2024. With the late Abby May she founded the Woman's Auxiliary, which later became the Women's Alliance, and she did much to promote its aims. She was a director and first vice-president of the American Unitarian Association and the only woman ever to fill that office...Mrs. Hooper was the founder and first president of the Boston Cooking School.
^ ^a ^b "Mrs Sarah Emery Hooper". Cambridge Chronicle. 21 February 1914. p. 12. Retrieved 22 January 2024. Mrs. Hooper served on the sanitary Commission and took an active part in the relief and other work at that time. She was an active worker for years in Dr Edward Everett Hale's South Congregational Church. With the late Abby May she founded the Woman's Auxiliary, which later became the Woman's Alliance of the Unitarian denomination. She was a director and the first vicepresident of the Unitarian Association and the only woman who ever held that office.
^ "Massachusetts Women's Centennial Committee Medal". July 8, 2023. Retrieved January 23, 2024. ..Women's Centennial Committee of Massachusetts, one of the state committees set up by the national Women's Centennial Committee, an organization formed to raise money for a women's exhibit at the Centennial Exposition to be held in Philadelphia from May through November 1876 in celebration of the nation's 100th birthday. The funds were used to build the Women's Pavilion which featured exhibits highlighting the work of women. The building itself was constructed almost solely with female labor. Longfellow was sent the medal by Mrs. Sarah Emery Hooper, the vice-president of the Women's Centennial Executive Committee of Massachusetts.
^ ^a ^b ^c Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln (1910). "The Pioneers of Scientific Cookery". Good Housekeeping. 51 (4): 470–473. Retrieved January 22, 2024. In 1883, the school was incorporated, its business and finances were managed by a committee called the Boston Cooking School Corporation of which Mrs. Hooper was the first president.

External links

Carte de visite photographs of Sarah E. Hooper

[3] Not to be confused with the Women's Educational and Industrial Union

[6] The National School of Cookery, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London had been founded in 1873 as The Popular School of Cookery.

[CR_1914-1] "Mrs. Sarah E. Hooper". The Christian Register and Boston Observer: 212. February 26, 1914. Retrieved January 22, 2024. With the late Abby May she founded the Woman's Auxiliary, which later became the Women's Alliance, and she did much to promote its aims. She was a director and first vice-president of the American Unitarian Association and the only woman ever to fill that office...Mrs. Hooper was the founder and first president of the Boston Cooking School.

[CC_obit_1914-2] "Mrs Sarah Emery Hooper". Cambridge Chronicle. 21 February 1914. p. 12. Retrieved 22 January 2024. Mrs. Hooper served on the sanitary Commission and took an active part in the relief and other work at that time. She was an active worker for years in Dr Edward Everett Hale's South Congregational Church. With the late Abby May she founded the Woman's Auxiliary, which later became the Woman's Alliance of the Unitarian denomination. She was a director and the first vicepresident of the Unitarian Association and the only woman who ever held that office.

[NPS_medal-4] "Massachusetts Women's Centennial Committee Medal". July 8, 2023. Retrieved January 23, 2024. ..Women's Centennial Committee of Massachusetts, one of the state committees set up by the national Women's Centennial Committee, an organization formed to raise money for a women's exhibit at the Centennial Exposition to be held in Philadelphia from May through November 1876 in celebration of the nation's 100th birthday. The funds were used to build the Women's Pavilion which featured exhibits highlighting the work of women. The building itself was constructed almost solely with female labor. Longfellow was sent the medal by Mrs. Sarah Emery Hooper, the vice-president of the Women's Centennial Executive Committee of Massachusetts.

[Lincoln-5] Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln (1910). "The Pioneers of Scientific Cookery". Good Housekeeping. 51 (4): 470–473. Retrieved January 22, 2024. In 1883, the school was incorporated, its business and finances were managed by a committee called the Boston Cooking School Corporation of which Mrs. Hooper was the first president.

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