Carpenter, Mary

CARPENTER, MARY: Philanthropist; b. at Exeter, England, Apr. 3, 1807; d. at Bristol June 14, 1877. She was the eldest child of Lant Carpenter, and received an excellent education in her father's school; she taught for several years; became interested in reformatory movements in India through the visit to Bristol of the Rajah Rammohun Roy in 1833, and also in work for destitute children in England through the instrumentality of Joseph Tuckerman, of Boston. She opened "ragged schools" and developed and set in operation a plan for reformatory schools which was legalized by Parliament in 1854; she was also one of the chief promoters of the Industrial Schools Act passed in 1857. She visited India four times between 1866 and 1876, and came to America in 1873. Prison reform also received her attention, and she was earnest in advocacy of the higher education of women. She wrote much in behalf of her projects, and her reports and memorials to Parliament had no little influence in shaping legislation.

Bibliography: J. E. Carpenter, Life and Work of Mary Carpenter, London, 1879; DNB, ix. 159–161.