The purpose of this study was to examine the professional contributions of Alice Carey Inskeep (1875-1942), who contributed significantly to music education through her positive and effective teaching, supervising, community service, and leadership in music education. Inskeep was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, and taught for five years in that city's school system after graduating from high school. She served as music supervisor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for most of the remainder of her career, where she provided progressive leadership to the schools and community. She was one of three people appointed to plan the initial meeting in Keokuk, Iowa, for what eventually became MENC: The National Association for Music Education, and she was one of sixty-nine founding members of the organization in 1907. The Keokuk meeting served as an impetus for Inskeep to travel to Chicago, where she studied with several notable music educators. Later, she sat on the organization's nominating committee, the first Educational Council (precursor to the Music Education Research Council) board of directors, and provided leadership to two of the organization's affiliates, the North Central Division and the Iowa Music Educators Association. She served as a part-time or summer faculty member at Iowa State Normal School and Coe College in Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, respectively, and the American Institute of Normal Methods in Evanston, Illinois, and Auburndale, Massachusetts.
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References
1.
MENC: The National Association for Music Education began in 1907 as the Music Supervisors Conference, and was renamed the Music Supervisors National Conference (MSNC) in 1910 and the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) in 1934. The association assumed its current name in 1999. Both acronyms appear in this article. For more information on the founding members, see Audrey Berger, Brian Cardany, Shelly Cooper, Jeffrey Davis, German Gonzalez, Andrew Goodrich, Christopher Hulett, Jere T. Humphreys, Barry Kraus, Keith Preston, Jeffrey Thuerauf, and Jui-ching Wang."MENC Founding Members History Project," at www.public.asu.edu/∼aajth/history/index.html, spring 2001.
2.
The focus of the study was Inskeep, whose name appears in a variety of documents, but about whom little was known. She was identified as the target for our study because of her participation as a founding member of MENC. The first step consisted of creating a bibliography from which initial information emerged. Dissertations and journals such as Music Supervisors Journal and School Music Monthly provided information regarding records of her participation and publications in MSNC. The authors contacted librarians at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, and the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, to request information about Inskeep; the MENC Founding Members History Project offered information as well. The following provided some articles and pictures for our study: the Ottumwa cemetery records; the Ottumwa and Iowa Historical Societies; the human resources departments at Ottumwa and Cedar Rapids Public Schools; the alumni association at Coe College; letters, e-mail, and microfiche from the newspapers in Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, and Ottumwa. Both telephone calls and online searches offered information from the U.S. Census Bureau, from a former student of Inskeep, and from the railroad rates and routes around the turn of the twentieth century. Finally, additional researchers were hired to check sources at the Ottumwa Library, the Ottumwa Cemetery, and Linn County Historical Society in Cedar Rapids.
3.
This area, called "Ottumwa" by an Indian tribe governed by Appanoose, was opened to impatient homesteaders following an 1842 treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians. The original name was "Ottumwanoc" ("swift water") in reference to rapids on the Des Moines River. Wapello County Historical Society, http://www.onethirty.com/museum/history.html , accessed 20 December 2004.
4.
"Cemetery Walk Records for Alice C. Inskeep," for Ottumwa Cemetery, Ottumwa, IA, n.d., photocopy obtained at the cemetery by Sarah Peel, in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS; "Cary [sic] Inskeep, Aged Resident of City, Dies" Ottumwa Courier, 25 December 1920, n.p., photocopy in possession of the first author, Lawrence, KS ; Mary Lanigan, member of the Wapello County Geneological Society, to first author, e-mail, 20 December 2004; and Marriage Book B., Wapello County 1851-1866: 339, and Marriage Book 7A, Wapello County 1851-1866: 92-93, both at http://www.findagrave.com, accessed 20 December 2004. Frederick F.Inskeep died at age nine; http://www.gunboatempires.com/genealogy/Puseys01g0.htm, accessed 8 October 2004.
5.
First author to U.S. Census Bureau, telephone call, 13 December 2004, handwritten notes in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS
6.
Janine Cooney , Personnel Administrative Assistant, Ottumwa Public Schools, to first author, e-mail, 15 December 2004, in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS; "Miss Inskeep Dies; Beloved as School Music Supervisor,"Cedar Rapids Gazette, 24 February 1942, pp. 1-2; Connie Birmingham, Secretary, Coe College Alumni Records, Cedar Rapids, IA , personnel file, n.d., n.p., 11 November 2004, photocopies in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS; and Alice C. Inskeep, "Some Recollections and Experiences," Music Supervisors Journal13 (March 1927): 3-7, 70, passim. The exact nature of her position the first year (1893-1894) is unclear, but records indicate that she taught at Agassiz School from 1894-1898.
7.
One example of constraints on women during that era was school board policies against the employment of married women as teachers. According to Ludlow, this policy was held by the Cedar Rapids board, at least early in Inskeep's career. George R. Ludlow , Marion, IA, to first author, telephone call, 17 November 2004, notes in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS
8.
Cooney, e-mail; Inskeep, " Some Recollections and Experiences," 3; and Eugene M. Stoddard, "Frances Elliott Clark: Her Life and Contributions to Music Education" (Ph.D. diss., Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City, UT, 1968).
9.
Cooney, e-mail; Cedar Rapids Schools Personnel Records, Cedar Rapids, IA, 6 December 2004, n.d., n.p., facsimile in possession of the first author, Lawrence, KS ; and "Alice Inskeep, Noted Music Teacher, Dies," Ottumwa Courier, 24 February 1942, pp. 1, 13.
10.
"Alice Carey Inskeep," Who Is Who in Music: A Complete Presentation of the Contemporary Musical Scene, with a Master Record Catalogue (Chicago and New York: Lee Stern Press, 1941), 128. Inskeep referred to the institution as Iowa State Teachers College, a name it had assumed in 1909; it assumed its current name, the University of Northern Iowa, in 1967, from UNI Fact Sheet, http://www.library.uni.edu/speccoll/unifacts.html#Institut , accessed 22 February 2006.
11.
Kaye Ferguson , Frances Guess, Diana Hollinger, Jere T. Humphreys, Rob Hunter, Insook Nam, and Carla Soll, "The Arizona State University MENC History Project: Information on MENC Past Presidents," http://www.public.asu.edu/∼aajh/history/fullerton∼c.a/fullerton.html , accessed 5 December 2003.
12.
Cedar Rapids Schools Personnel Records, 6 December 2004, n.p., facsimile in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS
13.
Ibid; "Alice Carey Inskeep," Who Is Who in Music, 128; Patrick Quinn, Archivist, Northwestern University, to first author, e-mail, 7 December 2004, in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS; and Coe College Personnel Records, 11 November 2004, n.p., facsimile in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS
14.
U.S. Census Bureau, telephone call; http://www.siouxfalls.org/information/history.asp , accessed 13 December 2004; Cedar Rapids Personnel Records; and Coe College Alumni Records.
15.
"Ottumwa Woman Honored," Ottumwa Courier, n.d., n.p., quoted from Sioux Falls Daily Argus Leader, n.d., photocopy in possession of first author, Lawrence, KSThe Ottumwa Courier article stated that Inskeep's tenure in Sioux Falls lasted for two years, but it is likely that the reporter misread her dates there, 1901-1902, as two years instead of one school year.
16.
Cindy Lundine , Kenwood School Historian, Cedar Rapids, IA, e-mail to first author, Lawrence, KS, 19 November 2004.
17.
Cedar Rapids Schools Personnel Records.
18.
"School Music Supervisors' Conference at Keokuk, Iowa," School Music Monthly8 (January 1907): 5-7, 35.
19.
"The Music Supervisors' Conference at Keokuk, Iowa, April 10 to 12, 1907," School Music Monthly 8 (May 1907): 5, 30; Edward Bailey Birge, History of Public School Music in the United States (Reston, VA: MENC, 1966), 243; and Ferguson , et al. For more information on Hayden and the Keokuk meeting, see Chester N. Channon, "The Contributions of Philip Cady Hayden to Music Education in the United States" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1958); and Jere T. Humphreys , "Thaddeus Bolton and the First Dissertation in Music Education," Journal of Research in Music Education 38 (summer 1990): 138-48.
20.
"The Music Supervisors' Conference at Keokuk," 8, 13-14.
21.
T.P. Giddings , "Second Grade Work, from Rote Singing to Note Reading," School Music Monthly10 (May 1909): 24.
22.
For more information on this period, including the teaching of sight-singing and the beginnings of modern-day general music, see Jere T. Humphreys, "Applications of Science: The Age of Standardization and Efficiency in Music Education," Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education9 (January 1988): 1-21; his "The Child-Study Movement and Public School Music Education," Journal of Research in Music Education33 (summer 1985): 79-86; and his " Instrumental Music in American Education: In Service of Many Masters," in The Ithaca Conference on American Music Education: Centennial Profiles , ed. Mark Fonder, 25-51 (Ithaca, NY: Ithaca College, 1992); reprinted in Journal of Band Research30 (spring 1995): 39-70.
23.
School Music Monthly11 (May 1910): 38. For a discussion of early attempts at standardization in music education, see Humphreys, " Applications of Science," 1-21.
24.
"Alice Carey Inskeep," Who Is Who in Music , 128; Cedar Rapids Schools Personnel Records; Coe College Alumni Records; "Miss Inskeep Retires after 40 Years as Music Supervisor," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 3 June 1941, n.p.; "Miss Inskeep Dies ," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 24 February 1942, pp. 1-2, photocopies in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS; and Inskeep, "Some Recollections and Experiences," 3-7, 70, passim.
25.
Inskeep, " Some Recollections and Experiences," 5.
26.
The Acorn, An Annual Book Published by the Junior Class of Coe College15 ( Iowa City, IA: Clio Press, 1917): 37; and Inskeep , 3-7, 70, passim.
27.
Cedar Rapids School Personnel Records note her title as a "Tr. Supervi." She taught at the Cedar Falls institution for twelve weeks and was listed as an Instructor of Primary School Music. Bulletin of the State Normal School5 (June 1904): 11.
28.
Technically, the location of the eastern session was Lasell Seminary in Auburndale, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. See David G. Poff, "The Lexington Normal Music School and the American Institute of Normal Methods, 1884-1914," Contributions to Music Education2 ( 1973): 28.
29.
Birmingham, CoeCollege Alumni Records, e-mail to first author , 11 November 2004, in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS; and The Acorn15 (1917): 37. Inskeep mentioned Tomlin's teachings several times in her "In Retrospect," Yearbook of the Music Educators National Conference, Thirtieth Year, 1937, Music Supervisors National Conference 30 (Chicago: MENC, 1939): 75-77. For more information on Tomlins, see Stoddard , "Frances Elliott Clark," 55. According to David G. Poff, "Summer Schools of Music Sponsored by Publishing Companies, 1888-1920" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1970), Gaynor taught "the interpretation of children's songs and ear training" at the AINM and held a faculty appointment at the Chicago Conservatory of Music (p. 124). Tapper and Smith were the authors of the Natural Music Course (1895) and the Modern Music Series (1900), respectively, the latter of which eventually became the sole text for the AINM. For information on Tapper, see Katherine Grant Wunsch Remsen, "Thomas Tapper: His Contributions to Music Education" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1975); and on Smith, see Birge, History of Public School Music, 252.
30.
"The American Institute of Normal Methods Thirty-Fourth Year- Western Session Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, June 26-July 14, 1922, Music-Art," p. 7. The brochure provided specific information about the excellent transportation available, the curriculum, and special amenities such as Ravinia Park in Chicago. The curriculum included courses in methods, form and analysis, classroom management, music appreciation, orchestration, conducting, high school administration, chorus, psychology, music in rural and consolidated schools, and folk dancing. Tuition was $25 ("post-graduate music" was $10), and room and board was $37.50 (pp. 26-27).
31.
Ibid, 7.
32.
"Miss Inskeep Dies; Beloved as [sic] School Music Supervisor ," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 24 February 1942, pp. 1-2; "Miss Inkseep Retires After 40 Years As Music Supervisor," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 3 June 1941, n.p. Melvin C. Platt, "The History and Development of the American Institute of Normal Methods, 1914-1950," Contributions to Music Education2 ( Colum-bus: The Ohio State University, 1973): 31-39. According to David G. Poff, "The Lexington Normal Music School," 20-21, 28, the western session was first located in Wisconsin and then in Illinois until 1929; the eastern session also was moved to different locations until its final move to Auburndale, Massachusetts, in 1913. In 1929, the sessions were combined at Auburndale, and Inskeep was one of among only three western teachers who continued to teach there.
33.
Platt, " History and Development," 31-32. For more information on the publishing company institutes, see ibid.; two sources, Poff , "Summer Schools"; and Remsen, "Thomas Tapper," (1975): 44-148.
34.
Journal of Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Music Supervisors" National Conference [1915] (N.p.: [MSNC], n.d.): 88-89. Coe College faculty and students worked together with city leaders to form the Cedar Rapids Choral Union and the first Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra; from Lundine, e-mail.
35.
"The Demand for Grade Teachers with Better Musical Training: Discussion by the Public School Music Supervisors," School Music Monthly 14 (March-April 1913 ): 32-38. Others appointed to the nominating committee were Birge, Casterton, and Frank A. Beach (Emporia, KS). Journal of Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Music Supervisors' National Conference [1912] (N.p.: [MSNC], n.d.): 10.
36.
Journal of Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting [1915] (N.p.: [MSNC], n.d.): 6, 74-75.
37.
"Is Honored at National Meeting," The Cedar Rapids Republican, 30 March 1915, n.p., photocopy in possession of the first author, Lawrence , KS
38.
Journal of Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Music Supervisors' National Conference [1916] (N.p.: [MSNC], n.d.) : 10.
39.
Charles Miller , "President's Address,"Journal of Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Music Supervisors' National Conference [1918] (N.p.: [MSNC], n.d.): 30. For Gehrkens's remarks, see Educational Music Magazine 32 (March-April 1953): 11; and letter from Karl Gehrkens to Frank T. Lendrim, 8 October 1960, cited in Frank T. Lendrim , "Music For Every Child: The Story of Karl Wilson Gehrkens" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1962), 175. For a complete text of the motion Inskeep read, see Journal of Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting [1918] (N.p.: [MENC], n.d.): 126.
40.
For more information on the Educational Council (now the Music Education Research Council), see Fred Anthony Warren, "A History of the Music Education Research Council and the Journal of Research in Music Education of the Music Educators National Conference" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1966), 14-22.
41.
Lendrim, "Music for Every Child," 203-204.
42.
Ibid.
43.
Journal of Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Music Supervisors' National Conference [1920] (N.p.: [MSNC], n.d.): 10, 16, 179.
44.
Journal of Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Music Supervisors' National Conference [1919] (N.p.: [MSNC], n.d.): 100.
45.
The term "scientific" designated systematic delivery in teaching, content that was considered standard curriculum, and efficiency in teaching, all of which were related to educational research; see, from Jere T. Humphreys, "Applications of Science": 1-21.
46.
Lundine, e-mail.
47.
W. Dean McKee (master's thesis), n.d., 10-14, 81-84 (a portion of this thesis, title page missing, was obtained from the Iowa High School Music Association by the first author), photocopy in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS; and Everett D. Johnson , "A Brief History of the Iowa High School Music Association," Iowa High School Music Association, n.s. (2002), 1.
48.
Coe College Alumni Records, n.p.
49.
Ibid.
50.
Alice C. Inskeep, "The Daily Lesson Plan,"Journal of Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Music Supervisors' National Conference [1923] (N.p.: [MSNC], n.d.): 185.
51.
Coe College Alumni Records.
52.
Journal of Proceedings of the Music Supervisors National Conference, Twentieth Year, 1927, ed. Paul J. Weaver ([Printed in] Durham, NC : MSNC, 1927): 164-166, 301; and Journal of Proceedings of the Music Supervisors National Conference, Twenty-second Year, 1929, ed. Paul J. Weaver ([Printed in] Durham, NC: MSNC, 1929): 16, 465.
53.
Platt, " History and Development," 35.
54.
George R. Ludlow , Marion, IA, to first author, Lawrence, KS, 11 November 2004, letter in the hand of George Ludlow; and Ludlow, 17 November 2004.
55.
Franklin Dunham , "The Business Side of It," Yearbook of the Music Supervisors National Conference, Twenty-fifth Year, 1932 (Chicago: MSNC, 1932): 78, 350-351.
56.
"Music Supervisors National Conference," Yearbook of the Music Supervisors National Conference, Twenty-fifth Year, 1932 (Chicago: MSNC, 1932): 392, 397; Yearbook of the Music Supervisors National Conference, Twenty-sixth Year, 1933 ( Chicago: MSNC, 1933): 398-399; and " Founders List," n.s., n.p., MENC Archives, University of Maryland, College Park, photocopy in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS
57.
Delinda Roggensack , "Vignettes," Iowa Music Educator26 (February 1973): 12. Other MENC founders from Iowa, such as Philip Hayden, had passed away.
58.
Alice Inskeep , "In Retrospect," Yearbook of the Music Educators National Conference, Thirtieth Year, 1937 (Chicago: MENC, 1937): 75.
59.
Alice C. Inskeep, "The Junior High School Music Program ," Yearbook of the Music Educators National Conference, 1939-1940 30 (Chicago: MENC, 1940), 172-174.
60.
Ibid, 173.
61.
Jeanette Carter, former Iowa Music Educator Historian, Minutes of "The Executive Committee of the Music Educators National Conference Joint Meeting with Presidents of Sectional Conferences and Auxiliary Organizations" [ Chicago], 18-20 October 1940, photocopy in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS
62.
Arthur Deamer, "A Tribute," n.s. (4 May 1941), n.p., photocopy in possession of the first author, Lawrence , KS
63.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gse&Gscid=95751&GSIn+ Inskeep, accessed 2 December 2004. Plot 201; two sisters survived her death.
64.
"Alice Inskeep, Noted Music Teacher, Dies," Ottumwa Courier, 24 February 1942, p. 1, photocopy in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS; and "Former Music Professor Dies in Ottumwa," n.s., April 1942, n.p., photocopy in possession of first author, Lawrence, KS
65.
"Large Audience Hears Franklin Tribute Concert," n.s., n.d., photocopy in the possession of first author, Lawrence, KS
66.
Humphreys, " Instrumental Music in American Education: In Service of Many Masters," 39-70 passim, 39-70.
67.
Sixty-four percent of the MSNC/MENC founding members were women, and in three subsequent consecutive periods women constituted seventy-three percent (1912-1920), seventy-six percent (1921-1929), and sixty-eight percent (1930-1938) of its membership; see Jere T. Humphreys and Charles P. Schmidt, "Membership of the Music Educators National Conference from 1912-1938: A Demographic and Economic Analysis," Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education137 (summer 1998 ) : 16-31. See also Jere T. Humphreys, "Sex and Geographic Representation in Two Music Education History Books," Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education131 (winter 1997): 67-86.
