William Rimmer: Lectures

"Interior, Before the Picture"
by William Rimmer

"The interest in Dr. William Rimmer's lectures and his work increased rapidly, and a petition was sent to the authorities of the Lowell Institute, asking that he should be invited to give a course of lectures there. The petition was favorably received, and the course begun Oct. 14, 1863. The hall was so crowded at these lectures that he delivered an extra series in the afternoon for ladies, that the regular evenings might be given up to gentlemen exclusively. At his suggestion a class was formed, including most of the artists, draughtsmen and architects in Boston, for the purpose of drawing from casts at the Boston Athenaeum, the doctor directing and criticizing their work without charge.

The public interest resulted in his giving for the thousand dollars paid him for his Lowell Institute course of ten lectures, about five times the work expected. His work was very much appreciated as this letter from his class for women testifies:

Dear Sir, We, the pupils of the Ladies' Class in Art Anatomy of the Lowell Institute, cannot close our lessons with you for the winter without expressing our deep sense of gratitude for the valuable instruction you have given us. Not restricting yourself to the hours engaged by the Lowell Institute, you have given up your time and strength to extra lessons in the class and at the Athenaeum, which have increased many-fold the worth of the regular instruction... By offering to women the same instruction and the same thorough training as to men, you have taken an important practical step in opening to them wider resources of intellectual and aesthetic culture, as well as remunerative industry. We cannot hope to repay you fully for what you have done for us; but we ask you to accept this collection of the great works of the poets of our mother tongue, as a proof of our respectful and grateful remembrance of your services. 

We hope they will solace many a weary hour, and pleasantly remind you of the hours spent with your first public class in Boston... We remain your attached and grateful pupils.

Ednah Cheney, and Fifty Others

In Rimmer's response to their sentiment and gift, he expressed his firm belief in the abilities of women to excel:

Ladies... I have indeed, as you say, given the same instruction to women as to men, because I believed and still believe that art intellectually is as independent of sex as thought itself. And hence, believing that art ability is the same in women as men, I saw no reason why the same knowledge should not be conferred upon the one as well as the other..."

It is interesting that there were a significant number of excellent women artists from Boston at this time. Ellen Day Hale, Anne Whitney (sculptor) and May Alcott Nieriker (artist) were among those who had attended his lectures. I also wonder if his example had laid the groundwork for William Morris Hunt's art class for women (forty of them who had asked him for such) just five years later in 1868. 

(Excerpts from "The Art Life of William Rimmer: Sculptor, Painter, and Physician" by Truman Howe Bartlett.)