Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/143

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REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND

money was spent in purchasing a picture which was hung in the gymnasium. The school continued under the new management with unvaried success until the fall of 1900, when the old rooms on Irvington Street were exchanged for new and improved quarters at 206 Massachusetts Avenue. The continued success of the gymnasium is proof of the executive ability of its manager, who for over seven years has carried on the work with such results as to maintain the reputation first established of being one of the leading normal schools of Swedish gymnastics in the country. Every graduate of this school is now occupying a good position.

Baroness Posse is also interested in literary and philanthropic work and in music. Since December, 1892, she has edited the Posse Gymnasium Journal, which is the only paper of the sort in the country, and has been self-supporting from the start. This paper has been conducted under her sole management for over ten years. It is taken by most of the State university libraries, and it has subscribers in England, France, Germany, and Sweden. The Baroness has delivered lectures before leading educational societies and clubs in Boston and suburbs. Al one time she gave a talk on Swedish Gymnastics before an educational body in London. For years she held an office in the Working Girls' Club, to which she devoted much time. She also assisted in college settlement work.

For a number of years she was the president of the Literary Club of the Posse Gymmasium, a club composed of about four hundred members, which gave several plays with success. She has served on various educational committees, and was first vice-president of the Boston Physical Education Society from 1896 to 1900, when she resigned to accept the office of secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education. She has recently been appointed vice-president of the Physical Education Department of the National Education Association. For several years she was chairman of the Hygiene Committee of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. She is a member of the Longwood Cricket Club, of the Commonwealth Golf Club, in which she held offices, and is vice-president of the Massachusetts Medical Gymnastic Society. The Baroness is very popular socially, and has a large circle of friends.


ANNIE ANDROS HAWLEY, librettist and musical composer, the wife of A. George Hawley, was born in Cambridge, Mass., being the daughter of Henry Sanford and Adelaide Eleanor (Little) Andros. On her father's side she is descended from the well-known Andros family of Connecticut, one of her direct ancestors having been Benjamin Andros, of Norwich, who was prominent in State and town affairs about the middle of the eighteenth century.

Mrs. Hawley's musical talent comes by inheritance from both her parents. Her father, the late Henry Andros, was endowed by nature with a rarely sweet tenor voice, and was, moreover, a thorough musician by education and training. For thirty consecutive years he filled the position of choirmaster of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Cambridge, being the incumbent of that position until within two years of the time of his death, which occurred suddenly in August, 1902.

Mrs. Hawley's mother is a grand-daughter of Captain Abraham Shackleton, of Nottingham, England, who was an officer in the Oxford Blues, and fought under Wellington at the battle of Waterloo. An accomplished musician, Mrs. Andros has been organist at St. Peter's ever since her husband began his directorship, and since his death has filled the dual office of organist and chorister. She is also a teacher of sight reading and harmony, and a successful trainer of men's voices.

Mrs. Hawley's native musical talent was carefully fostered by her parents, she receiving from an early age competent instruction in vocal and instrumental music as well as in harmony. Her general education was obtained in the public schools of Cambridge and at Radcliffe College, which she entered soon after graduating from the English High School. Her literary ability was early displayed in the writing of lyrics, which were soon followed by the words and music of plays. The first work by which she became publicly known was a