Annet Schepel

Schepel was born on 26 December 1844 in The Hague, to Johannes Christiaan Pieter Hamminck Schepel (1808–1870), a soldier, and Maria Volck (1815–1863).^[1][2][3][4] Schepel had two brothers and four older sisters, the eldest of which was the teacher and translator Maria Frederika Cornelia Hamminck Schepel [jv] (1839–1930).^[3][4]

Schepel was a Froebelian educator and the first principal of the Pestalozzi-Fröbel House in Berlin, Germany.^[5] She was principal of the institution for over twenty years.^[6] She was also a member of the Federation of German Women's Associations.^[7]

When the World Columbian Exhibition was held at Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1893, Schepel attended with a delegation of German women.^[8] She presented an exhibit on "German welfare institutions," which had been commissioned by the Reichstag (German parliament).^[9][10] The exhibit inspired a group of Chicago women to establish a student residence on the same principles.^[11]

English educator Alice Buckton became interested in the educational ideas of Friedrich Fröbel and travelled to Germany to visit the Pestalozzi-Fröbel House.^[12] She met Schepel and persuaded her to come to England in 1896 to set up a similar institution in London. Schepel opened the Sesame Garden and House for Home Life Training in St John's Wood.^[13] By 1902, the school at Sesame House had sixty-five students.^[14]

Buckton and Schepel also became partners who lived together at Byfleet in Surrey.^[13] They became members of the Baháʼí Faith and opened their home to Abdu'l-Bahá, head of the faith.^[15]

Schepel died in 1931.^[1][16][17]