Emilie Michaelis

Emilie Michaelis was born in Thuringia, Kingdom of Prussia, and was a pupil of Bertha von Marenholtz-Bülow, who had herself been a student of Friedrich Fröbel.^[2]

Michaelis travelled to England in the 1870s, intending to promote the principles of kindergarten education.^[2] In 1875, she was a founding member of the Froebel Society of London, on a committee which included Emily Shirreff, Maria Georgina Grey, Frances Buss, Beata Doreck, and Adelaide Manning.^[6] She was president of the Society 1897–1900.^[7]

In 1891, Michaelis started a kindergarten and training college for kindergarten teachers in Notting Hill, which became the Froebel Educational Institute in West Kensington.^[2] The Froebel Educational Institute, on Talgarth Road, West Kensington, officially opened on 20 September 1894.^[8] Emilie Michaelis was its first principal, retiring in 1901.^[2] She was replaced as Principal by Esther Lawrence.^[9] Following Michaelis's retirement, she continued to actively promote the values of Froebelian education, lecturing and examining widely.^[4]

Emilie Michaelis died on 30 December 1904.^[10]: 63

• Froebel's Letters on the Kindergarten, edited and annotated by Emilie Michaelis (1891) at the Internet Archive
• Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel, translated by Emilie Michaelis at the Internet Archive
• Works by Emilie Michaelis at WorldCat