Georgie Smith Boynton Child (August 8, 1873 – December 10, 1945) was an American efficiency expert, writer, and business manager.

Georgie Boynton Child
The face of a white woman in an oval frame. Her dark hair is parted center and dressed back away from her face and shoulders.
Georgie Boynton Child, from a 1914 publication.
Born
Georgie Smith Boynton

August 8, 1873
Woodbridge, New Jersey
DiedDecember 10, 1945(1945-12-10) (aged 72)
Princeton, New Jersey
Occupation(s)Efficiency expert, writer

Early life edit

Georgie Smith Boynton was born in Woodbridge, New Jersey, the daughter of Casimir Whitman Boynton and Eunice Adelia Harriman Boynton.[1] She earned a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1895.[2][3]

Her older sister Louise Boynton was the partner and personal secretary of actress Maude Adams, for almost fifty years.[4]

Career edit

From 1897 to 1903, Child was co-owner (with her sister Louise) and business manager at the Perth Amboy Daily Republican, a daily newspaper.[5][6] In 1911, she and her family moved into the Housekeeping Experiment Station in Stamford, Connecticut.[1][2][7] Her book, The Efficient Kitchen: Definite Directions for the Planning, Arranging, and Equipping of the Modern Labor Saving Kitchen; A Practical Book for the Homemaker (1914), was based on the Stamford project.[8] Her advice included tips such as "Keep nothing in the kitchen that is not used every day" and "Have narrow shelves with one row of things on each."[9] She wrote a series of articles for The Delineator,[10][11][12] and gave lectures on household efficiency. Her profession was listed as "household engineer" in a 1914 profile.[1]

A new edition of the book was published in 1926, to include more information about electrical wiring, lighting and appliances.[13] In 1932, Child and Louise Boynton published The Golden Grains, a book of economical recipes.[14][15]

Personal life edit

Georgie Boynton married mining chemist and metallurgist Alfred Thurston Child in 1903; playwright Anne Crawford Flexner, Boynton's friend from Vassar, was matron of honor at the ceremony.[16] They had four children, Alfred Thurston, Jr., Eunice Adelia, Margaret Lyon, and Louise Boynton.[17] She died in 1945, in Princeton, New Jersey, aged 72 years. Her grandson Richard M. Freeland served as President of Northeastern University and Commissioner of Education for Massachusetts.

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. p. 175.
  2. ^ a b Child, Georgie Boynton (November 17, 1914). "The Housekeeping Experiment Station at Stamford, Connecticut". Vassar Miscellany. p. 47-50. Retrieved June 23, 2020 – via Hudson River Valley Heritage.
  3. ^ College, Vassar (1895). Annual Catalogue. p. 65.
  4. ^ Fields, Armond (2004-07-08). Maude Adams: Idol of American Theater, 1872-1953. McFarland. pp. 299–301. ISBN 978-0-7864-1927-2.
  5. ^ "Why the Housekeeping Experiment Station is of Much Interest Here". Perth Amboy Evening News. 1914-04-06. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-06-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Two Wealthy Girls Conduct Daily Paper". Los Angeles Herald. June 10, 1901. p. 2. Retrieved June 24, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  7. ^ Marshall, Marguerite Mooers (1912-08-29). "Why is a Happy Marriage, Explained by Couple who Have 'Systematized' Home". The Evening World. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-06-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Child, Georgie Boynton (1914). The efficient kitchen; definite directions for the planning, arranging and equipping of the modern labor-saving kitchen. A practical book for the home-maker. New York: McBridge, Nast & Company.
  9. ^ Vestal, Avis Gordon (July 1914). "The Efficient Kitchen". The Threshermen's Review. 23: 32, 34.
  10. ^ Child, Georgie Boynton (April 1915). "Weapons for the Spring Assault upon Dirt". The Delineator. 86: 22.
  11. ^ Child, Georgie Boynton (April 1915). "Just How to do the Washing". The Delineator. 86: 23.
  12. ^ Child, Alfred T. and Georgie Boynton (May 1915). "A New Era in the Country Kitchen". The Delineator. 86: 29.
  13. ^ "New Book on Kitchen". Dayton Daily News. 1926-02-11. p. 19. Retrieved 2020-06-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Energy for Winter is Found in Cereal Menu". Oklahoma City Advertiser. 1933-11-10. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-06-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Boynton, Louise; Child, Georgie Boynton (1932). The Golden Grains. Clark-Sprague Company.
  16. ^ "Were Married in Sewaren". Perth Amboy Evening News. 1903-06-25. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-06-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Bowen, Clarence Winthrop (1930). The History of Woodstock, Genealogies of Woodstock Families, Volume 3. The Plimpton Press. pp. 602–603.

External links edit