Samuel Read Hall

Who was Samuel Read Hall?

Samuel Read Hall was an American educator.

He was born in Croydon, New Hampshire, the son of a clergyman. When he was three years old, his family moved to Guildhall, Vermont. Samuel was home-schooled and never attended a college. In 1814, he was employed as a teacher in Rumford, Maine. He studied to become a minister in Meriden, New Hampshire, and gained his license in 1823. He became the principal at an academy in Fitchburg, Massachusetts in 1822.

In 1823, he started the first school in the United States for the instruction of teachers, and he ran the institution, located in Concord, Vermont, until 1830. He helped found the American Institute of Instruction in 1829, the oldest educational association in the U.S. In 1830, he accepted the invitation to lead the newly formed English Academy & Teachers Seminary, part of Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. At Andover, in addition to leading what was the second teacher training program in the United States, he also published training manuals and school textbooks and played a leading role in the school reform movement. From 1837 to 1840, he ran a teachers' seminary in Plymouth, New Hampshire.