TImelines

Coming to California 1856

Three or Four family members? All at once? There are many opinions. Which ones hold water? Opinions? or official documents?

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Milicent Shinn's Timeline

Milicent Shinn's long life was filled with many significant milestones for her and for California. She was among the first women accepted to the University of California. She was the editor of the Overland Monthly at age 24. She was involved in the creation of the California branch of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae . She was the first woman to earn a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She published the Biography of a Baby. Then what? She was not done yet! We are filling out her timeline. It will grow and change over time. Check back! Check Milcent's wikipedia page for other updates that may or may not be reflected here.

1856 James and Lucy Shinn moved to the Washington Township with 4-year-old Charles Howard Shinn and baby Annie Holbrook Shinn. They moved into William Sim's cottage, which was allegedly made from wood from abandoned Gold Rush ships.
1858 Milicent Washburn Shinn was born
1869 The last portion of the Transcontinental Railroad was completed from Sacramento to Oakland, running through Alameda Cañon.
~1873 Shinn's Nurseries begun
1874 Milicent graduated from Oakland High School. Anna Head and Clara Hawley (Patterson) were in the same class.
1874 Milicent entered the Freshman class at the University of California with her sister, Annie
1876 The Big House was finished
1878 Sister Annie passed at age 21

1880 Milicent graduated from UC Berkeley. She considered herself in the Class of 1879 which was the class that she started with. However, she had to take some time off before graduation,
1880 Contributed poem “In a New England Graveyard” to The Californian
1882 The Association of Collegiate Alumnae (ACA) was founded on the East Coast - the Precurser of American Association of University Women (AAUW) (History
1882 Milicent became assistant editor to The Californian to Warren Cheney.
1882 The Californian rebranded as the Overland Monthly
1883 Milicent became the editor of the Overland Monthly (until 1894)
188x Mother / Baby studies with the ACA (AAUW predecessor)
1885 Pacific Association of Collegiate Alumnae was the third branch of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. Milicent hosted the meetings at the Overland Monthly offices.
1886 Milicent elected onto the Executive Committee of the Pacific branch of ACA.
1887 Shinn's Nurseries discontinued in favor of fruit ranching

1890 Niece Ruth Wetmore Shinn born, daughter of Charles and Julia
1890 started recording observations of Ruth
1893 "The First Two Years of the Child" was presented at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 [needs reference]
1894 The paper The Baby’s mind. A study for college women was presented to the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, October 27, 1894 (also)
1894 Resigned as editor of the Overland Monthly.
1896 Father James died
1898 PhD from the University of California, first woman to receive a PhD from the University of California.
1898 Overland Monthly article July 1898, Shinn reflected on her years as editor, 1883–1894

1900 Biography of a Baby published
1906 Joseph Clark Shinn, Jr. born, son of Milicent's younger brother, Joseph, and Florence
1906 Milicent embarked on a six-year project of studying Joseph, Jr.
1907 Published The Development of the Senses in the First Three Years of Childhood.
1909 Ruth Shinn entered the University of California, Berkeley
1910 Nephew Allen Mayhew Shinn born

1912 Niece Lucy Emily Shinn born
1912 Milicent started notes on Lucy Emily for at least two years
1915 Mother Lucy died
1915 the ACA held a meeting in San Francisco during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Maria Montessori came to the PPIE. Did Milicent meet her?
1917 Milicent's house was finished; designed by architect Lilian Bridgman

Milicent's history will be filled in here. She was active in many organizations.
1932 Milicent contacted publisher Houghton Mifflin to propose publication of a draft manuscript on the Development of Memory During the First Three Years [Bancroft library] location unknown.
1940 Milicent passed away

References (see also wikipedia for Milicent Shinn)

1895 The Pedagogical Seminary Listed in Von Oertzen article.
Biography of Child Study (Louis N. Wilson (1898) Bibliography of Child Study, The Pedagogical Seminary, 5:4, 541-589,) lists three for MWS. These two we do not have: The visible world of a little child. Univ. of Cal. Mag., March, 1893. Vol. I, pp. 13-18 and The baby's mind : a study for college women. A paper presented to the Ass'n of Collegiate Alumnae, Oct., 27, 1894. Series 2, No. 52, pp. 11.
1931 The History of the American Association of University Women 1881-1931; Marion Talbont M.A. , LL.D, and Lois Kimball Mathews Rosenberry Ph.D, Litt. D.
1968 Grant Skelley thesis The Overland Monthly under Milicent Washburn Shinn, 1883-1894: A Study in Regional Publishing
1987 Furumoto and Scarborough, Untold Lives: the first generation of American women psychologists. Milicent's history is in a chapter called the "Family Claim." It is nice that she was included, but she was used as someone who was stymied by her families needs for her. The chapter does not take into account Milicent's later work with her mother-baby ACA network, her later publications, or her work with other organizations. Nor that the family claim also prevented her brother from continuing his education at UC. Joseph had to take over the operations of the Ranch after his father was no longer able to. Milicent was not the only caregiver for her mother. Joseph and Florence were living in the Big House. They had a caregiver for her mother at times as well. Her father died before her PhD.
2012 Christine Von Oertzen, Science, Gender, and Internationalism; Women’s Academic Networks, 1917-1955; Chapter 2 is about "Global War, Global Citizens, Global; Mission: The Anglo-American Project of an International Federation of University Women" This relates to the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (ACA), the AAUW's predecessor
2013 Christine Von Oertzen, Science in the Cradle: Milicent Shinn and Her Home-Based Network of Baby Observers, 1890–1910; Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Germany
2017 Elissa Rodkey (Crandall University, Canada) “Far More Than a Dutiful Daughter: Milicent Shinn’s Child Study and Education Advocacy After 1898”

Milicent's first baby study subject, Ruth Wetmore Shinn. Ruth was the daughter of Milicent's brother Charles and his wife Julia. Presumably that is Julia holding baby Ruth. Not the palm in the backgroud and the redwood siding of the tankhouse?

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