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Lucy Sprague Mitchell (1878-1967) was an influential educator whose work in early childhood, the social studies (particularly geography and history), and teacher education spanned the twentieth century. Her lifetime accomplishments include those of being a teacher and researcher of young children, geographer, author of successful children's books, and founder of Bank Street College of Education. Her work has been chronicled over the past 25 years in various ways (Antler 1987; Wellhousen 1994; Field 1999; Smith 2000; and Grinberg 2002) . This article focuses primarily on the geography aspect of Mitchell's life and work - her early influences, schooling, career, and enduring legacy. Specifically, we draw heavily upon Mitchell's life through her writing and the curriculum she developed to argue that her early work as a geographer foreshadowed contemporary geography curriculum, teaching, and learning in substantial ways.
EARLY INFLUENCES UPON MITCHELL
Lucy Sprague Mitchell was decidedly influenced by the major cities in which she lived during her life: Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York City. She developed a special way to look at the cities, enjoyed seeing them from a bird's-eye view, and described them, and other places and locations of which she was particularly fond, with elaborate prose in her memoirs. The city of Chicago had a "profound effect" upon Mitchell's development. She wrote in her memoirs that she was "of" Chicago, placing the city at the center of her growing knowledge about the city and the world beyond. She added that "Chicago history became a part of my family history" (Mitchell 1953, 55-56). Yet her family seemed to play an extraordinary influence upon her life and ultimate career path. Her father, Otho Sprague, was a wealthy merchant, and her mother Lucia, was a leader in Chicago's growing social and cultural environment. Lucy and her younger siblings were schooled at home, as was the custom of the elite. At the age of thirteen, she completed the first of many worthy accomplishments: she "read around her father's library," in a systematic way (Mitchell 1953, 58) . Mitchell discovered that she shared with her overbearing father a gift for storytelling. On Sunday evenings, the family gathered in the library for story time, and Otho created vivid tales about a family similar to theirs. And, while...