Annie Coolidge Rust

Her father, Thomas Adams Rust, a successful hardware merchant in Richmond, was a native of Salem, Massachusetts.

The parents agreed that a part of each year should be passed in Boston, the rest of the time being in spent at their Southern home in Richmond.

At the approach of spring, Rust found that the climate did not agree with her, and felt obliged to give up her position and return to Boston.

Not long after, a lady came to Boston to secure a teacher for a private school near New York City and Rust was engaged for this position.

Subsequently, a lengthy article appeared in the Boston Transcript, written by one of the pupil's mothers relating to Rust's work.

[2] After one of the patrons of this school removed to Brookline, arrangements were made for an afternoon kindergarten to be established in her home to be run by Rust.

[3] In the meantime, the school had grown to such a size that a house was taken, and Rust associated herself with a kindergarten-trained mother; they together undertaking the establishment of a Kindergarten Normal Class for young ladies.

[3] But when Rust realized she would be unable to make it the model school she desired, or add to it her Kindergarten Normal Classes, she sought other opportunities.

[3] After several years of successful work in Worcester, Rust realized that she was shut off from many things with which she needed to keep in touch in order to grow.

[4] Rust's Froebel School of Kindergarten Normal Classes occupied the Pierce Building, Copley Square, Boston.

The aim of the school was to prepare young women as kindergarten, primary, and playground teachers, and to give non-professional courses.