Eliza Cooper Blaker

Life & Legacy

Eliza Cooper Blaker (March 5, 1854 – December 4, 1926) was an American educator who headed the free kindergarten movement in Indianapolis from 1882 to 1926 as the first superintendent of schools for the Indianapolis Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid Society. She also established the Indianapolis Kindergarten and Primary Normal Training School at her Indianapolis home in 1882. Renamed the Teachers College of Indianapolis in 1905, she served as its president until her death in 1926. Four years later it became part of the education department at Butler University.