Year Honored: 1993

Birth: 1874 - 1966

Born in: Delaware

Biography

Frances D. Swift Tatnall was born in 1874. She attended the Misses Hebb’s School in Wilmington, a well-known school for girls at the time. After attending Bryn Mawr college for two years, Tatnall married Henry Lea Tatnall, Jr., and the couple had ten children.

Tatnall taught at the Misses Hebb’s School for a number of years until it closed in 1929. During the Great Depression, Tatnall’s family fell on financial hardship like countless others. At the urging of her former students’ parents, Tatnall restructured her home on Rodney Street in Wilmington to accommodate a school on the first floor. With the help of benefactors, Tatnall’s school was able to move to its present-day location in Greenville in 1952.

Called “the family school,” Tatnall was founded with the idea that it should “serve students with differing abilities equally well.” Tatnall’s family had a strong connection to music and the school maintains a musical tradition. Even today, “the concept of a Tatnall family is attributed directly to Mrs. Tatnall whose spirit, philosophy, and character are ever present in the daily life of the school.”

Nancy Tatnall Fuller, Tatnall’s granddaughter, remembered her grandmother frequently remarking “the greatest pleasure of my life was seeing the light of comprehension come on when teaching a child.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

Sources and Additional Readings

Founded 1930 by Frances Dorr Swift Tatnall. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://www.tatnall.org/about/our-history

Frances Dorr Swift Tatnall (1874-1966) - find a... Find a Grave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73695746/frances-dorr-tatnall

Frances Dorr Tatnall. geni_family_tree. (2018, June 16). Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://www.geni.com/people/Frances-Tatnall/6000000007445502435
T., B. F. S. (1972). Mrs. Tatnall and her School.