Margaret Gray Blanton

1887-1973

Margaret Blanton was among the first Americans to publish work in the field of speech pathology. She wrote several books with her husband Smiley Blanton including one on speech training for children, two on stuttering, and one on child guidance. Ms. Blanton also developed an articulation test and a battery of speech and literacy tests with Sara Stinchfield Hawk. She was one of 25 charter members of the American Academy of Speech Correction, an organization that was to evolve to the current American Speech-Hearing Language Association (ASHA).

Margaret Gray was born in 1887 in Sedalla Missouri to Joseph Preston & Cora Leslie Garth Gray. Her father was a physician and dentist. Margaret married Smiley Blanton, October 18, 1910, a well known scholar in speech pathology and a psychiatrist who trained with Sigmund Freud. Her husband was best known for his publications and work with Reverend Norman Vincent Peale.

Ms Blanton's early education was by family members and tutors. She served as a lecturer at the University of Tulane in 1918, the University of Wisconsin in 1922 to 1923, the University of Iowa in 1926 and Vassar College from 1927 to 1930. She took courses with John Watson, who began the behaviorism movement in the United States. Under his guidance she did a study entitled "The behavior of the human infant during the first 30 days of life." (See publication below.) In 1922 she studied phonetics in London under Daniel Jones. She was psychoanalyzed by a Dr. Brunswick (details of this are sketchy).

Throughout her life she was a prolific writer. She published many short articles on advice to parents about their child's development for the journal The Designer, and for the The New York Herald Tribune. She also published short stories and book reviews for literary magazines. Her biography of Bernadette of Lourdes she later turned into a play. Her published novel, called The White Unicorn tells the story of a young girl living in Tennessee in the 1890s. She edited her husband's books written with Norman Vincent Peale and her husband's diary of his psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud.

The papers of Margaret Blanton are archived in Knoxville Tenessee at the University of Tennessee James Hoskins Library. For listing of what is on file, see http://www.lib.utk.edu/~spec_coll/manuscripts/a0739

Chronologically Ordered References

(The speech and child development references are starred)

1900s

Gray, M. (1909). Christian charity (a short story). The Peabody Record. 18, #3, pp. 89-91.

1910s

Blanton, M. (1914). A question of caste. The Outlook, pp. 553-554.

Blanton, M. (August, 1914). Camping in the cumberlands. The Woman's Magazine, p. 3 ff

Blanton, M. (1914). Everybody's birthday party. The Woman's Magazine, p. 23.

Blanton, M. (February 1915) A tearoom rich in house suggestions, The Delineator, p. 20.

*Blanton, M. (1916). The relation of emotional states to vocal defects. Quarterly Journal of Public Speaking, 2, 352-357.

*Blanton, M. (1917). The behavior of the human infant during the first thirty days of life. Psychological Review, XXIV, 456-483. (A study done under the direction of John Watson, the originator of behaviorism in the US.)

*Blanton, S. & Blanton, M. (1918). The broader aspects of speech training. Quarterly Journal of Speech Education, 4, 47-52.

*Blanton, M. (July 1919). The laws of babyland. The Designer, p. 33ff.

*Blanton, M. (October, 1919). When shall he stand alone. The Designer, p. 21.

*Blanton, M. (November 1919). Is your child a hothouse baby? The Designer, p 33 ff.

*Blanton, M., & Blanton, S. (1919). What is the problem of stuttering? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 13, pp. 303-313.

*Blanton, M. & Blanton, S. (1919). Speech training for children: The hygiene of speech. New York: The Century Co.

1920s

*Blanton, M. (January, 1920). Baby talk from one to three. The Designer, p. 22.

Blanton, M. (1920). I know I'm sensitive but what that admission really means. The Designer and the Woman's Magazine, p. 25.

Blanton, M. (May, 1920). The top o' the mornin'. Of course you don't have moods but read this anyway. The Designer and the Woman's Magazine, p. 24.

*Blanton, S. & Blanton, M. (1920). The development of the defects of speech. Quarterly Journal of Speech Education, 6, 33-43.

*Blanton, M., & Stinchfield, S. (1923). Blanton-Stinchfield speech measurements: Speech manual. Chicago, IL: C.H. Stoelting & Co.

*Blanton, M. (1925). Speech defects other than stuttering. In Studies in rhetoric and public speaking in honor of James Albert Winans (pp. 267-282). NY: Russell & Russell, Inc

*Bla nton, M., & Stinchfield, S. (1926). Articulation Test A. Chicago: Stoelting.

*Blanton, S., & Blanton, M. (1927). Child guidance. New York ; London: The Century Company.

*Blanton, M. (May 6, 1928). A child needs a garden, New York Herald Tribune, p. 18.

*Blanton, M. (May 27, 1928). Who goes to the circus. New York Herald Tribune. p. 19.

*Blanton, M. (June 24, 1928) The afternoon nap. New York Herald Tribune, p. 20.

*Blanton, M.(July 8, 1928). Raising them by books. New York Herald Tribune, pps 22 ff

*Blanton, M. (September 9, 1928). Your child's playmates, New York Herald Tribune, p. 20.

*Blanton, M. (Sept 30, 1928). Intelligence tests. New York Herald Tribune, p. 20.

*Blanton, M. (1928). Cabaret for the babies? New York Herald Tribune, pp. 19ff.

Blanton, M. (December 1928). Book review. Saturday Review of Literature. p. 466.

Blanton, M. (December 23, 1928). Seeing Christmas through. New York Herald Tribune, p. 21.

*Blanton, M. (January 13, 1929). The child's speech habits. New York Herald Tribune, pp. 21.

Blanton, M. (February 16, 1929). Book Review. Saturday Review of Literature.

*Blanton, M. (May 12, 1929). Furnishing a child's room. The New York Herald Tribune, pp. 23-24.

1930s

*Blanton, M. (February, 9, 1930). Discipline for the sick room, New York Herald Tribune, p. 20.

*Blanton, M. (1934). Vocal disorders. In Proceedings of the American Society for the Study of Disorders of Speech, 4, 13-15.

*Blanton, S., & Blanton, M. (1936). For stutterers. New York ; London: D. Appleton-Century company incorporated.

Blanton, M. (December 15, 1939). A protestant looks at Lourdes. The Commonweal, pp. 178-180.

Blanton, M. (1939) Bernadette of Lourdes, NY: Longmans, Green & Co. (A biography that was later turned into a teleplay. Reissued in 1958 by Prentice Hall under title The miracle of Bernadette.)

1960s

Blanton, M. (1961) The White Unicorn (A novel about a young girl living in Middle Tennessee in the 1890s)

*Blanton, M. (1962). Speech defects other than stuttering. In Studies in rhetoric and public speaking in honor of James Albert Winans (pp. 267-282). NY: Russell & Russell, Inc.