Abstract

In this editorial piece, we wanted to initiate the Volume 24 with an historical overview of the print context of the word, “mentoring.” We investigated the first time when mentoring appeared in the literature in the English language. Of course, the term, “mentor,” appeared first with the Greeks in Homer’s Odyssey between the eighth and ninth centuries. Though there have been certainly many mentors since that time, particularly philosophical and religious, the term, “mentor,” we found in print in English not until 1750 in Lord Chesterfield’s CVII Letter to his son (Project Gutenberg, 2012); however, the term, “mentoring,” did not appear in print in America until 1778. The use of the word, mentoring, appears actually to have been born in America in the latter part of the eighteenth century. It was Ann Murry who authored one of the first books on mentoring in 1778, which she named Mentoria: The Young Ladies Instructor (published by J. Fry & Co.). The Reverend Weems had The Immortal Mentor published in 1796 (Cornaro, Weems, Bailey, Bailey, Saunders, & Scott), and it provided instruction for young men. In 1830, a periodical was established in New York by S. Wild which was specifically for youth and was named, The Mentor and Youth’s Instructive Companion. This was an early concept of Ask Annie in which a question would be asked of Mentoria, and Mentoria responded with proper advice. The Mentor and Fireside Review, a monthly magazine, was initially published in 1839 by John S. Taylor and edited by Reverend E.G. Smith. Furthering the notion of assisting young women, The Young Lady’s Mentor was authored by the name, “By a Lady,” and was published by Peck and Bliss in Philadelphia in 1852. Alfred Ayers authored one of the first books on mentoring for young men, The Mentor (published by Funk and Wagnalls, 1884), which was a survey of etiquette. As early as 1884, in The Journal of Education, teacher–student relationships were discussed. In 1894, The Teacher’s Mentor by Fitch, Huntington, and Buckham, was one of the earliest wanna-be-a teacher books. A periodical, The Mentor, was created in 1913 from a group of men who were called together and named The Mentor Association by William David Moffat, a book publisher. This was likely the first formal mentoring group in the United States. However, it was not until little over two decades later, in 1910 that mentoring became fully actualized with the founding of the Big Brothers organization. In 1918, mentoring of youth moved from the social world to schools with the founding of Junior Achievement. So, much of the actualization of mentoring did not appear until the twentieth century in America, and when it did, as noted, it was targeted to youth. In the early part of the twentieth century, there were a very few publications that targeted religion, the arts, medicine, and humanities related to mentoring. It was not until 1973 that a paper (with mentor in the title) by Bradley and Adamson about faculty (members) mentors at Empire College in New York appeared in an education journal, Research and Review. The next major paper on mentoring was authored by Shapiro, Haseltine, and Rowe and related to women having mentors It appeared in the