Hannah Almy Babcock, daughter of Nathan and Phebe Winsor (Johnson) Babcock, was born in Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island, March 11, 1855, but subsequently removed with her parents to Pawcatuck, town of Stonington, Connecticut (Post Office Westerly, Rhode Island), where she pursued her education in public and private schools and in music. From child hood she had given evidence of musical ability and her deep interest in the unfortunate blind, with whom she had been brought into sympathetic touch through the work of her uncle, Stephen Babcock, M. A., instructor in the New York School for the Blind, in New York City, caused her, in September, 1876, to accept a position as teacher of music in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind.
Miss Babcock entered upon this important work with deep consecration and youthful enthusiasm, realizing that to those who are denied the world of beauty revealed through sight, the harmonies of sound and the ability to find expression through the reproduction and creation of those harmonies is of peculiar value. With this thought in mind, it was natural that she should give special attention to the system of embossed music for the blind, devised by William B. Wait, Principal of the Institute, and known as the New York Point System. So thorough was her interest and so complete her mastery of this system, that she was assigned the task of revising the first edition of the System published in 1872.
From that day on, she was constantly making a larger and better field of music accessible to the blind. In 1888 she assisted Mr. Wait in preparing a book published by him entitled "The Elements of Harmonic Notation;" as associate editor she collaborated with Mr. Wait in the work published by him in 1891, entitled "Normal Course of Piano Technich" (T. Presser, Philadelphia, publisher); and since 1882 she has transcribed into the New York Point System, supervised the preparation of and proof-read upwards of one thousand piano compositions, over one hundred organ works, over six hundred hymn tunes, and many pieces for the organ.
She also transcribed into the New York Point System and proof-read for the publication the following text books: "Materials Used in Musical Compositions," by Dr. P. Goetschius, 5 Volumes; "Counterpoint," by Dr. J. F. Bridge; "Composition," by Dr. J. Stainer; "Violin Method," by L. Schubert, first Volume; "Vocal Lessons," by Panofka, two Volumes; "Organ Method," by Dr. J. Stainer, two Volumes; and "Normal Course of Piano Technic;" New York Point Music Notation;" "Key to New York Point Music Notation;" "The Elements of Harmonic Notation," the last four written by William B. Wait. Besides this difficult task she critically classified in ten grades all the transcribed piano music, and all this work was accomplished while she was teacher and later music director at the Institute.
Possessed of strong initiative, dauntless courage and profound faith in the abilities of the blind, Miss Babcock was the first to undertake and successfully carry out the preparation of blind muscians for the severe test examinations of the American College of Musicians. This included written tests in harmony, counterpoint, music form, music history, acoustics, terminology, notation and a special theoretic paper on the instrument (piano or organ) selected by the pupil; also the performance from memory or a program selected by the examiners, but Miss Babcock never faltered in her efforts and a large number of blind pupils successfully passed these tests, becoming Associates or Fellows of the American College of Musicians, according to the grade of the examination. Upon her resignation in 1914, after thirty-eight years of continuous service in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, the board of managers made her "Emeritus Director of Music."
Convincing evidence of the scope of Miss Babcock's powers is found in the fact that prodigious as were her labors in the interest of the blind, she found time for intensive service in the fields of temprance, woman suffrage and philanthropy, giving generously of time and means in each cause. She organized a Woman's Christian Temperance Union in her home town in 1892 and was its president for nearly eight years. In the same year she organized a Loyal Temperance Legion, a juvenile school in which temperance in all its phases was the subject studied.
The Legion numbered over two hundred children, and as an inducement for regularity, she gave a small cloth bound book to each child having an uninterrupted attendance for a calendar quarter, a larger book to each one who had received six small books and a gold medal to each receiving five large books. This required seven and one-half years of unbroken weekly attendance. Four pupils were the happy recipients of the gold medals, and during this period ten hundred and fifty small books and one hundred and twenty-one large books were distributed. It is significant that, largely through Miss Babcock's efforts, her home town voted "No License" for ten consecutive years, otherwise unparalleled in its history. Because of the success of her Union she was made president of the New London County Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which, by her influence and capacity for organization, she raised to the disctinction of "Banner County," during her three years presidency.
After the death of her father, in 1902, she gave up her residence in Pawcatuck, withdrew from her activities there, and established her residence in New York City, where she had continuously taught, during the period of her work for temperance cause in her home town. She did not, however, relinquish her interest in that cause. In the summer of 1903 she went as a delegate from the United States to the World's Convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, held in Geneva, Switzerland, and at that time made an extended tour on the Continent and through Great Britain. From copious notes of her observations and experiences she gave a course of thirteen lectures to the faculty and students of the Institute upon her return.
She also actively supported the cause of Woman Suffrage, holding office in various clubs, serving for a time as one of the vice-presidents of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, and directing a campaign in New London County in its interest by sending able speakers into nearly every town in the county and defraying all expenses. When Connecticut granted school suffrage to women, she was active through personal letters and newspaper articles in securing the enrollment of the women of her village, a work in which her father also was deeply interested, and in which he assisted by providing conveyances to bring the women to the polls. She has been identified with thE International Woman Suffrage Alliance as a contributing member ever since it was organized.
In philanthropic effort she has assisted students to obtain college and other high grade courses of study; has transcribed and distributed to the blind several hundred volumes of religious matter embossed in New York Point, her latest effort being the transcrIption of the entire Bible into this system, the embossed plates of which she presented to the American Bible Society for free distribution of the Bible among the blind.
For more than twentyh years (since 1904) Miss Babcock was a member of Sorosis (the oldest incorporated Woman's Club in the world) having served in several departments and was (1926) on its Board of Managers. She is an honorary life member of the American Bible Society, a life member of the Connecticut Woman's Christian Temperance Union, a life member Daughters of the American Revolution; and for nearly eight years has been Regent of the Mary Murray Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in New York City; and was also a member of the Washington Headquarters Association, incorporated by the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, having descended from John Howland, who married Eliazebeth Tilley, daughter of John Tilley, all of whom came over in the Mayflower; a member of the National Society of Daughters of the American Colonists, being in direct descent from Thomas Hazard (1610-1690) one of the Historic Founders of Newport, Rhode Island, in 1639. She held the office of vice-president of the New York City Colony of the National Society of New England Women. Miss Babcock was a member of the National Society of Patriotic Women of America, the Woman's Press Club of New York City, the New York Browning Society, the Audubon Society, the Congress of States, the National Security League, Citizens' Union, League of Women Voters, and of the Theater Threshold Club.
For thirty years Miss Babcock was an active member of the Seventh Day Baptist Church and then voluntarily withdrew from that membership for freedom to make research along various religious lines. For several years she was secretary of the New York Lodge of the Theosophical Society and in 1926 held the office of first vice-president of that Lodge.