William Russell was a friend and admirer of
Amos Bronson Alcott and a fellow educational reformer. In 1826, he founded the
American Journal of Education, one of the first periodicals in the United States dedicated entirely to educational thought. This journal introduced Alcott to the ideas of
Johann Pestalozzi and Robert Owen. When Alcott first met Russell in 1828, he was impressed by Russell’s enthusiasm for pedagogical reform and noted that “his mind is free from all those narrow prejudices, and arbitrary forms, which destroy the natural simplicity and frankness of the human heart.” In 1831, Russell and Alcott established a school at Germantown, Pennsylvania, where both taught until 1833. Russell died in 1873.