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The Thomasites were a group of 600 American teachers who traveled from the United States to the newly occupied territory of the Philippines on the USAT Thomas. The group included 346 men and 180 women, hailing from 43 different states and 193 colleges, universities, and normal schools. The term 'Thomasites' has since expanded to include any teacher who arrived in the first few years of the American colonial period of the Philippines.
Thomas carried nearly 500 Thomasites, who arrived in Manila in August 1901. They represented 192 institutions, including Harvard (19), Yale (15), Cornell (13), University of Chicago (8), University of Michigan (24), University of California (25), Albion College (1), Alma College (2), Kalamazoo College (1), the Michigan State Normal School at Ypsilanti (now Eastern Michigan University) (6), and Olivet College (3).
Philippines had enjoyed a public school system since 1863, when a Spanish decree first introduced public elementary education in the Philippines. The Thomasites, however, expanded and improved the public school system and switched to English as the medium of instruction.
The name Thomasite was derived from the United States Army Transport Thomas which brought the educators to the shores of Manila Bay. Although two groups of new American graduates arrived in the Philippines before Thomas, the name Thomasite became the designation of all pioneer American teachers simply because Thomas had the largest contingent. Later batches of American teachers were also dubbed Thomasites.
The Thomasites—365 males and 165 females—left Pier 12 of San Francisco on July 23, 1901, to sail via the Pacific Ocean to Southeast Asia. The U.S. government spent about $105,000 for the expedition (). More American teachers followed the Thomasites in 1902, making a total of about 1,074 stationed in the Philippines. On January 20, 1901, Act No. 74 formalized the creation of the department.
At the time, the Thomasites were offered $125 a month (), but once in the Philippines salaries were often delayed and were usually paid in devalued Mexico Mexican peso.
Although the Thomasites were the largest group of pioneers with the purpose of educating the Filipinos, they were not the first to be deployed by Washington, D.C. A few weeks before the arrival of Thomas, US Army soldiers had already begun teaching Filipinos the English language, thus in effect laying the foundation of the Philippine public school system. The US Army opened the Philippines' first public school in Corregidor Island, after Admiral George Dewey vanquished the Spanish Pacific fleet in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Also, a few weeks before the arrival of Thomas, another group composed of 48 American teachers also arrived in the Philippines, aboard the USAT Sheridan.
After President William McKinley's appointment of William Howard Taft as the head of a commission that would be responsible for continuing the educational work started by the US Army, the Taft Commission passed Education Act No. 74 on January 21, 1901, which established the Department of Public Instruction. The latter was then given the task of establishing a public school system throughout the Philippines. The Taft Commission also authorized the further deployment of 1,000 more educators from the US to the Philippines.
For their contribution to Philippine education, the Thomasites Centennial Project was established in cooperation with American Studies associations in the Philippines, the Philippine-American Educational Foundation, the US Embassy in Manila, and other leading cultural and educational institutions in the Philippines.
The municipality of New Washington, Aklan was named after US President George Washington as a tribute to the Thomasites.
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