The birth and evolution of the Normal School that capped the extensive public school system in Newark in 1855 and became Kean College of New Jersey is described. Needed to supply the rapidly expanding schools with competent teachers, the early school reflected the character of the city and affected the development of Newark itself. The quality of the Newark schools, the city superintendents, the progressive nature of the city, and the teachers graduating from the Normal School are traced. It is shown that second only to the influence on the public schools, the Normal School made its contribution to the changing role of women. It is argued that the real significance of teaching is in the ways that it advanced the economic, intellectual, and social status of women, and that the Normal School played such a role. The history of the Newark Normal School is examined from the beginnings within a Protestant stronghold--hostile to German, Irish, and black minorities--to the realization of the ideal of universality. Political controls are also discussed, particularly as they shifted from city to state as the school developed first into a teachers college and finally to the current multipurpose state college. Emphasis is on an analysis of the students at the institution, from Newark Normal School to Newark State College to Kean College. (LB)