While wandering through the recesses of history one occasionally stumbles upon relatively uncelebrated persons whose contributions to the quality of life and faith of a given population merit attention. Their insights and experience have paved the way for continuing developments in religious education. One such person is Josephine Van Dyke Brownson. In the Archdiocese of Detroit from 1906-1942 Josephine Brownson developed the Catholic Instruction League for the religious instruction of Catholic children attending public schools. Critical of the prevalent mode and content of religious instruction, by the time of her death she had written eleven books and had established seventy-five centers of instruction, enrolling fourteen thousand children.