Maria Vlier | |
|---|---|
| Born | Maria Louisa Elisabeth Vlier 19 March 1828 |
| Died | 8 June 1908 (aged 80) Paramaribo, Dutch colony of Suriname, Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch (Surinamese) |
| Occupation | teacher |
| Years active | 1848–1908 |
| Known for | publishing the first history textbook on Suriname |
| Notable work | Beknopte geschiedenis der kolonie Suriname (Brief history of the Suriname colony, 1863) |
Maria Vlier (19 March 1828 – 8 June 1908) was a Dutch Surinamese teacher who wrote the first history textbook focused on the history of Suriname. Born into an intellectual family who descended from slaves, Vlier was educated in the Netherlands and returned to Suriname to teach. Recognizing that students were being taught European history and had no knowledge of the history of their own homeland, she wrote the first textbook on the colony. The book won a silver medal at the International Colonial and Export Exhibition of 1883 and was one of the three most-used textbooks in the Surinamese education system until 1945.