The concept of Kindergarten was developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), a student of Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Froebel’s German kindergartens encouraged children to enjoy natural studies, music, stories, play with manipulative learning toys. He recommended teachers use geometric shapes and crafts for teaching and advocated the use of ‘gifts’ or playthings in the form of geometric shapes to promote learning and occupations or activities. Froebel also incorporated learning through expression, systematized play and social imitation. The first kindergarten opened in Germany in 1837; the first in the US was opened by Margarethe Schurz to a German speaking community in Wisconsin in 1856. In 1860, Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English speaking kindergarten in Boston. Over time, kindergarten was introduced into public schools with the changed purpose of providing an early academic foundation for 5 and 6-year old children preparing for 1st grade.
This cherry wood box at one time contained the fourth “gift” in the series manufactured by the Milton Bradley Company. The container is a small, square varnished cherry wood box with a removable sliding top and a slightly faded dark blue label on one side. This box however is missing all its wood blocks. They may have been put away after play in the enlarged Gift 6 box which appears to have more than it should of this size blocks.
Milton Bradley Company was established in 1860 by Milton Bradley (1836-1911). A mechanical draughtsman and patent agent interested in lithography, board games and puzzles, Milton Bradley became interested in the kindergarten movement after he attended a lecture by Elizabeth Peabody in 1869. Elizabeth and her sister Mary, who was by then the widow of educator Horace Mann, were devoted to promoting Froebel’s philosophy of creative play for pre-school children and helped spread of the Kindergarten Movement to America’s cities. These “gift boxes” are examples of school equipment made by Milton Bradley sometime between 1880 to 1900 for use in kindergartens. Milton Bradley produced educational materials free of charge for the kindergartens in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts and was committed to developing kindergarten educational materials such as these gifts, colored papers and paints.
What To Do At Recess is designed for use by teachers of the primary grades. It suggests a variety of games, folk dances, and activities for students to do during recess. Several black and white period illustrations are included. The book is maroon with white lettering on the cover and is 33 pages long. The inside front cover page is stamped Fairport Public Schools, which are located in Monroe County, New York.
George Ellsworth Johnson (1881-1931) was an educator and a pioneer in the American playground movement. Johnson believed that play has an important role in the moral education of children. He argued that democratic ideals and civic virtue are better learned through play. Johnson believed in equal rights and opportunities for girls and women in sports and play. He was the first faculty member in the Play and Recreation program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. He previously served as the Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Playground Association. He also wrote Education by Plays and Games.
Edwin Ginn founded the publishing company Ginn Brothers in the City of Boston in 1867. The firm was reorganized under the name Ginn & Company in 1885 and became particularly known for its school texts. In 1895, the company built a new publishing factory, the Athenaeum Press, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ginn & Company continued to be a successful publisher of educational texts for 70 years.
Despite disruption resulting from the suspension from Central High School and the later closure of all of Little Rock’s public schools to avoid integration, Minnijean Brown graduated on schedule in 1959 from New Lincoln School in New York City. New Lincoln School was a private, integrated school from 1948-1988, known for its progressive educational methods. While Minnijean had to move away from home to complete high school after the expulsion, the students remaining at Central High School and other public Little Rock schools had their formal education disrupted during the 1958-59 school year while several politicians fought unsuccessfully to prevent school desegregation by closing public schools.
This tea length white dress has a sheer white flocked floral pattern layer over a plain white underdress. The short sleeves are sheer, the skirt full, and the bodice fitted with a zipper and buttons on the back. Minnijean designed this dress herself, specifically for her graduation and gave her sketches to her sponsor, Mamie Phipps Clark. The dress was made by a local NY seamstress employed by Mamie Clark and presented as a graduation gift to Minnijean. According to Minnijean, the dress fit perfectly and helped boost her confidence; her graduation photograph was published by several New York papers.
Before compulsory attendance was mandatory, this attendance certificate was awarded to Miss Elizabeth Grant Davidson in 1844 while she was in the second grade. It was presented by her principal, Lydia Scudder English. While some other schools presented awards for academic achievement or to promote self esteem, this type of award was discontinued in the mid 1830’s at Female Seminary of Georgetown. Miss Lydia felt punctuality was as importance as attendance and addressed parents of students late for roll call. To encourage good behavior she presented students with "Rewards of Merit." Rewards of Merit can take the form of certificates, medals, ribbons, booklets and other ephemera that. Certificates were hand done in watercolors or lithographed. The student's name and the name of the presenter would be filled in by hand, much like a modern computer generates award on certificate paper. This certificate of merit depicts a parchment scroll surrounded by a decorative floral motif
Elizabeth Grant Davidson, born September 1829, was the daughter of Lewis Grant Davidson. She attended Miss Lydia's Female Seminary in Georgetown as a girl and married Charles Dodge on June 12, 1849. They had one daughter, Anne Woodruff Dodge, in 1851; daughter Anna would later married Admiral Lawrence Boggs. Elizabeth died April 11, 1892 in New York City. Both Elizabeth and her head mistress Miss Lydia are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Miss Lydia Scudder English was the founder and principal of the Female Seminary in Georgetown from Feb 1826-Summer 1861. It was also known as Miss English's Georgetown Female Seminary, and locally as Miss Lydia's Boarding School. The school began with three pupils but was boarding girls by 1831. A brochure advertised a curriculum that would provide "mental and moral culture necessary" for the girls to become "amiable, intelligent, and useful members of society." The 3 story seminary contained 19 bedrooms, a library, several parlors, and porches on the wings. It even had running hot water and at capacity boarded about 140 girls, many from the South. Locally, many Washington families also sent their girls to this school. It was not unusual for Southern girls to be boarded in Northern schools prior to the Civil War, and as Miss Lydia was pro-Confederate and a slave owner, this school was particularly popular with Southern families. Miss Lydia retired from actively teaching in 1852 but continued as an administrator. Given her secessionist sentiments, it was not surprising that after the First Battle of Bull Run, the Union Army confiscated the seminary and turned it into a Union hospital for officers. It was called Seminary Hospital.
In addition to letters, diaries, journals, scrapbooks and "Rewards of Merit," eighteenth century school girls, unlike their male counterparts, also left behind embroidered pictures, needlework samplers, and other artistic endeavors. Many of these can be found within the division's textile collections. Two of these may have been produced at Miss Lydia's school. Samplers by Mary Margaret Meem (2004.0246.01) and Elizabeth Orme (T.07319) depict similar cornucopia's and both girls were known to be students at the school about the time the samplers were worked.
The Clemens Silent Teacher is an example of a geography teaching tool from the late 19th Century. It is a “dissected map” or in modern language, a jigsaw puzzle. Dissected maps were one of the earliest types of educational tools for children. These puzzles were introduced from Europe in the late 18th Century. They were hand painted, hand cut, and expensive. Increased industrialization by the 1850’s resulted in tools for cutting thinner sheets of wood and plywood. Lithography and later chromolithography helped lower the cost of printing. Puzzles, became affordable as manipulatives, made a good tool for younger child. They were promoted for use in the growing number of kindergartens.
The Silent Teacher was a popular puzzle map; we have a much earlier version in the collection that was produced by a different owner of the company. When Reverend Erastus J. Clemens (1848-1896) from Clayville, N.Y. bought the company (ca. 1880), he changed the marketing to feature an eye catching, though offensive, lithograph on the box. The inside seriously promotes these toys for their educational value and includes what amounts to a pyramid scheme involving incentives for children selling these puzzles. In addition to this series of state maps, and a US map, he expanded his line to include spelling and arithmetic products.
These puzzles also include a pictorial advertisement on the reverse side. Sherman Williams Paints was the advertiser when Reverend Clemens was in charge of the company but after his death his wife took over and she appears to have made a deal with Singer Sewing Machines. Inside of the box lid, in addition to a list of other educational games the company sold, there is also a pitch for children to become part of a pyramid sales scheme with the incentive that they would receive more puzzles free if they had their friends sell so many.
This puzzle is a lesson on the late 19th/early 20th Centuries perception of world cultures and a prelude to the ethnography exhibits at the 1892 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The cover image is blatantly offensive for its stereotypical caricatures of various ethnic groups. Figures personify their homelands through exaggerated dress -or undress as in the case of an African nation. A strange feminine child Uncle Sam, sans trousers, is in the center, handing out puzzle maps. From 1880-1920s, these unkind depictions of ethnicity and cultural were all too common and examples of Jim Crow. Demeaning imagery on so called educational tools and games resulted in daily insults and pain for many students, while providing inaccurate information about other cultures. It helped to fuel fear that immigrants would disrupt the status quo. Unfortunately, with only a few exceptions, publishers didn’t begin to make diversely inclusive materials available until after the Civil Rights movement was well under way in the mid 1960’s and with replacement budgets often low, updated materials didn’t begin to arrive to some schools until the 1980’s- a full century after this puzzle was first made.
The concept of Kindergarten was developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, the nineteenth century. Froebel’s German kindergartens encouraged children to enjoy natural studies, music, stories, play with manipulative learning toys. He recommended teachers use geometric shapes and crafts for teaching and advocated the use of ‘gifts’ or playthings in the form of geometric shapes to promote learning and occupations or activities. Froebel also incorporated learning through expression, systematized play and social imitation. The first kindergarten opened in Germany in 1837; the first in the US was opened by Margarethe Schurz to a German speaking community in Wisconsin in 1856. In 1860, Elizabeth Peabody had opened the first English speaking kindergarten in Boston. Over time, kindergarten was introduced into public schools with the changed purpose of providing an early academic foundation for 5 and 6-year old children preparing for 1st grade.
This kindergarten activity kit is titled “Froebel’s Kindergarten Occupations for the Family” and can be found in E. Steiger's Kindergarten Catalogue from 1900. The box is made of a thin cardboard with a think paper glued to the outside of it, blue dots design on the paper, in the middle of the front is 4 scenes, 2 thin red lines go around the sheet in the middle, the top left scene is a little boy, sitting on a chair at a desk who is writing, upper right is a girl in a red dress, blonde hair, red bow on the top of her head, gray bow at her neck, Sitting at a desk, drawing; lower left, little girl with brown hair, red bow on the side of her head, wearing a red and white striped shirt underneath a brown jacket with a frilled white collar and a little red bow, she is looking at a piece of paper; little boy in the lower right corner, blonde hair, wearing a dark red shirt, drawing on a stencil or piece of paper, also sitting in a chair at a desk. The middle has “Froebel’s” in half black and half yellow colors, “Kindergarten” in a light red color, “Occupations” in a half red and a half gray color, “for the family” is in black. Inside the box there are embroidery cards with patterns and blank embroidery cards so one could design their own. There is little piece of graph paper, stencils to use, little brown booklet of different activities for boys and girls that is in the box, there are samples of embroidery too.
E. Steiger & Co. was founded by German immigrant Ernst Steiger (October 4, 1832 - August 2, 1917), in 1864 in New York City. The company published texts for German-Americans, and Education Directory from the 1870’s, and produced kindergarten materials beginning in the early 1890’s. They competed with Milton Bradley but also produced their own version of wax crayons and Prang art materials.
The New Portable Terrestrial Globe, is a collapsible globe of innovative design. It was compiled from "the latest authorities" by John Betts of 115 Strand in London. John Betts (fl. 1844-1875) was a British publisher, globe, map maker, and engraver. He worked at 7 Compton Street Brunswick Sq. from 1839-1846, and at 115 Strand after 1846 and produced educational materials. Betts was noted for patenting cloth collapsible globes that open like an umbrella. After his death in London his globes were published by George Philip & Son, Ltd until the 1920’s. They were sold in the U.S. by the Boston School Supply Co. 15 Broomfield St, Boston.
This globe was published after 1863 by George Philip & Son, Ltd. Eight coloured lithographed sections are printed on linen and stitched over a black japanned umbrella-type frame with brass coloured caps. This type of globe would have been more economical for shipping and was a space saver from the more traditional stationery globe.
Hornbooks were used in the 17th and 18th centuries to teach basic reading and prayer to the young child. They were usually a child's first reading material. The lesson on the hornbook begins with the symbol of the cross followed by letters of the alphabet, vowel and letter combinations for sounding out syllables, and ends with the Lord's Prayer. A child would begin the lesson with a prayer or benediction with the teacher and read or recite the hornbook out loud. Once mastered, the child would then move on to a primer. Hornbooks were very small; this one is only a little over 4 inches. A thin piece of transparent horn protectively covers the printed paper which is fastened to a piece of wood in the shape of a butter paddle. Often a leather thong is tied to the handle to prevent the child from losing the hornbook. Most hornbooks were imported and many had decorative backs or gilding.
This is a set of five framed prints teach grammar with the aid of hand colored color illustrations probably by Asaph Willard of New Haven, Ct circa 1826. These are leaves or one sided pages from a children's chapbook: "The Paths of Learning Strewed with Flowers or English Grammar" that were cut and mounted on a heavier paper or cards. They were designed for primary age schooling and used to instruct and entertain as a type of home made early flash card set.
The American Antiquarian Society has an uncut sheet with all 14 images as well as a cut set that was mounted on board. They also have sets by 3 other authors: Solomon King, 1825 N.Y.; Fielding Lucas Jr., 1825 Baltimore; and Henry Benton, Hartford 183 indicating the popularity of this teaching tool. The original was published in London in 1820 by John Harris and Son and was included in a series of children's books and cards known as Harris's Cabinet of Amusements and Instruction. These have been framed in dark wood frames that have been painted gold and have a red velvet trim around the border.
The first print is entitled “Adverbs” and is illustrated with an image of a young girl sewing in a garden. It provides a definition of the word and gives examples of how adverbs are used in sentences. The remaining four prints provide similar lessons in the principles of grammar.
The “Articles” print contains an illustration of an apple and a cow.
The “Article” print depicts a boy presenting a bird cage holding a pigeon to a girl, while another pigeon flies overhead.
The “Participles” print shows three young boys playing soldier and marching holding a toy sword, a toy gun, and a flag.
The “Verb” print contains an illustration of a boy riding a white horse.
Asaph Willard, artist, illustrator, publisher, and engraver was born December 24, 1786 in Wethersfield, Connecticut. After studying engraving with Abner Reed, he worked as a copperplate, steel, and wood engraver from 1799 and did business in Hartford, Ct and .Albany, NY. He was a member of the Hartford Graphic and Bank Note Engraving Company and died in Hartford July 14,1880
This Educational card game from 1970 consists of thirty-six plastic cards and a game guide or "Quiz Game" pamphlet in a two-piece cardboard box. The cards each have a black and white drawing of a notable individual and a brief biography contained on the back of each card. The guide claims that the card game was designed to enhance student learning and promote a broader awareness of the contributions of Black Americans throughout America's past.
The cards feature: Richard Allen, Marian Anderson, Crispus Attucks, James Baldwin, Benjamin Banneker, James Beckwourth, Mary McLeod Bethune, Edward William Brooke, Ralph Bunche, George Washington Carver, Shirley Chisholm, Paul Cuffe, Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Frederick Douglass, Dr. Charles Drew, W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, John Hope Franklin, Prince Hall, W.C. Handy, Matthew Henson, Langston Hughes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis Latimer, Thurgood Marshall, Jan Matzeliger, Norbert Rillieux, Carl T. Rowan, Robert Smalls, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Robert C. Weaver, Phillis Wheatley, Daniel Hale Williams, Granville Woods.
This card set was produced by Edu-Cards, a division of Binney and Smith, Inc., known for Crayola Crayons. Edu-Cards were originally produced by the Ed-U-Cards Company and founded about 1946 in Long Island City, New York to produce flash cards in a variety of subjects for Baby Boomers. In addition to math and reading, cards were produced for subjects like geography (states), music, science like chemistry, animals, spotter cards of plants, sea shells, and trees, and biographies of famous people. Licensed character cards were produced and used in lotto and matching games. The company was bought out by Binney and Smith in 1959 and the spelling of the product name was changed to Edu-Cards by 1963 though the packaging took a few years to change on all products. Binney and Smith is owned by Hallmark.