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National-Louis University Archives and Special Collections
The National-Louis University Archives and Special Collections are currently being organized. More detailed descriptions will be provided as the materials are processed and made available to the public. Here you can learn about the historical background of National-Louis University as well as see examples of materials we have in our archives.
The Archives and Special Collections trace the development of National-Louis University from its origins in 1886 as Miss (Elizabeth) Harrison’s Training Class. Subsequently, the name was changed to the Chicago Kindergarten Training School (1887), Chicago Kindergarten College (1891), National Kindergarten College (1912), National Kindergarten and Elementary College (1917), National College of Education (1930), and, eventually, National-Louis University (1990).
Elizabeth Harrison and the Kindergarten Movement in Chicago For four decades, from 1880 to 1920, Elizabeth Harrison (1849-1927, the founder of the institution that today is known as National-Louis University) was a central figure in Chicago and, increasingly, nationally in the field of early childhood education. Born in Kentucky, raised in Iowa—a move necessitated by her father’s lack of success in business—and denied a college education after a stellar performance in high school—again due to her family’s financial difficulties as well as her poor health (chronic asthma and periodic bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia)—Harrison devoted much of her early adulthood to caring for her younger siblings, nieces and nephews.  | | Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) | In its early years, the kindergarten movement in the United States was guided by the philosophy and practice developed by the German Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) in the 1830s. Froebel’s Kindergarten—“Children's Garden”—merged the private (home) and public (school) worlds in an environment that would educate both children and their mothers through purposeful play with “gifts” (cloth balls, wooden blocks, etc.) and application of “occupations” (writing, drawing, painting, working with clay, etc.). Ironically, the first American kindergarten was begun in Wisconsin by a German immigrant, Margarethe Schurz, in 1855, four years after kindergartens were banned in Germany. As interpreted by his early adherents in the United States, Froebel’s educational philosophy emphasized the special qualifications of women, especially mothers, to be kindergarten teachers.  | | Elizabeth Harrison in the 1890's. | The kindergarten, initially, was conceived as autonomous, separate from the public school system and, thus, free from supervision by men. Marriage and motherhood, in fact, were an advantage in early childhood education, not the hindrance they were perceived to be (by men) to the effectiveness of (female) public school teachers. During the 19th Century, the view of early childhood education in the United States was transformed from that of necessary moral and religious discipline by parents to the nurturing of individuals’ qualities by professional educators. By the end of the century the kindergarten movement was at the center of debates over this “New Education.” It was into this educational ferment that the 30-year-old Elizabeth Harrison stepped in 1879. At the urging of a childhood friend, Harrison visited Chicago and enrolled in the Kindergarten Training School run by Alice H. Putnam, who opened the first (private) Kindergarten in Chicago in 1874, and in nine months Harrison received both a diploma and a certificate to train kindergarten teachers. In the following few years, Harrison attended Susan Blow’s Kindergarten School in St. Louis, the first public school kindergarten in the country (opened in 1873), and traveled to New York to study with Maria Boelte—who had lived and studied with the widow of Froebel—and with John Kraus, both of whom had also taught Susan Blow and Alice Putnam. Thus, within a few years of her introduction to the kindergarten, Harrison had studied with the pioneers of the movement in the United States. Upon her return to Chicago in 1883, Harrison cultivated her potential audience of teachers and mothers by organizing (with Alice Putnam) the Chicago Kindergarten Club, and three years later opened Miss Harrison’s Training Class for young teachers and mothers, which attracted more than 700 students. It is to this Training Class that National-Louis University traces its origins.  | Mrs. John N. (Rumah) Crouse
| When Harrison arrived in Chicago in 1879, there were a handful of kindergartens in the city, either private or affiliated with churches. In 1887, when Harrison opened the Chicago Kindergarten Training School, there were nearly 50 kindergartens (private, church, settlement house, and the first one in a public school) in the Chicago area. Five years later, in 1893, that number had again doubled, with Harrison’s students supervising instruction in half of them. Her partner was Mrs. John N. (Rumah) Crouse, wife of a prominent Chicago dentist, who managed the school’s finances, publicity, student recruitment, facilities and fund raising. Especially after Harrison’s 1890 visit to the Schrader Training School in Germany, directed by a niece of Froebel, where Harrison observed a regimented and repetitive application of Froebel’s principles, she and Crouse expanded the curriculum to include such social and cultural subjects as the sciences, literature, art, music, sociology and psychology. Reflecting this broad curricular program, the Kindergarten Club and the Training School sponsored annual Literary Schools, focusing on historical literary figures (followed in later years by a series of Psychology Schools focusing on topics of contemporary interest in the field of psychology), and the local press spread word of Harrison’s activities to a broader audience. In 1891, the Chicago Kindergarten Training School reorganized as the Chicago Kindergarten College, with the added requirement of a high school education for admission, and the following year it added a one-year postgraduate course. In subsequent years the School reorganized and changed its name several times: in 1906 it incorporated as a non-profit institution with a board of directors; in 1912, it affiliated with the National Kindergarten Association and became the National Kindergarten College; in 1917, it became the National Kindergarten and Elementary College, accredited to award bachelor’s degrees, which it remained until 1930, when the school adopted a four-year undergraduate curriculum and its name was changed to National College of Education. In 1990, with the articulation of separate Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Management & Business, in addition to the National College of Education, the name was changed to National-Louis University. Harrison also was a founding member of the International Kindergarten Union in 1892 and remained an influential member until her death in 1927. As the IKU evolved, Harrison assumed leadership of the “moderate” faction, situated between the “Conservative” adherents of a strict Froebelian method, represented by Susan Blow, and the younger “Liberals,” who allied themselves with the educational philosophy of John Dewey. The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago featured a kindergarten exhibition much expanded over that at the 1876 Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, including a demonstration kindergarten and other programs overseen by Harrison’s Training School and Kindergarten Club. The School also began publishing the Kindergarten Magazine, which contributed to Harrison's growing international reputation. In 1894, Harrison convened the first national Mothers’ Convention (forerunner of the PTA), which drew 1,200 attendees to Chicago. By 1900, there were more than 5,000 public school kindergartens in the United States and more than 200 kindergarten training schools. By the beginning of the 20th Century, Chicago Kindergarten College alumnae were represented on the faculty of Normal schools around the country, which were beginning to take the idea of the kindergarten seriously. Largely through Harrison’s efforts, the kindergarten became more widely viewed as a legitimate contribution to early childhood education rather than merely a form of child’s play, day care for the children of the wealthy or immigrants and the poor. At the same time, Harrison never lost sight of the social reform potential of childhood education, since many kindergartens were located in settlement houses and other institution that served immigrants and other underprivileged members of the population.  | National Kindergarten and Elementary College senior class, 1918
|  | Elizabeth Harrison and Edna Dean Baker, 1918
| In 1912 Harrison visited Rome to observe Maria Montessori’s school, and, after publication of her report in 1914 by the U.S. Bureau of Education, the College began to offer courses in Montessori’s method. Further, a Demonstration School for kindergarten and elementary school students opened in 1917-18 under the supervision of Clara Belle Baker (1885-1961), the sister of Edna Dean Baker (1883-1956), a 1913 graduate of the College and Harrison’s chosen successor. In 1920, following a heart attack, Harrison resigned the presidency of the College and was succeeded by Edna Baker. She spent the remaining years of her life in the southern United States until her death in San Antonio Texas, in 1927. The author of some 20 books on childhood and education, Harrison worked on her autobiography, Sketches Along Life’s Road, until her death, but it was published only posthumously in 1930.
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Archives Papers of Elizabeth Harrison (1849-1927), Founder and President 1886-1920 - Essays on education, the Kindergarten Movement, child psychology and classic literature;
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- Correspondence between Elizabeth Harrison and her friends,colleagues and students such as;
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- Notebooks and Journals;
- Drafts of published works, including the manuscript of her autobiography;
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- e.g. Sketches Along Life's Road manuscript p. 28, p. 29)
- Published and unpublished children's stories.
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Papers of Edna Dean Baker (1883-1956), President 1920-1949 - Correspondence;
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- Writings.
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Papers of Clara Belle Baker (1885-1961), founder of the Demonstration School (1917) - Correspondence.
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- Writings.
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Photograph Collection - N.L.U. students, faculty, administrators, buildings, classes, events and notable individuals in the Kindergarten and Early Childhood Education movement dating from the 1880’s such as Elizabeth Harrison and Edna Dean Baker.
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University Records - Course Catalogs, 1894 to the present;
- Annual Reports of the College/University, 1917 to the present;
- Faculty Organization, 1920 to the present;
- Faculty Handbooks;
- Financial Documents;
- Accreditation Documents, 1970s to the present;
- Planning, 1970s to the present.
Students - Registrar's Records, 1895-1900s;
- Scrapbooks, Journals and Workbooks, 1890s-1900s;
- Student Handbooks;
- Clubs related to the Kindergarten Movement and N.L.U.;
- Alumni Association Documents, 1905 to the present.
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Demonstration School Documents (1917- ) - Records on the creation and methods of the Demonstration School (later the Baker Demonstration School).
Publications Artifacts - Froebel Gifts;
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- Montessori educational toys;
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- Original Handiwork Workbooks and Scrapbooks dating from the late-19th century.
Special Collections Books Elizabeth Harrison Collection - Hundreds of books owned by Elizabeth Harrison, including literature, history, education and childhood development, many containing her personal notes on these works.
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President's Collection - The published works of past presidents of National-Louis University and its predecessor institutions.
Rare Educational Book Collection - Books on the kindergarten, education reform, and educational techniques dating from the mid-19th century such as;
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Education Journals from the 19th and early 20th Centuries Miscellaneous International Kindergarten Union
Contact Us
We've Moved
The Archives and Special Collections Department is now at the Chicago Campus
National-Louis University Library- Chicago Campus
122 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60603
Mark Burnette
Archives and Special Collections Librarian
312.261.3188
mburnette@nl.edu
Nat Wilson
Archives and Special Collections Assistant
312.261.3187
nathaniel.wilson@nl.edu
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Last modified on: 2008-09-19 10:49:38 by: Nat Wilson
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