NEWSLETTER

Society for the History of Children and Youth

Websightings

A Montessori Journey 1907-2007
and
 Short & Sweet: Two Centuries of American Childhood
Sean Martin, Western Reserve Historical Society

Two important exhibits on the history of children recently came straight to where I live, or, rather, work, at the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland, Ohio. So when I was asked to continue the SHCY Newsletter’s column on Websightings, I thought it would be interesting to combine the column with a museum review of the exhibits, including additional information about online resources. Currently on exhibit at WRHS until November 2008 is Short & Sweet: Two Centuries of American Childhood, in the Chisholm Halle Costume Wing (www.wrhs.org). Also on exhibit for a brief period last fall at WRHS was A Montessori Journey 1907-2007, a centenary exhibit sponsored by the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association (http://montessoricentenary.org/, http://www.montessori-namta.org/NAMTA/index.html). WRHS is a local historical society focusing on the history of northeastern Ohio, an area once known as the Western Reserve of Connecticut. Exhibits and activities at the society thus have a local flavor but also seek to highlight themes of relevance to those from beyond the region. Both Short & Sweet and A Montessori Journey demonstrate how local historical societies aim to teach the public about important issues in engaging and entertaining ways.
           
A Montessori Journey traveled to many other cities, including Toronto, Washington, DC, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. Much impressed me about this exhibit. Two routes, one historical, one contemporary, allow the visitor to both learn how Montessori developed in different countries and to see what the movement is achieving today. The exhibit is astonishingly comprehensive, with information on the development of Montessori in Italy, the United States, Australia, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, France and India. Additional countries are covered along the contemporary route. More than just informative panels and intriguing photographs, the exhibit also includes important artifacts, such as the furniture of the Vienna Haus der Kinder environment of the 1920s and 1930s and examples of the hands on learning materials used by Montessori in different cultures. The exhibit has now found a permanent home at the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota (www.mtcm.org).

Sponsored by the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association, the exhibit led me to the group’s website. While the site serves as the home for a professional association with its focus on resources for today’s teachers, the historian with an interest in Montessori is likely to find much of interest. Researchers will be most interested in the NAMTA Montessori Bibliography Online. This web-based database includes over 18,000 citations of sources in English related to Montessori from 1909 to the present. Researchers have access to the database for the relatively small fee of twenty dollars a year for the individual/non-member of NAMTA. The research section also includes additional downloads and bibliographies.

The Montessori Centenary site (www.montessoricentenary.org) includes links to information about the exhibit but also highlights the resources offered to celebrate the anniversary. These include reproductions of letters establishing the movement and two sections of historical photographs. One of those sections, under Social Reform, includes images of the movement in India, China, Nigeria, and Lithuania. These can be clicked through easily and are well worth viewing. The other section of photographs, under Montessori, then Montessori History, highlights those photographs used in a quilt made to celebrate the anniversary. The scope of the centenary celebration, not to mention the Montessori activities more generally, attests to the success and strength of the movement.

Short & Sweet: Two Centuries of American Childhood offers a rare opportunity for the student of history to see children’s dress and material culture on display. Handsomely arranged in a spacious, single room gallery, Short & Sweet shows concretely how views of children changed from 1740 on and pays special attention to evolving attitudes toward gender and class. Curated by Megan Spagnolo, the Curator of Costumes and Textiles at WRHS, the exhibit will be of special interest to scholars of the history of children and may encourage them to turn to local institutions in their own communities to find equally interesting artifacts.

Early 19th century children's clothing in Short and Sweet
Used with permission from Western Reserve Historical Society

Spagnolo chose to design the exhibit because children’s costume is one of the distinguishing features of the costume collection at WRHS. Due to the interest of earlier curators, a substantial number of children’s items were collected, over 1,200. Though these items are just a small percentage of the 40,000 costumes and textiles at WRHS, they offered Spagnolo many choices for display. Spagnolo aimed to present an overview of children’s dress, in an effort to show the range of the collection and to highlight specific themes.

The exhibit begins in 1740, comparing children’s clothing of the time to the clothing worn by adults. Progressing through the decades, one learns about the styles of garments used for christening ceremonies, the effect on children’s dress of children’s literature such as Little Lord Fauntleroy, the care of infants, the development of the use of pink for girls and blue for boys, and, finally, in the mid-twentieth century, about the effect of organized recreation on children’s dress. Another theme addressed is the influence of Queen Victoria and her family on the way women around the world dressed their children. Plaid tartans and sailor suits offer evidence of this influence.

Spagnolo especially appreciated the opportunity to show clothing worn by males. Because men’s clothing is not displayed as often because it varies less than women’s clothing, Spagnolo highlighted several dresses for young boys in the exhibit. In one case, a photograph from the Historical Society’s archives shows the donor wearing the dress. One of the advantages of the exhibit is that the visitor can see just how and when gender differences became increasingly marked.

Late 19th century boys' clothing in Short and Sweet
Used with permission from Western Reserve Historical Society

Complementing the exhibit are several artifacts, including a ca. 1920 child’s ice cream table meant to advertise Tellings ice cream and the Belle Vernon Dairy, a “Little Toidey” potty seat from 1944-1945, and a 1940s Sunny Suzy toy washing machine. While the WRHS website only includes basic information about Short & Sweet, the collections of the Historical Society can be searched in the online catalog, most easily reached by selecting “Search Collections” on the left at www.wrhs.org. Searches can be done by keyword and subject and combined with a search in the Historical Society’s Library and Archives.

Given the strength of these two exhibitions, the historian is well advised to consider the local historical society an important ally in the mission of promoting the history of children and youth.