Finding , Saving, and Relocating Dick, Jane, Alice, Jerry, Janet and John: Historical and Archival Collections in Education By Nancy P. O'Brien U niversity of I l l inois at U rbana-Champaign Abstract In summer, 2002, the Education Division of the Special Libraries Association held a panel presentation on "H istorical and Archival Collections in Education." From that session developed this article which d is­ cusses the need for finding aids, publicity, creative uses of the web, and collaborative ways to deal with these issues. Specific references to finding aids and web sites of interest to education historians and l i­ brarians, and brief descriptions of several special col lections of h istorical education materials are in­ cluded. Also highl ighted is a new service, an exchange registry, which offers institutions a way to place materials where they are most needed. The lack of visibil ity for collections of historical education materials is one of the most dishearten­ ing aspects for those that work with and try to de­ velop and promote these collections. Many others have addressed the need for these collections and the uses made of them. This paper discusses the need for finding aids, publicity, creative uses of the web, and collaborative ways to effect change. There are outstand ing col lections of research ma­ terials related to the history of American education scattered across the Un ited States. Gutman Li­ brary at Harvard University houses some unique reports from schools and academies from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example. Teachers College at Columbia University has unique textbook materials from other countries, as wel l as an excellent col lection of American text­ books . The Un iversity of Pittsburgh houses an exceptional collection of textbooks, with a strong emphasis on h istorical school books used in the Pennsylvania region . However, there are smaller places than the more obvious research l ibraries collecting historical schoolbooks and other related materials. For example, Miami University of Ohio houses a collection of McGuffey readers since McGuffey was affi l iated with that institution. The Un iversity of South Carolina houses a number of specialized materials, particularly those that relate to the Progressive era in education. And, even in the larger research institutions, surprising and special ized collections may be found. For exam­ ple, at the Un iversity of I l l inois, there is a collec­ tion of twenty-three primers from Argentina pub­ l ished during the Peron period. Entitled Peron­ Evita , these unique resources reflect the Peronist Education Libraries Volume 27, No. 2 Winter 2004 period, often include references to Evita as the spiritual leader of Argentina, and contain the sig­ nature of Juan Peron in one of the schoolbooks (Aibornoz de Videla, 1 953). What researcher would th ink to look for Evita on the prairie? Existing Sources With all of these examples, it becomes clear that better finding aids to the wealth of materials tucked away in special col lections, research l ibrar­ ies, and archives need to be made avai lable. While some resources exist, these are rather dated and not as comprehensive as is desirable. Three sources immediately come to mind to assist researchers and l ibrarians: the 1 988 Directory of Historical Curriculum Collections, published by an Ad hoc Subcommittee of the Education and Be­ havioral Sciences Section , Association of College and Libraries, American Library Association; the 1 995 International Guide for Research in the His­ tory of Education, published for the I nternational Standing Conference for the H istory of Education ; and the History of Education Museums and Col­ lections International Directory, published by the Blackwell History of Education Research Collec­ tion at Northern I l l inois University in 1 993/1 994. Clearly these print resources are all rather dated. However, efforts are underway to update at least two of these sources, and there is surprisingly l im ited overlap among these three items. The In­ ternational Guide for Research in the History of Education is now available as a searchable web database, accord ing to the organ ization's web site. The web version is comparable to the print version of the second edition that offers access to a number of special ized collections of education 1 9 resources, particularly in the European area . The rather outdated Directory of Historical Curriculum Collections is in the process of being updated by another Ad hoc committee within the Educatio"n and Behavioral Sciences Section of the Associa­ tion of College and Research Libraries. The new guide wil l focus on collections of historical text­ book and curriculum collections in the United States and Canada, however, rather than on spe­ cial ized collections of school reports, college cata­ logs, or other materials that may also be useful to education historians. Another option to improve access to such specialized materials might be to participate in the International Guide's searchable database by submitting information for U .S . insti­ tutions which is sadly lacking , as is coverage of the African nations. Encourag ing researchers to identify sites for this database would be a valuable collaborative effort. The History of Education Museums and Collec­ tions International Directory has been erratic in its publication, and is un likely to be updated at any time soon , according to the publisher. However, the most recent edition does contain some unique features, such as a l ist of American country schools, taken from Andrew Gul l iford's America 's Country Schools, now in its third ed ition ( 1 996) . The advantages of having this type of information included in a d i rectory are numerous for the re­ searcher. The History of Education Museums and Collections guide is international in scope, but l ike others, the coverage is primarily European with three Latin American countries and Australia thrown in for balance. The bulk of this directory covers the United States, of course, and provides information about museums and special collec­ tions that contain materials of interest to education historians. The list of American country schools and one room schoolhouses adds value to this resource. World Wide Web Access One of the most exciting recent developments i n being able to locate historical materials i s access provided through the World Wide Web. Such web sites often need better organization , though, since they tend to jumble categories of materials to­ gether and require constant l inking to sites to de­ termine whether an item is a primary source or a list of other resources. That lack of organizational focus is why efforts to update existing directories are sti l l val id . Education Libraries Volume 27, No. 2 Winter 2004 The web offers a variety of options that did not previously exist for promoting or l isting resources for an international audience of researchers. For example, actual ful l-text images from nineteenth century schoolbooks have been digitized and made avai lable on the web by the Un iversity of Pittsburgh's Library system. One hundred forty textbooks have been digitized , as well as John N ietz's 1 96 1 and 1 966 surveys of American schoolbooks (http://dig ita l . l ibrary.pitt.edu/nietz/). This rich resource for historians provides access to materials without the necessity of travel . Even so, there are advantages to having access to the actual artifact. For example, a health and hygiene schoolbook (Smith , 1 884) found in the dig itized collection, while faithful ly scanned in , does not contain the homely touches that the artifact may have. Pittsburgh's digitized version of Smith's book does not include images of the book cover. The Library at the Un iversity of I l l inois at Urbana­ Champaign holds not only the 1 884 book, but the author's primer on the same topic (Smith , 1 885). The University of I l l inois copy of the primer has been carefully covered in a hand-stitched fabric cover, presumably to hide the title as the student walked back and forth from school at the end of the nineteenth century. With contents that address issues such as smoking , alcohol , and other "un­ clean" habits, a nineteenth century student might justifiably hide the title of this provocative primer. Despite the wonders of the web, these touches may be lost unless researchers demand consis­ tency in the preservation and digitization of such items. Many of the larger research col lections, such as Harvard University and Teachers Col lege at Co­ lumbia Un iversity provide information on the web about their historical collections. At the Harvard site, one can find information about the historical textbook collection as well as public school re­ ports, private school catalogs, and teacher train­ ing programs, with images from the col lection to tantalize the researcher (http://www.gse.harvard . edu/l ibrary/collections/sc_textbooks). Teachers College offers a text summary of their extensive special collections in the history of education that contain materials dating from the fifteenth century, American textbooks published before 1 900, and international education textbooks (http://www.tc. columbia. edu/a&h/h istory-ed/h b-collections. htm). Other locations of textbooks are not as easily searchable on the web. For example, the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago houses 72,000 schoolbooks from the eighteenth through the 20 twentieth centuries, but none of these is cataloged or accessible by searchable databases at this time. Ful ly half of the 56,000 textbooks in U niver­ sity of I l l inois Library col lection are uncataloged due to resource shortages. However, l ike most research institutions, the cataloged segment of the collection is searchable through the onl ine catalog to anyone worldwide (http://wwwcrl . uchi­ cago.edu/contentltextbooks). Borrowing of mate­ rials through interlibrary loan is often possible for these items. Researchers seeking information may find their efforts facil itated by web sites of specific interest to education h istorians. For example, the Text­ book Colloquium in the United Kingdom has not only a web page with papers from relevant con­ ferences on it (http://www.open .ac.uk/OU/Aca demic/Arts/TEXTCOLL), but also a print publ ica­ tion, Paradigm, that addresses history of educa­ tion topics. Back issues of Paradigm are also available on the web, and include articles and es­ says that are international in scope (http://faculty.ed .u iuc.edu/westbury/paradigm/). Many other professional associations also have web sites , some containing content and l inks to research materials. With al l of these wonderfu l resources avai lable, many of them l isted on the web, questions sti l l arise regarding location·, ac­ cessibi l ity and content of these collections. Those questions can be answered by the forthcoming directories, or by other collaborative efforts. One collaborative effort that d rew together educa­ tion stakeholders was the National Education Network (NEN). This outreach organization was affil iated with the National Library of Education and had as its mission to "to preserve the educa­ tion past, connect the education present, and shape the education future by provid ing and sup­ porting comprehensive access to education infor­ mation." While this organization is currently transi­ tioning to one that is less dependent on the Na­ tional Library of Education, it still has web sites sponsored at Harvard and Syracuse universities that provide useful information to current practitio­ ners as well as education historians. One of the services offered through this web site is an Edu­ cation Materials Exchange Registry. Basically, this is an eBay® type of web site, al lowing institutions to l ist materials that they would l ike to offer to other institutions, or that they would l ike to add to thei r collections. For those people familiar with similar l ibrary l istings, this is a "needs and offers" l ist. The purpose of this registry is to allow for the placement and preservation of education materi- Education Libraries Volume 27, No. 2 Winter 2004 als rather than having them sent to the nearest landfi l l . Promotion of this web site to education l ibrarians, arch ivists, historians and others wil l help preserve education materials so that they are not lost as have been so many other historical items. Publicizing Sources One way to publ icize special collections of educa­ tion materials is for institutions to provide easily searchable descriptions on the web, using terms l ikely to be picked up by various search engines. Another publ icity mechanism is developing exhib­ its and d istributing information about them. Ac­ companying these exhibits with a graphical ly ap­ peal ing web site offers further access to the col­ lections as wel l as publ icity. Another way to pro­ mote collections is to host speakers at institutions with significant collections or develop workshops or conferences related to these resources. Nos­ talgia for childhood readers may draw some of the audience but the wealth of resources will be sure to impress them and l inger in their memories. Knowing about these special collections wil l en­ courage audience members to discuss them and share that knowledge with others. While the amount of work involved in identifying education history collections, promoting their availabi l ity, and preserving the content may seem overwhelming, these are important activities. Un less a beginning is made now, more and more of these materials wil l be lost to deterioration, dis­ posal due to lack of space, or simple lack of knowledge about which institutions would be happy to accept a donation of these types of ma­ terials. Most of the major research institutions wil l g lad ly accept donations of older education materi­ als that are un ique and do not dupl icate their ex­ isting holdings. The NEN exchange registry wil l help to identify good homes for needy books and reports. As our most popular characters from school readers would testify, there is an invalu­ able social and historical content stored in the pages of schoolbooks and other education re­ sources. So, in the words of Dick and Jane (New Basic Readers), Alice and Jerry ( The Alice and Jerry basic reading program), and Janet and John (the British version of Alice and Jerry repackaged for d istribution to the Empire), "F ind books! See books to save! Save books, please!" 21 Notes Miami University of Ohio has a brief description of the Wil l iam Holmes McGuffey schoolbooks col lec­ tion of 336 items and a searchable database at: http://www . l ib .muohio.edu/l ibinfo/depts/spec/ (Ac­ cessed March 31 , 2005); information about the McGuffey papers and museum may be found at: http://www . l ib .muohio.edu/mcguffey/. The Museum of Education , University of South Carol ina, Columbia, includes information about educational l ife in South Carol ina as well as na­ tional trends in curricu lum, primarily in a Progres­ sive trad ition , at the Museum and its Web site: http://www .ed.sc.edu/MusofEd/index.htm. Dick and Jane are characters from The New basic readers by Wil l iam S. Gray and others. The 1 954 edition was publ ished in Chicago by Scott, Foresman and Co. · Many other editions were pub­ l ished. Alice and Jerry were featured in The Alice and Jerry books by Mabel O'Donnell . Beginn ing in the 1930s, many editions were published in Evanston, I l l i nois by Row, Peterson , and Com­ pany, and their various successors. Janet and John were actual ly the Anglicized version of Alice and Jerry. Originally published by Row Peterson and Company for author Mabel O'Donnel l; the British publ isher, James Nisbet and Company, repackaged the series and publ ished it in London as the Janet and John books. References Albornoz de Videla, G. ( 1 953) . Evita: Libra de Lectura Para Primer Grado Inferior. Buenos Aires: Edit. L. Lasserre. Gaspard , P. ( 1 995) . International Guide for Re­ search in the History of Education. (2nd ed.) Paris : lnstitut National de Recherche Peda­ gog ique; Bern: P. Lang. A database of up­ dated information available at the Web site of the institution: http://bdd. inrp.fr:8080/mgi/gb_ MultiWelcome.html . History of Education Museums and Collections International Directory ( 1 993/1 994). Dekalb, IL: Blackwell H istory of Education Research Collection, Northern I l l inois University. Infor­ mation about the publisher may be found at: http://www . cedu.n iu .edu/blackwel l/. Directory of Historical Curriculum Collections. ( 1 988). Compiled by the Ad hoc Subcommit­ tee on H istorical Curriculum Collections, Edu­ cation and Behavioral Sciences Section , As- Education Libraries Volume 27, No. 2 Winter 2004 sociation of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association . Chicago: The Association . Also available as ERIC Docu­ ment No. ED31 3045. Gul l iford , A. ( 1 996) America 's Country Schools. (3rd ed.) Niwot, CO: Un iversity Press of Colo­ rado. N ietz, J. (1 961 ). Old Textbooks: Spelling, Gram­ mar, Reading, Arithmetic, Geography, Ameri­ can History, Civil Government, Physiology, Penmanship, Art, Music, as Taught in the Common Schools from Colonial Days to 1900. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press. N ietz, J. (1 966). The Evolution of American Sec­ ondary School Textbooks; Rhetoric & Litera­ ture, Algebra, Geometry, Natural History (Zo­ ology), Botany, Natural Philosophy (Physics), Chemistry, Latin And Greek, French, German & World History as Taught in American Latin Grammar School Academies and Early High Schools before 1900. Rutland , VT: C. E. Tut­ tle. Smith, W.T. (1 884). The Human Body and Its Health; A Text-Book for Schools, Having Spe­ cial Reference to the Effects of Stimulants and Narcotics on the Human System. New York: lvison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co. Smith, W.T. (1885) . Primer of Physiology and Hy­ giene: A Text-Book For Primary Classes: With Special Reference to the Effects of Stimulants and Narcotics on the Human System. New York: American Book Co. Nancy P. O'Brien is Head, Education & Social Science Library, University of I l l inois at Urbana­ Champaign, E-mai l : npobrien@uiuc.edu 22