Descriptive Summary |
|
| Creator: | Modern School |
| Title: | Modern School Collection |
| Dates: | Circa 1880 to 2011, bulk 1912 to 1971 |
| Quantity: | 24 cubic feet (33 manuscript boxes (three are restricted), eight photo boxes, one newspaper box and six phaseboxes) |
| Abstract: | The collection has essentially two parts: the official records of the Modern School of Stelton, New Jersey, and items donated to the collection by the students and teachers of the Modern School and residents of the Stelton Colony. At the reunion of the Friends of the Modern School, held every year since 1973, items are donated. |
| Collection No.: | MC 1055 |
| Language: | English, Yiddish, and Spanish |
| Repository: | Rutgers University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives |
Background
The Modern School at Stelton, New Jersey, was a child of the early twentieth century anarchist and libertarian education movements. It was inspired by the example of Spanish anarchist Francisco Ferrer (1859-1909) who had established "modern" or progressive schools in Spain in defiance of an educational system controlled by the church. Fiercely anti-clerical, he believed in "freedom in education," education free from the authority of church and state. Ferrer founded the first Modern School, the Escuela Moderna in Barcelona, in 1901. The school was very successful, and soon branches were started throughout Spain. The Escuela Moderna, which also encompassed an adult education center and radical publishing house, was closed in 1906 when Ferrer was implicated in a plot to assassinate the King of Spain. In October 1909, Ferrer was tried and executed, accused of masterminding the events of the "Tragic Week," July 26 to August 1, 1909, when a workers' protest in Barcelona developed into open rebellion, resulting in the desecration and burning of numerous churches and convents. (1)
Activities in New York
Ferrer's death sparked an international outcry. Anarchists in New York, led by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, founded the Francisco Ferrer Association in 1910 "to perpetuate the work and memory of Francisco Ferrer." (2) Anarchist leader and printer Harry Kelly became chairman and Leonard Abbott, associate editor of Current Literature, was elected president. The Association had a threefold purpose: to publish and disseminate Ferrer's works, to organize memorial meetings on the first anniversary of his death, and to establish Modern Schools in cities throughout the country to be administered by local branches of the Ferrer Association.
The Ferrer Center and Modern School in New York opened its doors in January 1911 in St. Mark's Place in Greenwich Village. Its first principal was former Columbia English instructor Bayard Boyesen. The premises could only accommodate an adult school, so after a fund-raising drive, the center moved to a building on East 12th Street, which was big enough to house a day school. The school began with nine pupils, including Margaret Sanger's son Stuart. In 1912 the youthful Will Durant, later a well-known writer and popularizer of philosophy, took over the school. Under Durant, the Modern School became one of the most important centers of the Radical movement in New York. The adult classes thrived; students flocked to art classes conducted by Robert Henri and George Bellows, originators of the realist Ashcan School, who counted among their students several artists who would later become famous such as Man Ray, Max Weber and John Sloan. Communist writer Mike Gold and best-selling novelist and short story writer Manuel Komroff were also associated with the school, as were poets Lola Ridge and Edwin Markham; Durant himself lectured on the history of philosophy. Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Margaret Sanger, writers Jack London, Lincoln Steffens and Upton Sinclair and labor activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn delivered individual lectures at the center. (3)
The Day School was also fairly successful, although few radical families lived within walking distance of the East 12th Street location. In the summer of 1912, the school moved yet again to 107th Street in Harlem, where Durant soon had sixteen students. It was here that Durant met and fell in love with Ida Kaufman, a fourteen-year old student who would become his wife and collaborator Ariel Durant. The couple left to marry in 1915, and Cora Bennett Stephenson took over as principal. Under her tenure, a summer school and kindergarten were introduced, and the school had visitors from Switzerland and Germany to observe its methods.
The Move to New Jersey
In July 1914, a chain of events began which led to the school's ultimate removal from New York to Stelton, New Jersey. In that year a bomb went off in an apartment building a few blocks away from the Modern School. Three men, all of whom were regular visitors to the adult center, were killed by a bomb which was apparently meant for Standard Oil Chairman John D. Rockefeller's estate in Tarrytown, New York. The incident led to increasing politicization of the center, compounded by the infiltration of meetings by police informers, and the withdrawal of some financial support. Believing the increasingly fraught atmosphere was bad for the children, plans were made to move the day school to Stelton, New Jersey, about 30 miles from New York. The Ferrer Center in New York lasted until 1918.
After choosing the site, Harry Kelly, Leonard Abbott and cigar-maker and anarchist Joseph Cohen formed the Ferrer Colony Association to purchase land, which they resold to prospective colonists in small plots. The site comprised 68 acres of land, including an old farmhouse and barn. By 1919, about 100 families, of whom between twenty and thirty were year-round residents, owned land at Stelton. (The colony and school actually were located in eastern Piscataway Township, near the Raritan--now Edison--Township community of Stelton, with which they have always been identified). The people who settled in the Ferrer Colony came from diverse ethnic backgrounds; Laurence Veysey notes that the colony was unique in that it brought together college-educated native born Americans, immigrants, intellectuals, and working men in an attempt to build a new society. (4)
Although three quarters of the colonists were from an Eastern European Jewish background, the Modern School and Ferrer Colony were non-sectarian and most of the settlers did not identify strongly with their Jewish faith. Many colonists supported themselves by continuing to commute to the garment district in New York; in addition, all the land in the colony was individually owned and cultivated for profit, which was not inconsistent with anarchist philosophy. The community was also noteworthy for the settlers' commitment to sexual and racial equality. Many couples lived together without being married, and children were cared for communally during the day. Living conditions in the early years were primitive: the first summer residents lived in tents or chicken coops while they built their own homes. They had no electricity, central heating or indoor plumbing.
Education in the Early Years
In its first year at Stelton, the Modern School had no less than four principals: Bobby and Deedee Hutchinson, who left after a few months to start their own school in Stony Ford, New York; Henry T. Schnittkind, a Harvard Ph.D. who also departed because his wife could not adjust to living conditions in Stelton; and Abe Grosner from the Philadelphia Modern School who served as acting principal until William Thurston Brown was appointed in the spring of 1916. Under Brown, a minister and socialist who had already founded several Modern Schools throughout the country, the school at Stelton prospered. Like the school in New York, attendance was voluntary, there was no discipline, punishment, or formal curriculum. As well as learning from books, the students participated in outdoor activities and made handicrafts. Hungarian-born painter Hugo Gellert conducted art classes and master printer and anarchist Joseph Ishill taught the children printing.
In addition to the students who lived with their parents in the colony, thirty to forty children boarded at the Modern School. The farmhouse was converted into a boarding house, next to which was built an open-air dormitory, which was icy cold in winter. Margaret Sanger's daughter Peggy contracted pneumonia while at the boarding house, and had to be removed to a hospital in New York where she died. Conditions improved, however, after of the arrival of Jim and Nellie Dick in the spring of 1917. The Dicks had been active in the anarchist and labor movements in their native England, where they had both started Modern Schools. Jim and Nellie cleaned and reorganized the boarding house, which they rechristened the Living House. Nellie imposed some discipline on the children who had been running wild; as she said later "freedom without responsibility doesn't go." (5) In 1920, a new school building was erected. The Dicks ran the Living House until 1924, when they left for similar posts at the Modern School in Mohegan, New York, which had been founded by Harry Kelly the previous year.
The early 1920s were the most fruitful period in the Modern School's existence. Under Elizabeth and Alexis Ferm, who had taken over as co-principals in 1920, "the Modern School became one of the most radical experiments ever to take place in the history of American education." (6) Before coming to Stelton, Elizabeth Byrne Ferm (1857-1944) and her husband Alexis Ferm (1870-1971) had run their own school, the Children's Playhouse, in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, and later founded one of the first "storefront schools" on the Lower East Side, where they came into contact with Emma Goldman and other anarchists. Elizabeth Ferm was particularly influenced by the ideas of the German educator and founder of the kindergarten movement Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) whose theories emphasized encouraging self-activity and creativity in children. At Stelton, the Ferms promoted manual and creative work, such as printing, weaving, carpentry, basket-making, pottery, metal work, gardening, singing, dancing and other sports; they built a series of workshops in the schoolhouse, although the children still had the choice of studying academic subjects with Jim Dick in the library. This program led to a remarkable creative flowering among the children, who produced, among other things, the Voice of the Children, which they wrote, illustrated and printed entirely themselves. Eventually, however, the Ferms came into conflict with some of the parents who wanted a more radical, politicized education for their children, and objected to the lack of attention paid to academics. Refusing to modify their methods, the Ferms left in 1925.
After the Ferms' departure, the Modern School went through a difficult period of transition, until Jim and Nellie Dick returned in 1928 as co-principals. The Dicks renovated the Living House, which had fallen into disrepair, revived Voice of the Children, and reintroduced a full range of activities for adults. Jim and Nellie had always wanted to start their own school, however, and in 1933, they left Stelton to found a Modern School in Lakewood, New Jersey, which lasted until 1958. They were replaced by the Ferms, who were persuaded to return as co-principals.
Decline and Dissolution
In spite of the presence of the Ferms, the Modern School fell upon hard times in the 1930s. During the Depression, many working-class parents lost their jobs and had to withdraw their children from the school. Moreover, by this period the anarchist movement in general was in decline, and a number of colonists became communists, creating dissension in the community. By 1938, there were only thirty children left at the school. In the mid-1930s, the Living House was sold as a private residence, and the children were cared for in the homes of members of the colony. It was the Second World War, however, which was the final blow to the Modern School. In 1940, the federal government bought the land adjoining the colony for use as a military base, Camp Kilmer. The presence of thousands of soldiers changed the atmosphere of the community; houses were broken into and a girl was even raped by soldiers. (7) In 1944, Elizabeth Ferm died of a stroke. Alexis stayed on as principal for four more years before retiring to the single-tax community of Fairhope, Alabama. At this point, only fifteen children were left, mostly of kindergarten age. Anna Schwartz, who had taught at the Modern School for many years carried on until 1953, when the school was closed for good. Between 1955 and 1961, the trustees sold off the property of the school and distributed its remaining assets. The Ferrer colonists and their children gradually dispersed, although many still live in the area. Some of the original houses were torn down and replaced by a shopping center and condominiums as the area became more and more suburbanized. By the time of Alexis Ferm's death in 1971 at the age of 101, however, there was a growing movement among his former students to preserve the legacy of the Modern School. In 1973, the Friends of the Modern School was founded, which holds a reunion every year to exchange memories, ideas about alternative education, and contribute material to the Modern School Collection at Rutgers University.
(1)See Joan Connelly Ullman,The Tragic Week: A Study of Anticlericalism in Spain, 1875-1912(Cambridge, 1968).
(2)Paul Avrich,The Modern School Movement (Princeton, 1980), p. 36.
(3) Laurence Veysey, The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth-Century America (Chicago, 1978), p. 79-84.
(5) Nellie Dick in Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices (Princeton, 1995), p. 287.
(8) Alexis Ferm to Jo Ann Wheeler Burbank, April 8, 1970, Jo Ann Wheeler Burbank Papers, Modern School Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.
(9) Evelyn Lawrence, ed. Froebel and English Education: Perspectives on the Founder of the Kindergarten (New York, 1969), p. 23 and 238.
Official Records
The official records of the Modern School comprise minutes and reports of the Modern School Association of North America (1922-1950), the membership organization which supported the school; records of the Ferrer Modern School Association, which administered the property of the school; reports of the Board of Management, which administered the School itself; and correspondence received and copies of correspondence sent by the principal of the school. These items amount to one manuscript box of material.
Collected Materials--General
The donated materials include publications, photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, writings and miscellany. Most of the publications, comprising about half the collection, were produced at the Modern School printing press. They include journals, most notably The Modern School; Voice of the Children, the journal of poems and prints produced by the children; programs of the annual Modern School benefit dance; and various other publications.
In addition to publications produced at the Modern School, the collection contains various other publications which refer to the Modern School, such as a special issue of Everyman (1914) and a partial set of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth (1911-1917), which frequently included articles on the Modern School. The collection also contained a number of pamphlets which had no relation to the Modern School and part of Modern School founder Leonard Abbott's book collection; these items were transferred to the repository's Radical Literature Collection.
There are four boxes of black-and-white photographs (one 8 x 10 and three 5 x 7 boxes), spanning the period approximately 1880 to 1965, including portraits of the Ferms, and views of the Modern School children involved in various activities. Of special interest are three tintypes (circa 1880-1890), showing Alexis Ferm as a boy and as a young man.
Other series are newspaper clippings documenting the history of the school which have been photocopied on to acid-free paper; and memoirs written by figures associated with the Modern School including The Modern School editor and art curator Carl Zigrosser and anarchist leader Harry Kelly.
Collected Materials--Personal Papers
The Modern School Collection also includes papers of Alexis Ferm, which comprise just over one manuscript box of correspondence, writings, newspaper clippings and a sporadic diary kept by Ferm from 1893 to 1944. There is also a separately housed scrapbook (1929-1933) of clippings of articles on education by Ferm and others published in the anarchist journal The Road to Freedom. Because of the extremely brittle condition of the scrapbook, it was completely reformatted: its contents were copied onto acid-free paper and it was rebound. Ferm's collected correspondence is comprised primarily of letters he wrote to his former colleagues and students after he retired to Fairhope, Alabama, in 1948. The students kept his letters and donated them after his death. These letters are arranged alphabetically by correspondent. This series also includes correspondence about the Alexis Ferm Fund, which helped support him in his old age, and clippings from local Alabama newspapers, where Ferm wrote frequently about education and civil rights.
The papers of Alexis Ferm's wife Elizabeth Byrne Ferm fill parts of two manuscript boxes. These papers are entirely made up of her published and unpublished writings as well as a few book reviews and an obituary. Elizabeth Ferm published articles about progressive education in Mother Earth, The Modern School, and other journals. After her death, Alexis Ferm put together a number of her writings, both published and unpublished, and raised the money to publish them as a book, Freedom in Education, in 1948. This series contains a complete manuscript of the book as well as drafts of various chapters.
Of the many people who contributed material to the Modern School Collection, teacher and trustee Jo Ann Wheeler Burbank contributed enough diverse material to constitute a separate series. This series includes letters from Alexis Ferm, correspondence pertaining to the Alexis Ferm Fund, and a typescript memoir. Photographs and publications were transferred to the appropriate series based on format.
Documentation of other Schools and Communities
The collection also contains a small amount of material (5 folders) related to other Modern or progressive schools or anarchist communities, including publications from the Mohegan Modern School in Peekskill, New York, and photocopies of a hearing on the incorporation of the April Farms Colony in Quakertown, Pennsylvania (1925). A few photographs from other Modern Schools have been transferred to the photographs series.
Finally, the collection contains several items which were made at the Modern School by its students and teachers, including a toy, children's watercolors, textiles and a wooden block, dating from the 1930s to 1960. Most of these items are stored in a newspaper box.
In its cataloged book collections, Special Collections and University Archives at Rutgers holds a number of items published in Stelton, including some which are not present in the Modern School Collection. The latter consist of a more complete run of The Modern School (X-NJ LD7501 .S7M6); and a history of the Modern School by Joseph J. Cohen and Alexis C. Ferm, with photographs by Oscar Steckbardt: The Modern School of Stelton: A Sketch published in 1925 (X-NJ LD7501 .S824MC).
The Paul Avrich Collection in the Library of Congress contains material related to the Modern School of Stelton, such as interviews Avrich conducted with Modern School students, teachers and Ferrer colonists, and photographs. Also relevant are the Carl Zigrosser Papers at the University of Pennsylvania which contain correspondence and manuscripts relating to his work as editor of The Modern School magazine, diaries and the catalog from the 1913 exhibit of student art work at the New York Modern School.
Smaller collections of individuals associated with the Modern School include materials such as: autobiographies, correspondence, and interviews. Sidney and Clara Solomon Papers at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University contain correspondence with Emma Goldman, as well as documents pertainting to the Solomons' activities in the Vanguard anarchist political group. The Abraham Bluestein Papers of the Labadie Collectionat the University of Michigan contain an oral history interview with Bluestein, who was a resident of the Ferrer Colony. The Manuel Komroff Papers at Columbia University contian correspondence written by Will and Ariel Durant, and Carl Zigrosser. The Eleanor Fitzgerald Papers at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee contains diaries. correspondence, and writings by Fitzgerald, who was an active member of Emma Goldman's serial publication Mother Earth. The Samuel H. Siegel Papers at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research contains his autobiography. Siegel was a resident of the colony.
Several monographs exist which are based in part on materials in the Modern School Collection:
Brittle items from the Modern School records, school publications, and the Alexis Ferm and Elizabeth Byrne Ferm papers have been photocopied onto acid-free paper. The originals are stored separately, and are not meant to be used by researchers.
Modern School Collection. MC 1055. Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.
The collection has been continuously expanding since its initial donation, comprising of donations from former students, estates, and children of residents of the Ferrer Colony. More donations are expected in the future. Please note that due to the nature of the collection, the finding aid is organized by series and contains non-sequential folders and box numbers.
| MINUTES AND DOCUMENTS OF THE FERRER MODERN SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 1918, 1958-1961 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Minutes, correspondence and other documents of the Ferrer Modern School Association, which was set up to administer the property of the Modern School of Stelton. It consisted of five members of whom three were trustees. | |||||||||||
| This series includes the certificate of incorporation (1918), as well as minutes and other items related to the final meetings of the Ferrer Modern School Association in 1958 and 1961, where trustees arranged to sell the school building and distribute the assets of the Modern School. This grouping includes correspondence between the trustees of the Association, notes, and various drafts of meeting minutes related to this process. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Certificate of Incorporation, 1918 | |||||||||
| 2 | Trustees' and Association Minutes, 1958-1961 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 3 | Minutes, Correspondence and Attachments, 1958-1961 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Minutes, Correspondence and Attachments, 1961 | ||||||||||
| MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE MODERN SCHOOL ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA, 1922-1950 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Records of the membership organization which supported the Modern School of Stelton. | |||||||||||
| The minutes document the meetings of the Annual Convention, which included delegates from Stelton as well as various other modern schools and anarchist groups such as the publishers of the journal The Road to Freedom and the Kropotkin Group, which ran an anarchist summer school at Stelton. This series also includes reports on the progress of the children written by the principal and teachers of the Modern School of Stelton, which were read at the convention. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Annual convention: minutes, 1931 and 1946-1948 | |||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 6 | Annual Convention: Reports of the Principal, 1922-1938 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 7 | Annual Convention: Reports of the Principal, 1939-1947 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 8 | Report of Teacher Anna Schwartz, 1936-1940 and 1943-1950 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 9 | Reports of Teachers other than Anna Schwartz, 1922-1948 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| REPORTS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT, 1922-1948 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Yearly narrative and financial reports of the Board of Management, which administered the Modern School. In these reports the board reviewed appointments of teachers, fund raising, publicity and relations with members of the Ferrer Colony. | |||||||||||
| Also includes reports of the principal, which were read at the Board of Management's meetings. The principal's reports describe the children's classes and activities, noting examples of responsibility and initiative shown by the children. These reports also discuss the hiring of teachers, teaching methods and the school facilities. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Principal's Reports, 1922-1925 | |||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 11 | Principal's Reports, 1933-1939 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 12 | Secretary's Reports/Financial Reports, 1920-1948 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| CORRESPONDENCE AND REPORTS OF THE PRINCIPAL, 1935-1952 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Correspondence and ad hoc reports of the principal of the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| The major part of this series is the principal's correspondence (1935-1952), which includes letters from parents and social workers about the placement of children at the Modern School, requests for information and copies of Modern School publications, contributions and letters from researchers interested in the Modern School methods. This series also includes carbon copies of letters sent by the principal concerned with finances, discipline problems, etc. Of particular interest is a letter from Sol Ferrer, the daughter of Francisco Ferrer, who discovered that the Modern School was still in existence in 1949. There are also minutes and reports from various ad-hoc meetings which were attended by the principal. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 13 | Report to Parent-Teacher Meeting, January 19, 1939 | |||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 14 | Report to the Conference June 1-2, 1935 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 15 | Correspondence, 1920 and 1935-1936 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Correspondence, 1937-1939 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Correspondence, 1940-1944 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Correspondence, 1946-1949 | ||||||||||
| 19 | Correspondence, 1950-1952 | ||||||||||
| MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE, 1919-1972 | |||||||||||
| Summary: This series includes a few miscellaneous letters including one written by Harry Kelly's daughter Elsie who taught at the Modern School, as well as copies of circular letters used for publicity and appeals for funds. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 20 | 1919-1972 | |||||||||
| 21 | Nellie Dick , 1930 | ||||||||||
| DOCUMENTATION OF MISCELLANEOUS MEETINGS, 1946 and 1970 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Minutes of an informal meeting of former students and friends of the Modern School held in 1946, where the publication of Elizabeth Ferm's manuscripts was discussed, and lists of former students who met on two occasions at the house of Paul Avrich, the historian of the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 22 | Minutes of a Meeting concerning Elizabeth Byrne Ferm's book, 1946 | |||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 23 | Names of those invited to Dr. Paul Avrich's apartment, 1970 | ||||||||||
| LEGAL DOCUMENTS OF RESIDENTS OF THE COLONY, 1925-1946 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Includes subscription records, deeds, and legal correspondence from residents of the Ferrer Colony. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 24 | Mortgage, Deed, and Indenture between the Dicks and Simon Sacharoff, 1925 | |||||||||
| 25 | Abe Golokow [Bobby Pearl family] Deed, undated and 1930 | ||||||||||
| Facsimile | |||||||||||
| 26 | Shared Subscription Records,, 1930 | ||||||||||
| 27 | Correspondence to Leonard Sacharoff, 1946 | ||||||||||
| SCHOOL PUBLICATIONS, 1912-1949 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Publications produced by the Modern School or individuals associated with it and printed in Stelton, New Jersey. | |||||||||||
| Includes an incomplete run of the school's journal, The Modern School (1912-1922 and 1943) and two issues of Open Vistas (1925), a literary review published at Stelton by Hippolyte Havel and Joseph Ishill, which only lasted for six issues. This series also includes a set of programs for the Daybreak Costume Ball (1930-1949), which was held every year in New York City to raise money for the school. | |||||||||||
| In addition, this series contains a number of publications produced by the Modern School children, the most important of which is Voice of the Children (1922-1941). Voice of the Children was a magazine of stories, poems, and news, illustrated by wood and linoleum cuts, which was written, typeset and printed by the children of the Modern School. It was founded under printing teacher Paul Scott and later was supervised by printer Joseph Ishill. After lapsing in 1926, it was revived in 1929 when Jim and Nellie Dick returned to Stelton. Between 1916 and 1945 children at the Modern School produced several short-lived serial publications that contained fictional stories, news about events around the colony, opinion pieces, and woodcut or linoleum prints. Examples found in our collection include: The Gossiper (1920), The Stelton Appendix (1923),Bavardage (1931-1932), Neveready Gossiper (1932?), No Name (1934?), The Chanticleer (1936?), and new Moon (1945). Other short lived serials produced by the children and not found in our collection include: The Path of Joy (1916), Us Kids (1920), The Chatter-Box (1920), The Child Says (1938-1939), Little Pages (unknown dates), Our World (unknown dates), and The Folio (unknown dates). The Gossiper was self-described as the "Occasional Organ of Intelligentsia at the Ferrer Colony," and featured longer texts that were gramatically and thematically more advanced than Voices of the Children. The Chanticleer was produced by a group of all girls, resolved to improve the education and development of girls at Stelton. It featured both short and long editorials, though all were relatively analytical and well thought out. The Neveready Gossiper, whose tag line was "Comes out once a week, though never ready," featured creative writings, news from the colony and small woodblock or linoleum prints. It was all produced with a raw quality with a tongue in cheek attitude.Similar to Voice of the Children was Linoleum Cuts (1929), a booklet of linoleum cuts with names and ages of the children, of which there may have been only one issue. | |||||||||||
| This series also contains individual pamphlets relating to the Modern School which were published at Stelton. These include examples of Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm's educational writings, histories of the Modern School, an anti-war play which was performed at Stelton in 1916, and more general works about libertarian education. Finally this series contains miscellaneous Modern School publications such as The Stelton Outlook (1932-1933), a newsletter written by former students, and Action (1921), a newsletter of the Ferrer Colony, as well as programs from the annual convention of the Modern School Association of North America, theater programs, broadsides, tickets and stickers. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 2 | 1 | The Modern School, 1912-1913 | |||||||||
| February 1912, Winter 1912-1913, Spring 1913 | |||||||||||
| 2 | The Modern School, 1914 | ||||||||||
| January, March | |||||||||||
| 3 | The Modern School, 1915 | ||||||||||
| Poor condition | |||||||||||
| 4 | The Modern School, May, October 1916 | ||||||||||
| 5 | The Modern School, January, March-April 1917 | ||||||||||
| 6 | The Modern School, May-July 1917 | ||||||||||
| 7 | The Modern School, August-October 1917 | ||||||||||
| 8 | The Modern School, November-December 1917 | ||||||||||
| 9 | The Modern School, February-March 1918 | ||||||||||
| 10 | The Modern School, April-May 1918 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 3 | 1 | The Modern School, June-August 1918 | |||||||||
| 2 | The Modern School, September 1918 | ||||||||||
| 3 copies | |||||||||||
| 3 | The Modern School, October 1918 | ||||||||||
| 4 | The Modern School, November-December 1918 | ||||||||||
| 5 | The Modern School, January 1919 | ||||||||||
| 4 copies | |||||||||||
| 6 | The Modern School, February 1919 | ||||||||||
| 3 copies | |||||||||||
| 7 | The Modern School, March 1919 | ||||||||||
| 8 | The Modern School, April/May 1919 | ||||||||||
| Walt Whitman Special Issue | |||||||||||
| 8 | The Modern School, June/July 1919 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 4 | 1 | The Modern School, August-September 1919 | |||||||||
| 2 | The Modern School, October/November/December 1919 | ||||||||||
| Quarterly Issue | |||||||||||
| 3 | The Modern School, January-March, 1920 | ||||||||||
| 4 | The Modern School (1 of 2), April-June 1920 | ||||||||||
| 5 | The Modern School (2 of 2), April-June 1920 | ||||||||||
| 6 | The Modern School, October-December 1920 | ||||||||||
| 7 | The Modern School, April 1921 | ||||||||||
| 8 | The Modern School, Summer 1921 | ||||||||||
| 9 | The Modern School, September 1921 | ||||||||||
| 10 | The Modern School, October/November/December 1921 | ||||||||||
| Quarterly Issue | |||||||||||
| 11 | The Modern School, Midwinter 1922 | ||||||||||
| 12 | The Modern School, Summer 1922 | ||||||||||
| 13 | The Modern School, August 1943 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 5 | 1 | Open Vistas, January/February 1925 | |||||||||
| Vol. 1, no. 1 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Open Vistas, March/April 1925 | ||||||||||
| Vol. 1, no. 2 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Bavardage [Stelton Outlook], June and September 1931 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper | |||||||||||
| 4 | Bavardage [Stelton Outlook], April, July and August 1932 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper | |||||||||||
| 5 | The Chanticleer, Spring 1936 | ||||||||||
| 6 | The Gossiper, 1920 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Linoleum Cuts, circa 1929 | ||||||||||
| 1 of 2 copies | |||||||||||
| 8 | Linoleum Cuts, circa 1929 | ||||||||||
| 2 of 2 copies | |||||||||||
| 9 | Looking Forward, 1937-1938 | ||||||||||
| by Stelton Anarchist Youth | |||||||||||
| 10 | The Neverready Gossiper, October 7-November 11, 1932 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper | |||||||||||
| 11 | New Moon, 1945 | ||||||||||
| 12 | No Name, June 1934 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Poems and Stories, undated | ||||||||||
| 14 | The Stelton Appendix, March 14, 1923? and May 14 1923? | ||||||||||
| 2 copies of each | |||||||||||
| 15 | The Stelton Outlook, September-November 1932 | ||||||||||
| originals | |||||||||||
| 16 | The Stelton Outlook, September-November 1932 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies | |||||||||||
| 17 | The Stelton Outlook, January-February 1933 | ||||||||||
| 18 | The Stelton Outlook, April, June 1933 | ||||||||||
| 19 | The Stelton Outlook, September 1933 | ||||||||||
| 2 copies | |||||||||||
| 20 | Voice of the Children (1 of 2), undated | ||||||||||
| Incomplete | |||||||||||
| 21 | Voice of the Children (2 of 2), undated | ||||||||||
| Incomplete | |||||||||||
| 22 | Voice of the Children, May 1921, January 1922 | ||||||||||
| January 1922 is No. 3 | |||||||||||
| 23 | Voice of the Children No. 3 and No. 4, January 1922, September 1922 | ||||||||||
| 24 | Voice of the Children No. 4, September 1922 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 6 | 1 | Voice of the Children No. 4, September 1922 | |||||||||
| 2 | Voice of the Children No. 4, September 1922 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Voice of the Children, ca. 1923 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Voice of the Children No. 5, ca. 1923 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Voice of the Children No. 5, ca. 1923 | ||||||||||
| incomplete | |||||||||||
| 6 | Voice of the Children No. 5, ca. 1923 | ||||||||||
| incomplete | |||||||||||
| 7 | Voice of the Children No. 5, ca. 1923 | ||||||||||
| incomplete | |||||||||||
| 8 | Voice of the Children No. 6, ca. 1924 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Voice of the Children No. 6, ca. 1924 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Voice of the Children No. 6, ca. 1924 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Voice of the Children, ca. 1925? | ||||||||||
| 12 | Voice of the Children, January 1925 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Voice of the Children, January 1925 | ||||||||||
| 14 | Voice of the Children, January 1925 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Voice of the Children, ca. 1927, ca. 1929 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Voice of the Children, ca. 1929 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 7 | 1 | Voice of the Children No. 1 and No. 2, February and March 1929 | |||||||||
| 2 | Voice of the Children No. 2 and No. 3, March and May 1929 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Voice of the Children No. 4 and No. 5, July and September 1929 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Voice of the Children No. 1 and No. 2, February and March 1929 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Voice of the Children No. 6, November 1929 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Voice of the Children No. 6, November 1929 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Voice of the Children No. 7, January 1930 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Voice of the Children No. 8 and No. 9, March and May 1930 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Voice of the Children No. 10, July 1930 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Voice of the Children No. 11, September 1930 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Voice of the Children No. 12, December 1930 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 8 | 1 | Voice of the Children No. 13, March 1931 | |||||||||
| 2 | Voice of the Children No. 14, August 1931 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Voice of the Children No. 15 and No. 16, December 1931 and May 1932 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Voice of the Children No. 17 and No. 18, April and September 1933 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Voice of the Children No. 19 and No. 20, June 1934 and April 1935 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Voice of the Children No. 21, September 1935 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Voice of the Children, ca. 1941 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Miscellaneous Printed Items, 1916-1927 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Miscellaneous Printed Items, 1916-1927 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Conference Programs, ca. 1916 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Conference Programs, 1922, 1925, 1929, 1937 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Conference Program (1 of 3), 1940 | ||||||||||
| 25th anniversary special publication | |||||||||||
| 13 | Conference Program (2 of 3), 1940 | ||||||||||
| 25th anniversary special publication | |||||||||||
| 14 | Conference Program (1 of 3), 1940 | ||||||||||
| 25th anniversary special publication | |||||||||||
| 15 | Daybreak Costume Dance, 1930-1936 (programs) | ||||||||||
| 16 | Daybreak Costume Dance, 1938-1939 (programs) | ||||||||||
| 17 | Daybreak Costume Dance, 1940 (program) | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 13 | 1 | Daybreak Costume Dance, 1941-1942 (programs) | |||||||||
| 2 | Daybreak Costume Dance, 1943-1945 (programs) | ||||||||||
| 3 | Daybreak Costume Dance, 1946-1947 (programs) | ||||||||||
| 4 | Daybreak Costume Dance, 1948-1949 (programs) | ||||||||||
| 5 | Inklings of Activities of Children, 1937 | ||||||||||
| 6 | The Modern School: An Experiment, 1948 | ||||||||||
| 7 | North Stelton Medical Aid to Russia, 1943 | ||||||||||
| 8 | "Our Case in a Nutshell," insert/flier circa 1920? | ||||||||||
| 9 | William Thurston Brown, Citizenship in Education, circa 1918 | ||||||||||
| 10 | William Thurston Brown, Education for Constructive Democracy, circa 1919 | ||||||||||
| 11 | William Thurston Brown, The Most Important Educational Experiment in America, circa 1919 | ||||||||||
| 12 | William J Durant, The Ferrer Modern School, circa 1912 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Alexis Ferm, Has Propaganda any Value in Education?, circa 1928 | ||||||||||
| [2 copies] | |||||||||||
| 14 | Alexis Ferm, Has Propaganda any Value in Education?, circa 1928 | ||||||||||
| [2 copies] | |||||||||||
| 15 | Alexis Ferm, The Problem with Education, circa 1934 | ||||||||||
| [4 copies] | |||||||||||
| 16 | Elizabeth Byrne Ferm, The Spirit of Freedom in Education, 1919 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Elizabeth Ferm, The Spirit of Freedom in Education, 1919 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Elizabeth Ferm, The Spirit of Freedom in Education, 1919 | ||||||||||
| 19 | Harry Kelly, The Ferrer Modern School, 1920 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 38 | 2 | The Annual Day Break Dance, 1948-1949 | |||||||||
| 3 | The Modern School, circa 1915 | ||||||||||
| 4 | The Modern School, September 1917 and February 1918 | ||||||||||
| 5 | The Modern School, March 1918 and May 1918 | ||||||||||
| 6 | The Modern School, July 1918 and August 1918 | ||||||||||
| 7 | The Modern School, October 1918 and January-March 1920 | ||||||||||
| 8 | The Modern School, April, May, June and October 1920 | ||||||||||
| 9 | The Modern School, April and Summer 1921 | ||||||||||
| 10 | The Modern School, Midwinter 1922 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Alexis Ferm, The Problem of Education, 1934 | ||||||||||
| [2 copies] | |||||||||||
| 12 | Voice of the Children, 1935 and undated | ||||||||||
| PHOTOGRAPHS, circa 1880-1965 | |||||||||||
| Summary: This series consists of black-and-white portraits and views, primarily from the Modern School of Stelton, as well as a few photographs from other communities and a few images reflecting the anarchist movement in general. It includes many portraits of Alexis Ferm at various stages of his life, as well as portraits of Elizabeth Byrne Ferm, Anna Schwartz, and other teachers, students and individuals associated with the Modern School. There are also several group portraits of the children and teachers. Of particular interest are three tintypes, circa 1880-1890, showing Alexis Ferm as a boy, as a young man, and an unidentified woman who may be his mother. The views include Stelton buildings, and the Modern School children and teachers engaged in various activities: playing musical instruments, dancing, swimming, reading, working in the wood and weaving shops, and performing plays. Scenes also show the children's art work and items made by the children. | |||||||||||
| Views of other schools and communities include the Pioneer Youth Camp in Rifton, New York, sponsored by the National Association for Child Development, which Alexis Ferm ran for several summers (1929-1934); the Mohegan Modern School in Peekskill, New York; Fellowship Farm, a socialist community neighboring the Modern School of Stelton; the Ferrer School at Forest View Grove on the Hudson (oversize, stored in a manuscript box); and the Children's Playhouse in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, run by Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm before coming to Stelton. | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous anarchist views include a postcard of Lawrence textile workers organizers Arturo Giovannitti and Joseph J. Ettor (1912); a photograph and three postcards of an anarchist rally in New York, circa 1910; and a photograph of Alexander Berkman speaking in Union Square, New York City, probably in 1914. | |||||||||||
| As well as photographs, this series includes eight leaves of half-tone reproductions, which are stored in a manuscript box. These are sheets of images produced from photographs showing Modern School scenes dating from the 1920s, many of which are in the collection. The leaves measure 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 and each contain several images. Some were used in Joseph Cohen's The Modern School of Stelton (Stelton, 1925). | |||||||||||
| In addition, this series also includes several scrapbooks and photograph albums of residents of the Ferrer Colony. Victor Sacharoff and Leo Goldman have donated their family's scrapbooks, which provide images of the building of the colony, group portraits, individuals,and a general sense of life during the time. Sacharoff's photographs, removed from the photograph album before donation, includes images of the Fellowship Farm School, the Mohegan Colony, the Stelton monkey, and images of the Living House. Goldman's scrapbook and photographs include pages of his sister, May Goldman's, photograph album; images of skits performedat the colony; and the construction of several buildings in the colony. Several of the scrapbooks have been restricted due to the book's deteriorating state. However, high resolution archival copies have been produced and bound in order to maintain original order and integrity. Researchers are welcome to use the archival copies. | |||||||||||
| The photographs were donated by various former students of the Modern School and Stelton residents, some of whom identified and dated the images. A few seem to come from Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm's own collection, and are identified in Alexis Ferm's hand. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 9 | 1 | Group and individual portraits, circa 1910s? | |||||||||
| 2 | Ferrer School at Forest View Grove, 1914 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Facsimiles, including The Living House and Rosen, Goldman, and Scott families circa 1910-circa 1940 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Halftone reproductions of views at Stelton, 1920s | ||||||||||
| Views used in Joseph Cohen's 1925 pamphlet The Modern School and in The Stelton Outlook, 1933. | |||||||||||
| 5 | Facsimiles of Modern School Building and Teachers, circa 1920s | ||||||||||
| 6 | May Goldman Scrapbook, loose pages, circa 1920s | ||||||||||
| 7 | Aaron Goldenforb, Jake Beloff, Sam Posen, and cow at Stelton, NJ, circa 1930 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Images of children and the Living House, donated by Sally Brown, circa 1930s? | ||||||||||
| 9 | View of Stelton and meeting, donated by Lydia Sacharoff, circa 1930s | ||||||||||
| Scrapbook of individuals associated with the Modern School, 1936-1939 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Joanne Wheeler Scott, Nellie and Little Jim Dick, donated by Lydia Sacharoff, circa 1939 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Pearl Donahow's house (Jon Scott), circa 2000 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Print-out of Leo Goldman family images from online (1 of 2), 2011 | ||||||||||
| 14 | Print-out of Leo Goldman family images from online (2 of 2), 2011 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Falk/Edelman House, 2014 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Negative of Sam Goldman, circa 1940 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Framed image of a Goldman child, circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 14 (photobox) | Portraits of teachers, children and others associated with the Modern School of Stelton, circa 1900-1962 | ||||||||||
| 25 prints. | |||||||||||
| Portraits of Alexis Ferm, 1901-1965 | |||||||||||
| 10 prints. | |||||||||||
| Portraits and views from Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm's collection, 1907-1932 | |||||||||||
| 6 prints. | |||||||||||
| Portraits and views from Pioneer Youth Camp, 1929-1934 | |||||||||||
| 9 prints. | |||||||||||
| Portraits and views of Stelton resident Reuben Rosen, his family and his home, circa 1930s | |||||||||||
| 7 prints. | |||||||||||
| Portraits and views of Alexis Ferm in Fairhope, Alabama, 1950-1955 | |||||||||||
| 10 prints. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 15 (photobox) | Group portraits, Stelton, 1915-1925 | ||||||||||
| 13 prints. | |||||||||||
| Views of Stelton, 1915-circa 1953 | |||||||||||
| 35 prints. | |||||||||||
| Portraits and views from other communities: the Mohegan Modern School, 1941; Fellowship Farm, 1914; Children's Playhouse, Dyker Heights, 1904-1905 | |||||||||||
| 3 prints. | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous anarchist views | |||||||||||
| 5 prints. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 16 (photobox) | Portraits, Alexis Ferm, 1895-1958 | ||||||||||
| 6 prints. | |||||||||||
| Portraits Elizabeth Ferm, Anna Schwartz and other unidentified people, circa 1890-1950 | |||||||||||
| 7 prints. | |||||||||||
| Group portraits, Modern School of Stelton, circa 1915-1925; one at Mohegan School, 1925 | |||||||||||
| 9 prints. | |||||||||||
| Views, Modern School of Stelton | |||||||||||
| 9 prints. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 17 (photobox) | Alexis Ferm (2 portraits) and portrait of an unidentified woman, circa 1880-1890 | ||||||||||
| 3 prints. Tintypes. | |||||||||||
| Views, the Modern School of Stelton, 1915-circa 1953 | |||||||||||
| 12 prints. | |||||||||||
| Group portraits, Alexis Ferm with Pioneer Youth Camp, circa 1930 | |||||||||||
| 4 prints. | |||||||||||
| Group portrait, Public School, Union, N.J., 1915 | |||||||||||
| 1 print. | |||||||||||
| View of Alexander Berkman speaking in New York, circa 1914 | |||||||||||
| 1 print. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 33 (photobox) | Scenes of Ferrer Colony, circa 1920-circa 1935 | ||||||||||
| Donated by Victor Sacharoff | |||||||||||
| The Living House, circa 1920-circa 1935 | |||||||||||
| 3 prints | |||||||||||
| Fellowship Farm and Mohegan Colony, circa 1930-circa 1940 | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 35 (phase box) | Goldman Family Scrapbook, circa 1900-circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 36 (phase box) | Goldman Family Scrapbook, circa 1920-circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| archival quality copies, bound in album simulation | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 37 (phase box) | Goldman family scrapbook, circa 1930-circa 1980 | ||||||||||
| archival quality copies, bound in album simulation | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 39 (photo box) | Goldman family, loose (1 of 4), circa 1890-circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 40 (photo box) | Goldman family, loose (2 of 4), circa 1900-circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 41 (photo box) | Goldman family, loose (3 of 4), circa 1900-circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 42 (photo box) | Goldman family, negatives and film (4 of 4), circa 1900-circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS, 1921-2005 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Photocopied newspapers clippings about the Modern School of Stelton and anarchist education. | |||||||||||
| Includes clippings from local papers documenting the history and specific events at the Modern School. It also contains a series of clippings from The Road to Freedom, an anarchist paper published at Stelton from 1924 to 1932, and continued under the name Freedom, from 1933 to 1934. These clippings pertain to the Modern School at Stelton, Francisco Ferrer and anarchist education in general. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 10 | 1 | Modern School history, 1922-1952 | |||||||||
| 2 | The Road to Freedom, excerpts, 1925-1931 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Piscataway Chronicle, North Stelton News, June 10, 1937 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Various, regarding Clara Solomon, Wally Gilbert, Mary Hansen, 1996-2002 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Friends of the Modern School History, 1975-2003 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Friends of the Modern School, individuals, 1991-2005 | ||||||||||
| MEMOIRS OF INDIVIDUALS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MODERN SCHOOL circa 1925-2006 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Typescript memoirs of four individuals who attended the Modern School or were associated with it: Lillian Rifkin Blumenfeld, Pauline Bridge Henderson, Harry Kelly, and Carl Zigrosser. | |||||||||||
| Lillian Rifkin Blumenfeld (b. 1897) was educated at Teachers College under John Dewey and William Heard Kilpatrick and taught at the Organic School in Fairhope, Alabama. She taught English at the Modern School in Stelton from 1923 to 1924 and later taught at the Walden School in New York. In her 1974 memoir, she describes her childhood as the daughter of Russian immigrants in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, her schooling and the development of her interest in teaching. Although she only mentions the Modern School of Stelton briefly, she discusses the educational philosophy she used in her teaching there. | |||||||||||
| The memoir of Pauline Bridge Henderson (1958) takes the form of the middle section of a short novel called "The Dogwood Tree," which is based on her experiences as a child at the Modern School. On the original file folder, someone had written "Pauline and Joan Bridge were two sisters very dear to uncle [Ferm]--he called them his children." The two sisters were the daughters of William Bridge who was on the staff of the school in the mid 1920s. Joan Bridge became the mother of folk singer Joan Baez. In a letter to Alexis Ferm attached to her memoir, Pauline Henderson mentions her niece "Joannie." | |||||||||||
| The printer and anarchist Harry Kelly (1871-1953) was a founder and leader of the Modern School. In this typescript of a piece written for the 25th anniversity of the Yiddish anarchist paper the Freie Arbeiter Stimme (Free Workers' Voice), 1925, Kelly discusses the paper's support for the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| Additionally, the series contains several shorter memoirs of individuals involved with either the Ferrer Colony and the Friends of the Modern School. Of special interest is the Kelly-Krimont-Edelman(n) family outline that details the complicated familial relations. | |||||||||||
| Finally, this series contains two chapters from a manuscript autobiography by The Modern School magazine editor Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), later published as My Own Shall Come to Me (Philadelphia, 1971). He describes the evening lectures for adults at the Modern School in New York, where he heard Leonard Abbott and Will Durant speak, and took art classes taught by Robert Henri and George Bellows. He also describes his memories of anarchist leaders Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and Hippolyte Havel. In the next section, Zigrosser describes his experiences editing The Modern School (1917-1920), and his impressions of Wallace Stevens and Hart Crane, who wrote some poems for the magazine, and the Van Gogh family, who allowed him to publish some extracts from Vincent Van Gogh's letters. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 10 | 7 | Henry Bers, 1975 | |||||||||
| 8 | Lillian Rifkind Blumenfeld, 1974 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Jim (Little) Dick, undated | ||||||||||
| 10 | Kelly-Krimont-Edelman family drafts, 2005 | ||||||||||
| 11 | David Freeman, 2001, 2005 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Pauline Henderson, 1958 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Harry Kelly, circa 1925 | ||||||||||
| 14 | Frank Miller, 1990-1991 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Bobby Pearl, 2003-2006 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Susan Riley, 2002 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Clara Solomon, 2000 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Rose Sterling, undated | ||||||||||
| 19 | Philip Trupin, undated | ||||||||||
| 20 | Carl Zigrosser, circa 1931 | ||||||||||
| ALEXIS FERM PAPERS AND COLLECTED CORRESPONDENCE, 1893-1973 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Diary, correspondence, writings and scrapbook of Alexis Constantine Ferm (1870-1971), usually known as "Uncle," principal of the Modern School from 1920 to 1925 and 1933 to 1948. | |||||||||||
| Alexis Ferm kept a diary sporadically from 1893-1906, 1926-1928 and 1942-1944. In the early section, he describes attending lectures at the Ethical Society and speaking at the Brooklyn Theosophical Society, of which he was one of the founding members and where he met his wife Elizabeth Byrne. He describes their courtship and marriage in 1898 and the foundation of the Children's Playhouse in New Rochelle, New York, in 1901. Ferm describes in detail his observations of the children at the Playhouse, which moved to Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, in 1902. | |||||||||||
| During 1926-1928, the Ferms lived briefly at Stony Hill, near the single tax colony of Free Acres in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, and then at their cottage in Newfoundland, New Jersey. Ferm describes his daily routine of caring for the garden, his teaching at the Road to Freedom camp in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, and his visits to the Stelton Modern School, the Mohegan Modern School in Peekskill, New York, and the Caldwell (N.J.) Country Day School, a progressive school, as well as his reaction to the Passaic mill workers strike and the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. In the final section, Ferm describes the illness and death of Elizabeth Ferm, who suffered a series of strokes and died in 1944, and his subsequent discouragement with the potential of the anarchist movement. | |||||||||||
| This series also contains collected letters written by Alexis Ferm to former teachers, students and friends of the Modern School, spanning the period 1930 to 1971. They are arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent, and chronologically within each folder. The bulk dates from 1948, when Ferm moved to the single tax community of Fairhope, Alabama, to his death in 1971, although some date from the 1930s when the Ferms had left the Modern School and were living in Newfoundland, New Jersey. Correspondents include Mrs. Sam Adel, John Aronoff, Judith (Lighter) Bokelman, Frances Sweida Browning, Aurora Greenhouse, Sasha and Gladys Hourwich, Sema Lighter, Nathan Marer, and Edgar and Martin Tafel. In his letters, Ferm describes his life at Fairhope, where he built his own house at the age of 79, and shows a lively interest in the fortunes of his former pupils. Nathan Marer's correspondence concerns the Alexis Ferm Fund. After the school property was sold in 1961, a trust fund was set up to provide a pension for Ferm, which was administered through the League for Mutual Aid. In the mid-1960s, the fund began to run out of money, so former Modern School students started giving privately to Uncle Ferm through Marer, who, however, led him to believe that the money was still coming through the League. Because of his distrust of the federal government, Ferm refused to apply for Social Security until the age of 98. | |||||||||||
| In this series also fall Alexis Ferm's writings. Of particular interest is a typescript manuscript autobiography entitled "Sven: the Ordinary Life of an Ordinary Boy," which describes the life of a Swedish immigrant boy growing up in Brooklyn in the late nineteenth century. Ferm wrote of "Sven" that "everything is true except the name of the boy." (8) In this manuscript, Ferm describes growing up as the son of Swedish immigrants in a working-class district of Brooklyn. He was forced to leave school early to work in a dry goods store, although he continued his education through evening classes. He describes working conditions at the time and relations with other immigrant groups. The manuscript begins when Ferm was about six years old and ends when, as a young adult, he leaves Brooklyn to manage a general store in upstate New York. | |||||||||||
| This series also includes some of Ferm's writings about education, pieces called "Education and Schooling" and "Education" written while he was living in Alabama, and part of a manuscript about the educational theories of Montessori and Rousseau and how they related to what was practiced at the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| This series also contains a facsimile of a scrapbook, 1929-1933, kept by Alexis Ferm, which primarily consists of clippings of his educational column from The Road to Freedom, an anarchist journal published at Stelton. Other articles from The Road to Freedom kept in the scrapbook concern anarchism in Spain and South America, conferences held at Stelton, book reviews, and articles from the Youth Section. The original scrapbook was in such poor condition that it had to be photocopied and discarded. Several items which were found in the scrapbook were removed and placed in folders. These include newspaper clippings from The Fairhope Courier and The Mobile Register where Ferm wrote letters to the editor about education, civil rights and other social issues, as well as a regular column of film reviews. A few letters were also found in the scrapbook including two responses from readers to his letters to the editor, one abusive and one supportive. Alexis Ferm was a strong believer in the rights of African Americans. His attacks on the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council in the paper led to harassment and hate mail. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 11 | 1-4 | Sven: The Life of an Ordinary Boy (autobiography) | |||||||||
| 5 | "Education and Schooling" | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 6 | "Educational Methods" | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 7 | Mrs. Sam Adel, 1950-1968 | ||||||||||
| 8 | John Aronoff, 1938-1943 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Judith (Lighter) Bokelman, 1930-1970 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Frances Sweida Browning, 1953-1969 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Aurora Greenhouse, 1959-1971 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Sasha and Gladys Hourwich, 1945 and 1948-1950 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Sasha and Gladys Hourwich, 1951-1959 | ||||||||||
| 14 | To Rachel Keyser, 1926 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Sema Lighter, 1947-1971 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Received by Nathan Marer about Alexis Ferm Fund, 1959-1966 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Received by Nathan Marer about Alexis Ferm Fund, 1967-1970 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Alexis Ferm Fund: financial records, 1965-1968 | ||||||||||
| 19 | Anna Schwartz letter and article, 1948 and 1970 | ||||||||||
| 20 | Edgar and Martin Tafel, 1947, 1963, 1969-1970 and 1973 | ||||||||||
| 21 | Newspaper clippings found in scrapbook, 1945-1957 | ||||||||||
| 22 | Correspondence found in scrapbook, 1955-1957 | ||||||||||
| 23 | News clippings, 1933, 1948-1951 and 1969-1970 | ||||||||||
| 24 | Newspaper clipping--obituary, 1971 | ||||||||||
| 25 | Miscellaneous items, 1897 and 1970 | ||||||||||
| 26 | Typescript, "The Worker's Child and the Public School," 1931 | ||||||||||
| [2 copies] | |||||||||||
| 27 | Typescript, "The Worker's Child and the Public School," 1931 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 20 | 1 | Diary, August 30, 1893-November 7, 1945 (with gaps) | |||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 18 (phase box) | Scrapbook, 1929-1933 | ||||||||||
| ELIZABETH BYRNE FERM PAPERS, 1895-1949 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Typescripts of published and unpublished writings by and about Elizabeth Byrne Ferm (1857-1944), co-principal of the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| This series includes the complete manuscript of Elizabeth Ferm's book Freedom in Education (New York, 1949), which was a collection of her writings assembled after her death by her husband Alexis Ferm, as well as earlier drafts of some of the pieces. It also contains published versions and typescripts of articles from Mother Earth, The Modern School, Progressive Education, and the journal Child Life (1897), which only lasted for one year. In some cases there are several versions of each article. | |||||||||||
| In addition, this series contains typescripts of lectures on early childhood education that Elizabeth Ferm gave in the 1890s and early 1900s; typescript poems dated 1906; unpublished manuscripts and parts of manuscripts on early childhood education, some theoretical and some recounting incidents at the Modern School; and miscellaneous notes on various educational topics. | |||||||||||
| The articles about Elizabeth Ferm include typescripts of published interviews, a chapter from a book, an obituary from the newsletter The Roman Forum, and several reviews of Freedom in Education, one a typescript written by Los Angeles anarchist Jules Scarceriaux, and several from newspapers. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 20 | 2 | "Freedom in Education," typescript, circa 1949 | |||||||||
| 3-5 | Typescript chapters from Freedom in Education | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 6 | Articles from Mother Earth | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 21 | 1 | Typescripts of published articles | |||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 2 | Lectures, 1895-1900s | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 3 | Poems, 1906 | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 4 | Miscellaneous writings, notes, etc. | ||||||||||
| Preservation photocopies on acid-free paper. | |||||||||||
| 5 | Articles about Elizabeth Byrne Ferm, 1905 and 1921 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Typescript obituary | ||||||||||
| 7 | Obituary, 1944 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Typescript book review, 1949 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Book reviews, 1949 | ||||||||||
| JO ANN WHEELER BURBANK PAPERS, 1944(1969)-1972 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Memoir and correspondence received by Jo Ann Wheeler Burbank (born 1905), who taught at the Modern Schools of Stelton and Mohegan from 1929 to 1946, and was one of the founders of the Friends of the Modern School in 1973. | |||||||||||
| This series includes a letter from a publisher concerning the publication of Elizabeth Ferm's book; correspondence regarding the distribution of the assets of the Modern School of Stelton in 1961, and letters from former students and teachers about the administration of the Alexis Ferm Fund, which Burbank took over from Nathan Marer in 1968. Most of the correspondence, however, is from Alexis Ferm himself during his last years. He describes his reading, his continuing interest in education, discusses their mutual friends, and his memories of the past. After Ferm moved to a nursing home in Alabama following a fall in 1969, Burbank corresponded with his neighbor Dr. Stanleigh R. Meeker about his condition. The series also contains letters Burbank received after Alexis Ferm's death in 1971. | |||||||||||
| In addition, this series contains letters from researchers such as Laurence Veysey and Arthur Mark who began to study the Modern School in the early 1970s, along with carbon copies of some of Burbank's letters to them, and her comments on the manuscript of Veysey's book, The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth-Century America (Chicago, 1973). Burbank herself was instrumental in collecting memorabilia and reminiscences from former students and teachers at the Modern School which she later donated to Rutgers, so this series includes replies to her letters soliciting information from John W. Edelman, former principal of the Modern School, Modern School editor Carl Zigrosser and others. | |||||||||||
| Finally, this series contains Burbank's own memoir, part of a chapter of a proposed book entitled "School in a Jersey Meadow," in which she describes Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm, and some of her experiences as a teacher at the Modern School, such as an incident during the Second World War when she was questioned by the FBI about some conscientious objectors who were staying at the school. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 21 | 10 | Correspondence, 1944-1969 | |||||||||
| 11 | Correspondence, January-May, 1970 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Correspondence, September-December, 1970 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Correspondence, 1971-1972 | ||||||||||
| 14 | Memoir, 1970 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Draft of memoir, ca. 1970 | ||||||||||
| ABRAHAM GOLDMAN PAPERS, 1922-1945, 1982 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Correspondence of Abraham Goldman, collected printed materials from the Modern School, and artwork by children.. | |||||||||||
| Abraham (Abe) Goldman was the principal of the Modern School at Stelton from 1926 until 1927. He was a Polish anarchist, and one of the first teachers at the Workmen's Circle School. His papers, which contain several documents in Yiddish, demonstrate his dedication to libertarian education through his involvement in leadership roles in the Modern School. After his time at the Modern School, Goldman helped to found a Sunday Modern School in Brooklyn through the Brooklyn-based Libertarian Education Society. The Goldman papers consist almost entirely of correspondence, however, other items include drawings and poems of the children at Stelton, as well as a printed meal menu from The Living House.. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 26 | 1 | Stelton Ferrer School (1 of 5), 1982 | |||||||||
| 2 | Stelton Ferrer School (2 of 5), undated | ||||||||||
| 3 | Stelton Ferrer School (3 of 5), 1922-1927 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Stelton Ferrer School (4 of 5), 1927-1945 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Stelton Ferrer School (5 of 5), undated and 1926 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Yiddish documents, 1926-1927 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Libertarian Education Society (1 of 2), undated and 1934-1935 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Libertarian Education Society (2 of 2), 1935 | ||||||||||
| ITEMS MADE AT THE MODERN SCHOOL, 1932-1935 and 1960 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Collected items created at the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| This series comprises a rug handloomed by the Modern School children from scrap wool material which was purchased at the craft exhibit held at the Stelton Annual Ball in 1934 by Wanda Sweida; a table runner made of pure wool in the colors of the rainbow always used at the Modern School handloomed in about 1932; a woven hanging depicting a woman bathing; and "Baby's First Toy," six knitted balls on a string given to the baby of Frances Browning by Anna Schwartz in November 1960. This item is an example of one of the toys designed by German educationalist Friedrich Froebel known as gifts, which were supposed "to train children in dexterity of movement and teach them something of the laws of nature." This particular example, known as "Gift 1," because the sphere was a child's first shape, was specified as being made up of six worsted balls of one and a half inches in diameter, red, yellow, blue, orange, green and violet. (9) | |||||||||||
| Additional items present are a mahogany square with a carving of a girl's face on the front, signed on the back, "Eleanor," and apparently sold for 50 cents at a Modern School benefit, and two cards done by six and a half year-olds Philip and Sasha Hourwich, one a birthday card for their mother made out of construction paper with linoleum cuts, and one a series of abstract designs in watercolor. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 19 (newspaper box) | Froebel toy, known as a "gift" | ||||||||||
| In small box. | |||||||||||
| Rug | |||||||||||
| 51" x 19.25" when unfolded. | |||||||||||
| Table runner | |||||||||||
| 59.5" x 15.75" when unfolded. | |||||||||||
| Weaving depicting a woman bathing | |||||||||||
| Mounted; 15.5" x 15.5" | |||||||||||
| Mahagony block--Girl's face on front, signed "Eleanor" on back | |||||||||||
| In small box. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 21 | 16 | Birthday Card by Philip and Sasha, undated | |||||||||
| 17 | Drawings, watercolor and abstract, undated | ||||||||||
| 18 | Drawing booklet, undated | ||||||||||
| 19 | Drawing by Fermin Rocker, 1939 | ||||||||||
| 20 | [10] Facsimiles of drawings by Clara Solomon, 1924 | ||||||||||
| 21 | Weaving, undated | ||||||||||
| Donated by Beatrice Markowitz | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 24 (phase box) | Weaving, 1928 | ||||||||||
| Donated and woven by Sophie (Stechbardt) Mozenter | |||||||||||
| COLLECTED MATERIALS CONCERNING OTHER MODERN SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES, 1917-1932 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Publications and photocopied materials about other Modern Schools and anarchist communities. | |||||||||||
| Includes an issue of Experimental Schools (1917), the bulletin of the Bureau of Educational Experiments, with articles about Stony Ford School in Stony Ford, New York, and the Home School in Sparkill, New York; two issues of Open Pages (1932), a magazine of stories, poems, and linoleum cuts by children from the Modern School in the Mohegan Colony in Peekskill, New York; and a broadside from the Manumit School in Pawling, New York (1928). | |||||||||||
| Also includes photocopies of a hearing about the incorporation of the April Farms Association, 1925. April Farms was a utopian community founded in Massachusetts in 1924, and moved to Quakertown, Pennsylvania, the following year. A number of anarchists lived there including several people from Stelton. The community, which was founded by millionaire Charles Garland, only lasted until 1930. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 21 | 22 | April Farms Incorporation Hearing Transcript (1 of 2), 1925 | |||||||||
| 23 | April Farms Incorporation Hearing Transcript (2 of 2), 1925 | ||||||||||
| 24 | Fairhope Single Tax and School of Organic Education, undated and 2000 | ||||||||||
| 25 | Fellowship Farms, circa 1930s | ||||||||||
| 26 | Manumit Summer School [Pawling, New York], 1928 | ||||||||||
| 27 | Modern School in Los Angeles, undated | ||||||||||
| Piece of William Thurston Brown's "The Education for Tomorrow's Men and Women," facsimile | |||||||||||
| 28 | Modern School in Philadelphia, 1911-1915 | ||||||||||
| General information, including Anarchist Brown's Creed, facsimile | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 12 | 1 | Open Pages [Mohegan Colony], April-July, 1932 | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 21 | 28 | Stonyford School, "Experimental Schools," 1917 | |||||||||
| original | |||||||||||
| 29 | The Stonyford School, 1917 | ||||||||||
| facsimile | |||||||||||
| PUBLICATIONS INCLUDING REFERENCES TO THE MODERN SCHOOL AND INDIVIDUALS ASSOCIATED WITH IT, 1911-1941 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Publications including articles about the Modern School or concerning individuals who were associated with it. | |||||||||||
| Includes a Modern School special issue of the Los Angeles radical journal Everyman (1914), edited by Leonard Abbott; an issue of the Los Angeles vegetarian-fruitarian-humanitarian journal Human Culture Digest (1941) containing several articles about the Modern School and the Ferms; and an incomplete run of Mother Earth(1911-1917), the prominent anarchist journal edited by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Founded in 1906, Mother Earth, published frequent articles about Francisco Ferrer and the Modern School movement, as well as publishing advertisements and appeals for funds for the Modern School of Stelton. This series also includes an issue of its namesake Mother Earth (1933), a Thoreavian anarchist newsletter published in Craryville, New York, by Jo Ann Wheeler and John G. Scott, former teachers at the Modern School and residents of Stelton. | |||||||||||
| Finally this series contains a program from a conference held by the Road to Freedom Group in Stelton in 1934, in which they discussed organizing an Anarchist Federation of Americirca The Road to Freedom Group were members of the Modern School Association of North Americirca | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 12 | 2 | Everyman [Los Angeles, California] , 1914 | |||||||||
| Modern School Special Issue. | |||||||||||
| 3 | The Human Culture Digest , 1941 | ||||||||||
| Articles about the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| 4 | Mother Earth, 1911-1912 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Mother Earth, 1914-1915 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Mother Earth, May-October 1916 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Mother Earth, December 1916-January 1917 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Mother Earth, March-August 1917 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Mother Earth, Craryville, New York, 1933 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Broadsheet re. proposed Anarchist Federation of America, 1934 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 28 | 1 | Lilly Raymond, Poems, undated | |||||||||
| 2 small bookelts | |||||||||||
| 2 | Bernard Sernaker documents, 1918-1920, 1996 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Bernard Sernaker documents, 1918-1922, 2007 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Harry Kelly, "Nicholas Tchaikosky," Freedom, June 1919 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Bernard Sernaker documents in Harry Weinberg papers at Yale University Library, 1920-1921, 1996 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Julius Schwartz, "A Study of the Ferrer Colony," 1952 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Arthur Mark, "Two Libertarian Educators: Elizabeth Byrne Ferm and Alexis Constantine Ferm", 1976 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Howard Rosen, "The Ferrer Association and its Modern School," 1986 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 29 | 9 | Aero-Gramme, no. 12 and no. 23 1994, 1998 | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 28 | 10 | Various notes on publications and collections, ca. 2000 | |||||||||
| 11 | Free Voices, 2001, 2003 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Edgar Tafel, 2001, 2003 | ||||||||||
| 13 | "Community Schools," Maxine De Felice, "The Ferrer Colony," and People's Culture, 2001, 2004 | ||||||||||
| 14 | Land and Liberty time line (Kelly-Krimont-Edelman[n] families) draft, 2004 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Land and Liberty footnotes (Kelly-Krimont-Edelman[n] families) draft, 2004 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Small publications regarding Bobby Pearl, Bill Giacalone, and the Shaws, undated and 2005 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Helen West Heller (artist), 2005-2008 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Obituaries, 2006 | ||||||||||
| 19 | S.L. Shane (artist), Stanley Rosen 2006 | ||||||||||
| 20 | "Looking for Roger Heller," 2008 | ||||||||||
| 21 | "The 20th Engineers at Camp Kilmer: The Brown Family," 2010 | ||||||||||
| MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS, undated | |||||||||||
| Summary: Printed items presumably used for teaching at the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| Includes maps of the colonial United States from a textbook and a photocopy of a short story or chapter from a children's book by Jack Sher, Memo on Kathy O'Rourke. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 12 | 11 | Maps and short stories, undated | |||||||||
| 12 | Sheet Music, undated | ||||||||||
| FRIENDS OF THE MODERN SCHOOL, 1974-2011 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Founded in 1973, the Friends of the Modern School is an organization that aims to protect the history and legacy of Francisco Ferrer and the Stelton Modern School. Founded by Sally Axelrod, Paul Avrich, Abe Bluestein, Harmony (Sernaker) and Tony Coppola, Rina (Winokour) Garst, Eva (Yanpolsky)Knezick, Jim, Nellie and Ann Dick, Valerio Isca, Bea Markowitz, Harold and Lola (Kenner) Pollack, Clara (Freedman) and Sydney Solomon, and Jo Ann Wheeler (Scott, Burbank), the Friends began as a way for those directly impacted by the Modern School to have a space to discuss their lives and the impact the Modern School has had on them. Harmony Coppola, an archivist at Rutgers, suggested that a collection of writings and other materials related to the Modern School be donated or acquired. Through reunions, lectures, publications, and community projects, the Friends grew to consider wider implications of anarchism and libertarian education while maintaining their own history. The majority of the series is correspondence, mostly between Jon Scott and other parties. Included in the series are documents detailing reunion activities and planning, publications produced by the Friends detailing the history and significance of the school, interviews and reminiscences with member of the colony, and miscellaneous projects. | |||||||||||
| General Correspondence contains materials by such writers as Jon Scott and Fernanda Perrone. Of special interest are email chains from the 2000s that contain informal reminiscences shared by former Modern School attendees, and/or their children. | |||||||||||
| Reunion Documents is comprised of announcements, attendance, newsletters, and financial statements. | |||||||||||
| Publications and Manuscripts includes the manuscript of A Modern School Reader by Paul Avrich; drafts and materials regarding Victor Sacharoff's Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton, NJ, and small miscellaneous publications not related to the Modern School, but published by a member of the Friends. Of special interest is the manuscript of Paul Avrich's last book, A Modern School Reader, which collected original writings by members of the Modern School and Francisco Ferrer in one book. | |||||||||||
| Projects and Proposals are proposals and exhibition documents that the Friends sponsored or actively pursued. Projects include the exhibtiion An Anarchist Experiment at Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives and the creation of a memorial plaque at the cite of the Modern School Building in Stelton, NJ. Of special note is the Goldman House Project, which aims to preserve the original Goldman family house in Piscataway, both as a work of art and as an historic landmark. | |||||||||||
| Interviews and Recollections consists of transcipts of interviews from members of the Ferrer Colony, and those who attended the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| Photographs includes images of Modern School Reunions, the Memorial Plaque dedication and images of the original colony houses. | |||||||||||
| Audio and Visual Recordings consists of recordings of lectures at Modern School Reunions and a film produced by Bob Rosen detailing the significance of the Modern School and the Goldman House Project. | |||||||||||
| General Correspondence | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 25 | 1 | General Correspondence, 1974-1977 | |||||||||
| 2 | General Correspondence, ca. 1990s | ||||||||||
| 3 | General Correspondence, 1990-1991 | ||||||||||
| 4 | General Correspondence, 1992-1999 | ||||||||||
| Donated by Marge Oleski | |||||||||||
| 5 | Regarding Modern School Architect, 1997-2003 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Regarding Hippolyte Havel, 1998-1999 | ||||||||||
| 7 | General Correspondence, 2000-2003 | ||||||||||
| 8 | General Correspondence, 2004-2005 | ||||||||||
| 9 | General Correspondence (1 of 2), 2006 | ||||||||||
| 10 | General Correspondence (2 of 2), 2006 | ||||||||||
| Regarding Paul Avrich memorial | |||||||||||
| 11 | General Correspondence, 2007-2008 | ||||||||||
| 12 | General Correspondence, 2009 | ||||||||||
| 13 | General Correspondence, 2010-2011 | ||||||||||
| Reunion Documents | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 25 | 14 | Reunion Documents, 1976 | |||||||||
| 15 | Leela Axelrod Presentation and Sheet Music, circa 1990s | ||||||||||
| 16 | Reunion Documents, 1990 | ||||||||||
| 17 | 19th Reunion Documents, 1991 | ||||||||||
| 18 | 20th Reunion Documents, 1992 | ||||||||||
| 19 | Modern School Reunion Songs, 1992 | ||||||||||
| 20 | 21st Reunion Documents, 1993 | ||||||||||
| 21 | 22nd Reunion Documents, 1994 | ||||||||||
| 22 | 23rd Reunion Documents, 1995 | ||||||||||
| 23 | 24th Reunion Documents, 1996 | ||||||||||
| 24 | 25th Reunion Documents, 1997 | ||||||||||
| 25 | 26th Reunion Documents, 1998 | ||||||||||
| 26 | Attendance Records, 1991-1999 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 29 | 1 | Reunion Documents, 1999 | |||||||||
| 2 | Reunion Documents, 1999 | ||||||||||
| Reunion Questionaire | |||||||||||
| 3 | Reunion Documents, 2000 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Reunion Documents, 2001-2004 | ||||||||||
| 5 | History of the Reunion and the Future, 2005 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Reunion Presentation, 2005 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Printout of Powerpoint Presentation (1 of 3), 2005 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Printout of Powerpoint Presentation (2 of 3), 2005 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Printout of Powerpoint Presentation (3 of 3), 2005 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Reunion Documents, 2006-2008 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Reunion Documents, 2008-2010 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Reunion Address Lists and Labels, 1991 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Reunion Address List, 2003 | ||||||||||
| 14 | Financial Documents, 2003-2009 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Meeting Minutes, 1998, 2003-2010 | ||||||||||
| Publications and Manuscripts | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 29 | 14 | Various Clippings Regarding the Friends, 1990s | |||||||||
| 15 | Various Clippings Regarding the Friends, 1990s | ||||||||||
| 16 | Paul Avrich, A Modern School Reader, draft, 2005 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Abe Bluestein, ed., The Modern School Movement, 1990 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Frank Miller, Stories, 1996 | ||||||||||
| possibly autobiographical | |||||||||||
| 19 | Victor Sacharoff Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ, first draft 1990 | ||||||||||
| 20 | Victor Sacharoff Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ, second draft 1990 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 30 | 1 | Victor Sacharoff Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ, third draft 1990 | |||||||||
| 2 | Victor Sacharoff Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ, fourth draft 2003 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Victor Sacharoff Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ, fifth draft 2003 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Victor Sacharoff, Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ, 2007 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Victor Sacharoff, materials for Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ, 1999-2003 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Victor Sacharoff, materials for Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ,third tract family map 2003 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Review of Recollections of the Ferrer Modern School Colony of Stelton NJ, circa 2005 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Jon Scott Top Down Techtonics, 2015 | ||||||||||
| Projects and Proposals | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 30 | 9 | An Anarchist Experiment Exhibition Checklist, 1996-1997 | |||||||||
| 10 | Goldman House Project Proposal, 2011 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Goldmanhouse Project, Family Correspondence, 1952-1953 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Miscellaneous Projects, 1998-2005 | ||||||||||
| Interviews and Recollections | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 23 [encapsulation] | Colony Map, drawn from memory by Edgar Tafel, September 19, 1991 | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 30 | 13 | Transcript of Interview with Leo Goldman, 2011 | |||||||||
| 14 | Regarding Elizabeth Haffen (Gaffen?), 2015 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Clara Solomon Interview, 1997 | ||||||||||
| [2 tapes, 1 disk] | |||||||||||
| 16 | Transcripts for Aaron Wunderlich Interview, 2001 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Various Recollections, circa 1990s-2000s0 | ||||||||||
| Photographs | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 32 | 1 | Modern School Reunion, 1959, 1974-1975 | |||||||||
| 2 | Modern School reunion, New Brunswick, NJ, circa 1993 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Modern School Reunion, 1995, 1998 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Modern School Reunion, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1996 | ||||||||||
| Photographed and donated by Stanley Rosen | |||||||||||
| 5 | Modern School Reunion, 1997 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Modern School, 31st reunion, 2003 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Friends of the Modern School, memorial plaque dedication, 2005 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Rue Francisco Ferrer, Bagnolt, France, circa 1993 | ||||||||||
| [2] | |||||||||||
| 9 | Bust of Francisco Ferrer, 2007 | ||||||||||
| Audio and Visual Recordings | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 22 | Videocassette, Modern School Reunion, featuring Nellie Dick and Paul Avrich, 1990 | ||||||||||
| Videocassette, Modern School Reunion, featuring Edgar Tafel, 1991 | |||||||||||
| Videocassette, Nellie Dick's 100th birthday party, May 1, 1993 | |||||||||||
| Videocassette, "An Anarchist Experiment," at Alexander Library, September 27, 1996 | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 27 | 1 | Audio Cassette Lecture, "An Anarchist Experiment," Alexander Library, September 27, 1996 | |||||||||
| 1 | Videocassette, "An Anarchist Experiment," Alexander Library, and Modern School Reunion September 28, 1996 | ||||||||||
| 1 | Audio Cassette Lecture, Modern School Alumni at the Piscataway Historical Society, September 23, 1997 | ||||||||||
| 2 | VHS, Modern School Reunion, 2000 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Aaron Wunderich, "The Stelton Modern School," May 2001 | ||||||||||
| [2 copies] | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 32 | 10 | Videocassette, Modern School Reunion, 2002 | |||||||||
| 11 | DVD, Bob Rosen, "The Stelton Colony: A Personal Appreciation," 2014 | ||||||||||
| MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTED ITEMS RELATED TO FRANCISCO FERRER, ANARCHISM, AND LIBERTARIAN EDUCATION, undated, 1924, 1970s, 1990, and 2006 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Collected items created at the Modern School. | |||||||||||
| This series consists of collected books, articles, letters, and a brinze relief sculpture of and by individuals associated with anarchism and liberatarian education. Items of special interest include a facsimile of a letter from John Edelman to anarchist writer Emma Goldman, and an essay on Froebel's educational methods. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 31 (phase box) | Bronze Relief Sculpture of Errico Malatesta, undated | ||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 32 | 12 | Free Voice of Labor , ripped page in Yiddish, undated | |||||||||
| 13 | Facsimile of a Letter from John Edelman to Emma Goldman, 1924 | ||||||||||
| 14 | Where Kubla Khan Ruled, 1937 | ||||||||||
| 15 | History of the Kindergarten Movement, 1939 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Froebel and education principles, circa 1970- ca.1990 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Pere Sola, Francisco Ferrer I Guardia L'escola Moderna, 1991 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Francisco Ferrer y Guardia Un Revolucionario Que No Hay Olvidar, 1993 | ||||||||||
| 19 | Spain 1936-1939: Gravediggers of the Revolution, ca. 2000 | ||||||||||
| Pura Arcos | |||||||||||
| 20 | The Ferrer Collection Finding Aid, 2006 | ||||||||||
| SALLY BROWN DIARIES, 1943-1946 | |||||||||||
| Summary: Sally Brown lived on School Street in the Ferrer colony and attended the Modern School as a child. These four manuscript diaries describe her years as a student at New Brunswick High School during the Second World War. They document her interactions with peers in person and correspondence with classmates serving overseas, work at Camp Kilmer, teenage romances, ethical problems, and how teenage girls in the colony dealt with GIs from Camp Kilmer. | |||||||||||
| Arrangement: Arranged chronologically. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 43 | 1 | 1943 | |||||||||
| 2 | 1944 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 1945 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 1946 | ||||||||||
| RESTRICTED | |||||||||||
| Summary: Fragile Original Documents Represented Above by Preservation Photocopies. | |||||||||||
| MINUTES AND DOCUMENTS OF THE FERRER MODERN SCHOOL ASSOCIATION | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| A | 1 | Trustees' and Association Minutes, 1958-1961 | |||||||||
| MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE MODERN SCHOOL ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| A | 2 | Annual convention: minutes, 1931 and 1946-1948 | |||||||||
| 3 | Annual Convention: Reports of the Principal, 1922-1938 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Annual Convention: Reports of the Principal, 1939-1947 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Reports of Teacher Anna Schwartz, 1936-1940 and 1943-1950 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Reports of Teachers other than Anna Schwartz, 1922-1948 | ||||||||||
| REPORTS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| A | 7 | Principal's Reports, 1922-1925 | |||||||||
| 8 | Principal's Reports, 1933-1939 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Secretary's Reports/Financial Reports, 1920-1948 | ||||||||||
| CORRESPONDENCE AND REPORTS OF THE PRINCIPAL | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| A | 10 | Report to Parent-Teacher Meeting, January 19, 1939 | |||||||||
| 11 | Report to the Conference, June 1-2, 1935 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Letter, 1920 | ||||||||||
| DOCUMENTATION OF MISCELLANEOUS MEETINGS | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| A | 13 | Minutes of a Meeting concerning Elizabeth Byrne Ferm's book, 1946 | |||||||||
| ALEXIS FERM PAPERS AND COLLECTED CORRESPONDENCE | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| A | 14 | Writings: "Education and Schooling" and "Educational Methods" | |||||||||
| ELIZABETH BYRNE FERM PAPERS | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| A | 15-17 | Typescript Chapters from Freedom in Education | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| B | 1-2 | Typescripts of Published Articles | |||||||||
| 3 | Lectures, 1895-1900s | ||||||||||
| 4 | Poems, 1906 | ||||||||||
| 5-6 | Miscellaneous Writings, Notes, etc. | ||||||||||
| SCHOOL PUBLICATIONS | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| C | 1 | Bavardage, June and September 1931 | |||||||||
| 2 | Bavardage, April, July and August 1932 | ||||||||||
| 3 | The Stelton Outlook, September-November 1932 | ||||||||||
| 4 | The Neverready Gossiper, Octoer 7, October 14, October 28, and November 11 1932 | ||||||||||
| PHOTOGRAPHS | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| D (phase box) | Goldman Family Scrapbook, circa 1900-circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| E (phase box) | Goldman Family Scrapbook, circa 1900-circa 1950 | ||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| F (phase box) | Goldman Family Scrapbook, circa 1930-circa 1980 | ||||||||||