Library Home Page > Library Index A to Z > Archives Home Page > Guide to the Archives Collection

Bank Street College Archives: Record Group 10, Subgroup 1

RECORD GROUP 10, Subgroup 1
Harriet M. Johnson Papers (1917-1937, 1979)

Biographical Note
Scope and Content Note
Descriptions
Container List

Photo: Harriet Johnson in an undated photo.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Harriet M. Johnson was born in 1867 in Bangor, Maine. She was a graduate of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital and worked as a district nurse at the Henry Street Settlement. Through this work she became interested in the needs of young children, and was among the founding members of the Bureau of Educational Experiments. She was the founder and first director of the Bureau's nursery school, which would later be named in her honor.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The collection documents Harriet Johnson's professional work from 1917 until her death in 1934, and is divided into four series. These are correspondence; lectures, transcripts, and published and unpublished writings; observations and notes; and personal and biographical materials. It appears that many of these materials were assembled after Johnson's death by her colleagues from within their own files and from materials kept in the Library. Additional materials were collected by her daughter, Polly Forbes-Johnson Storey.

DESCRIPTIONS

SERIES A - Correspondence (1919-1934) consists of correspondence between Lucy Sprague Mitchell and Harriet Johnson. The series also includes correspondence with Barbara Biber, Susan Isaacs, Frederick Ellis and Dr. Tiebout.

SERIES B - Lectures, Transcripts, and Published and Unpublished Writings (1917-1932, n.d.) includes published articles, notes, and drafts, as well as lectures and speeches given at meetings of various parent and professional associations. Also included are notes for lectures given to classes at Teachers College and the Vassar Summer Institute.

SERIES C - Observations and Notes (1919-1921) consists primarily of observations of Harriet Johnson's daughter, Polly Forbes-Johnson. Also included are observations of other children, a floor plan for the Nursery School, and other unidentified notes.

SERIES D - Personal and Biographical Materials (1934-1937, 1979, n.d.) consists of materials collected by Polly Forbes-Johnson Storey, including correspondence, publications, and photographs, as well as obituaries and memorial tributes. Harriet Johnson's bookplate is also included.

CONTAINER LIST

 

Box	Subgroup	Series	Title/Contents	Date
1	1	A	Correspondence	1919-1934
		B	Published and unpublished writings and notes, 20 folders	1917-1936
			Lectures and transcripts, 9 folders	1928-1931
		C	Notes, 2 folders	Circa 1919
			Observations and children’s drawings	1921
			Polly Forbes-Johnson observations, notes, reports	1919-1920
		D	Bookplate	n.d.
			Memorials and obituaries, 3 folders	1934-1937
			Correspondence- Polly Forbes-Johnson Storey	1934, 1979
			Publications collected by PFJS	1934, n.d.
			Photographs and negatives	n.d.

 

Record Group 1 > Record Group 2 > Record Group 3 > Record Group 4 > Record Group 5 > Record Group 10