Number 4

Summer 2004

NEWS FROM THE FIELD: CONFERENCES AND EXHIBITS

Janet Golden and David Pomfret, Editors

UPCOMING CONFERENCES YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS

McCord/Hannah Colloquium: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Child Health in the Twentieth Century. Montreal, Quebec, October 29 & 30, 2004
Organized jointly by the McCord Museum and McGill University, this colloquium will bring together scholars in history, anthropology, sociology, medicine, film, cultural studies, and art history, to examine the history of child health in the twentieth century. The conference will feature international and interdisciplinary perspectives. Session topics include: the historiography of child health in North America and Europe; responses to child health problems in comparative perspective; the public image and social role of the sick or suffering child; the quantification of children’s health; images of health, disease and death; and hearing the voice of the sick child. McCord Museum of Canadian History. Information and Registration: melanie.martens@mccord.mcgill.ca

The 13th Biennial Conference of Canadian History of Education Association/L’Association Canadienne d’Histoire de l’Éducation will be held in Calgary, Alberta between October 21-24, 2004. The theme of this year’s conference is “Interdisciplinarity in the Practice and Theory of Educational Histories.” The theme is intended to encompass paper and panel sessions that discuss the histories of education from a variety of academic fields, disciplines, methodologies, comparative perspectives, theories, and arguments. Those interested in attending the conference can visit the website at http://chea-ache.ucalgary.ca/.

A one-day conference will be held at University College and Merton College, Oxford on 9 September 2004, entitled, “Women and Education in Britain, 1800-1920: Extending the Boundaries.” The conference aims to build on recent scholarship on the history of women’s education in Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, by investigating broader cultural, economic and political dimensions to educational reform. The Deadline for Registration is 9 August 2004. For more information contact:kathryn.eccles@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk

The Second Biennial Urban History Conference of the Urban History Association will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee on October 7-10, 2004. The recently published tentative program includes several papers and one session devoted to issues related to children and youth. The complete (although tentative) program o can be accessed at http://www.unl.edu/uha/conf.html

Two complete sessions will deal with children and youth in American cities: "Schooling and Social Movements in Northern Cities and Suburbs" will include Heather Lewis (NYU), "Mayors and Movements: Community Control, Decentralization, and Re-Centralization in New York City’s School System"; Crystal Byndloss (MDRC), "Building Upon Segregation as a Centerpiece for Reform in the 1960s Community Control Struggle in New York City"; and Jacak Dougherty (Trinity College), "The Transformation of Suburban Schools in Post-War Hartford and Milwaukee." "Voices of Youth in Urban America" will feature James Marten (Marquette University) on "The Echo Writers Workshop and African American Youth in Milwaukee"; Joe Austin, (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) on "Urban History, Cultural Studies, and Youth Cultures"; and Jennifer Tilton (Wesleyan University) on "Whose Streets?: Youth and Adult Activists’ Struggle Over the Place of Youth in the City." In addition, Janis Appier (University of Tennessee) will present "Predelinquents and Social Scientists: Urban Juvenile Delinquency during the Great Depression," while Joseph C. Bigott (Purdue University-Calumet) will offer "How High Schools Became Common: Architecture, Education, and Social Compromise in Metropolitan Chicago, 1920 to 1960."

Segregation and Resegregation: Wisconsin's Unfinished Experience.
In October 2004, the Marquette University School of Law will hold the second of two conferences it is sponsering this year on Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. The first conference took place on April 8, 2004. After a brief introduction by law professor and historian J. Gordon Hylton on the legal issues confronted by the Brown decision, the audience--made up of members of the Marquette and Milwaukee communities--viewed the film "The Road to Brown." This was followed by presentations and reminiscences by lawyers and politicians of the legal maneuvering in the 1960s and 1970s that finally led to the desegregation of Milwaukee Public Schools. The keynote address, delivered by Prof. Mildred W. Robinson of the UVA School of Law, was entitled "Why We Must Remember." The October conference will be called “Tomorrow's Children: Securing Brown's Promise for American Society.” Conference organizers have encouraged participants in the desegregation of Milwaukee schools to send their reminiscences to the Law School; some may be published with the conference proceedings. Website: http://law.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/site.pl?conf/conf1

CONFERENCES YOU’LL WANT TO KNOW ABOUT EVEN THOUGH YOU’VE MISSED THEM!

The International Conference on Child Slavery, held in Avignon from 20-22 May 2004, was a great success. Using an innovative approach placing primary emphasis upon discussion rather than the conventional reading of papers a group of scholars drawn primarily from North America and Britain discussed notions, representations and experiences of child slavery in the historical contexts of Africa, Asia, America and Europe from Antiquity to the present day.

On 3 July 2004 at the Royal Holloway a conference was held on Age, Gender and Domestic Culture. The meeting was intended to discuss age, gender and the definition of house, home and domestic space. For more information see: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/bedford-centre

EXHIBITS – United States
Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past
It is not widely known that ancient Greek artists were the first to create images of children that showed them as they were instead of as miniature adults. They also observed and recorded children’s characteristic gestures, their bonding with parents and caregivers, their various activities from learning to crawl to assisting in religious ceremonies, and their love of play. In the absence of extensive written testimony about children from this period, artifacts and images are a vital link to the lives of girls and boys from birth to adolescence.
“Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past” is the first major exhibition to explore these images of childhood from ancient Greece. Over 120 art objects on loan from American, Canadian, and European collections chronicle the emotional and familial environment in which children were raised, their participation in religious rituals, the commemorative objects that marked their early death, and their transition to adulthood. The exhibition also presents images and stories of children in mythology. Painted vases, sculptures, grave monuments, and artifacts such as toys and baby feeders bring ancient Greek children’s experiences to life.

Cincinnati Art Museum May 21–August 1, 2004
Website: http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/greatart/exhibitions_greece.html
J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles September 14–December 5, 2004
Website: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/future/

The Campbell Kids
Okay, they aren't real kids, but the chubby cherub-faced twins known as the Campbell Kids have served as advertising mascots for the Campbell Soup Co. since 1904. Since they were first drawn--the work of Philadelphia illustrator Grace Wiederseim Drayton-the Kids have appeared in thousands of ads and commercials, and have been reproduced in myriad Campbell's promotional products. Over the years, the Kids have changed somewhat, adapting to radio, TV, and the changing times-including a 1998 update that slimmed down their original pudginess. This exhibition, drawn from Campbell's archives, celebrates100 years of this advertising icon, showcasing dozens of versions of the Kids and providing insight into American culture of the past century.

Napa California August 6, 2004 - January 31, 2005
Website: http://www.copia.org/pages/exhibitions.asp

Lunchbox Memories
Yes, there are more food and childhood exhibits out there including this one produced by the Smithosonian Instititutions's Traveling Exhibition Service.

Batman and Robin, the Lone Ranger, Bullwinkle and Rocky, Indiana Jones. What do these famous characters of television, comic strip, and film share in common? All have graced the sides of yesterday’s metal lunch box. Like an old song, a metal lunch box takes us back in time, recalling school days or workdays, favorite foods, a friend. Yet, the boxes can move us beyond personal reminiscence. They comprise a kind of national memory, with illustrations reminding us of important themes in American popular culture. With their vibrant images, these boxes reintroduce us to our challenges, our dreams, our heroes, ourselves. A lunch box was not merely a lunch box, but a statement of who we were.

Lunch Box Memories tells the story of the metal lunch box, from its humble beginnings in the 1860s to its demise in the 1980s. It follows changes in the appearance and design of the lunch box, from the strictly functional tins and pails of our agricultural past, to illustrated metal lunch boxes with dazzling treatments of contemporary media stars, to today’s plastic and vinyl containers. The exhibition also touches upon the 75-year rivalry between two major companies, American Thermos and Aladdin Industries. Drawn from the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Behring Center, and various lenders, the lunch boxes featured in the exhibition include some of the most rare and most significant boxes available to collectors today. Among the most prized are: the Mickey Mouse Oval (1935), the first character lunch box; Hopalong Cassidy (1950), the first box based on a well known TV hero; and The Beatles (1965), the first metal lunch box to use pop music performers, embossed 3-D portraits, and individual signatures.

Catch it at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg Counties, Charlotte, North Carolina, August 7, 2004-October 3, 2004.
For future exhibit sites go to: http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibit_toursched.asp?id=63

La Hacienda de los Martinez
At “La Hacienda de los Martinez”one of the three historic home museums in Taos there is a a photography exhibit of children ages 2 to 10 building their own adobe casita. The hacienda is celebrating its Doscientos Anos this year, and the building of the casita using traditional methods last summer was a part of the celebration. The children spent the months of June through August working 4 or 5 days a week. They screened dirt, chopped straw and mixed mud for the adobe. They made bricks, dried and turned and cleaned them, dug their foundation trench and filled it with river rocks, laid the bricks, made mortar and mud plaster.
The project was done in conjunction with the Taos Children's Museum and was overseen by the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office to insure historical accuracy.

For more information see the website http://www.taoshistoricmuseums.com/

Charleston Children: Fashion, Furniture and Fun, 1750-1950
Children haven not always dressed in t-shirts and blue jeans. For centuries, clothing for children was dictated by fashion codes similar to those of adults, sometimes as restrictive and as impractical. From fashionable skeleton suits to silk taffeta dresses, the exhibit looks at how clothing for children has evolved into present-day casual. Boys in dresses and Little Lord Fauntleroy suits may startle you, high button shoes may amaze you and delicate gowns may delight you. Some of the styles and fabrics might even surprise you.
From the collections of The Charleston Museum, we present an exhibition of children's clothing, furniture, toys and games. Supplemented with historic photographs and children's books from the Archives, Charleston Children promises to be a lighthearted look at how children lived and dressed in Charleston over the centuries. Though the exhibit focuses on clothing styles, we will include a wide array of children's pasttimes' from tricycles to dollhouses, from toy soldiers to tea sets. Interactive puzzles and games will make this display fun for the whole family. While production on Kidstory (our permanent children's room installation) progresses behind the scenes, we will take a look at the children of yesterday, the way they dressed and the games they played.

Hurry up! The exhibit closes August 31, 2004
For more information go to http://www.charlestonmuseum.org

CHILDREN’S MUSEUMS AND EXHIBITS IN EUROPE and CANADA

-Germany

Opening soon: The Freilichtmuseum am Kiekeberg (open air museum) near Hamburg will be opening an exhibition about "Childhood in the 1950s and 60s" as the third part of the 1950s and 60s exhibition "Petticoat und Frontlader" in June. For more information go to: http://www.kiekeberg-museum.de/

Memories to share? The Allied Museum in Berlin is planning (for 2006) a temporary exhibit on the Berlin American High School from 1946-1994. The exhibit will touch on the history of youth in the Cold War era. Get in touch with curator Florian Weiss at weiss@alliiertenmuseum.de. The Allied Museum (Alliierten Museum) is located at Clayallee 135 D-14195 Berlin. For more on the museum see: http://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/

-England

Recently opened in London is a new exhibit entitled, Beauty Queens: Smiles, Swimsuits and Sabotage. The exhibit will run from 3 June to 28 August 2004, at The Women's Library and entrance is free. The exhibit deals primarily with the cultural history of the beauty pageant and the representation of young womanhood in the British context. The Women’s Library is located at Old Castle Street, London E1 7NT. For more information see: http://www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk/

Also recently opened (on 15 June 2004) is the new Foundling Museum in London. The collection housed here is that of the Foundling Hospital, which was the first home in London for abandoned infants (opened in 1745). It was also London’s first public art gallery thanks to the work of its patron, William Hogarth. The museum is located in Brunswick Square, London. Direct enquiries to: enquiries@foundlingmuseum.org.uk, and see http://www.coram.org.uk/heritage.htm

Always worth a visit: The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green contains one of the largest and oldest collections of toys and childhood artifacts in the world. As well as its permanent displays. The collection, which dates from the sixteenth century to the present day is permanently on display to visitors, comprises dolls, dolls houses, teddy bears, toy soldiers, train sets, model cars, puppets, rocking horses, board games and some of the very first jigsaw puzzles ever made. In addition, the Museum houses the national collection of children's costume. The upper gallery is devoted to the theme of growing up through the ages. With its unique display of baby equipment, nursery furniture and children's costume, the gallery explores the experience of childhood from birth to adolescence. For more information: http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/nmc/index.html

Also in Britain: The Abbey House Museum in Leeds has been collecting toys, dolls and games since at least the 1920s and now hold one of the major collections in the country. The objects range from 18th century costume dolls to the latest high-street crazes, from toy trains to jig-saws. A large selection of 19th century toys can be seen in the Childhood Gallery. See: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/abbeyhouse/

It wasn't all toys and dolls. Visit the Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate in Cheshire to see the Apprentice House. First in 1790 (with later additions) and could house up to 100 children. By 1800 there were 90 children living at the House, 60 girls and 30 boys. They represented 50% of the total workforce at the Mill at that time. The majority were aged between 10 years and 12 years and were contracted to work for a period of 7 years. Among the rooms in the original house were the living accommodation of the master and mistress who ran the house , the schoolroom, the kitchen, the boys' and girls' dormitories and the punishment room. See: http://www.quarrybankmill.org.uk/tours/apprenticehouse.asp

“Childhood: From Perambulator to Playstation,” opened on May 1 at the Royal Pump Room Museum in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. For more information go to http://www.harrogate.gov.uk/museums/index.html?html/museums/mus04.htm~main
Then click on “exhibitions and events”

-Canada

Growing Up in Montreal October 29, 2004-February 4, 2006. Come experience Montreal through the eyes of a child--from the alleyways and playgrounds to nurseries and classrooms--and discover twentiethth-century innovations and discoveries that changed their lives. For more information: http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/homepage.php3