Collections ManagementMay CARLI Member Archives Collection Highlight: National Louis University
In 1886, Elizabeth Harrison founded a training class for women to prepare them to teach in the emerging kindergarten movement. One hundred and forty years later, her vision lives on as National Louis University, which, today, serves more than 13,000 students across the world. From its earliest days, NLU has been guided by a commitment to educational access, teacher preparation, and innovation and its history is one that is deeply rooted in education reform, the advancement of women in higher education, and community prosperity. As NLU celebrates 140 years of educational excellence, it also reflects on the remarkable legacy and that has shaped its proud history.
The NLU Archives and Special Collections collects, organizes, and preserves this rich history through early institutional documents, photographs, artifacts, personal papers, and publications. Among the most significant collections are the papers of founder Elizabeth Harrison, which document her move to Chicago to pursue a career in education, her leadership and work in a budding kindergarten movement, and her building an internationally recognized institution.
The collection includes correspondence with colleagues and many of the leading educators of the time including Kate Douglas Wiggin and William Torey Harris, which reflects the professional networks and intellectual exchanges that helped shaped early childhood education in the United States. Her manuscripts, lectures, published and unpublished writings highlight her educational philosophies and advocacy for kindergarten and early childhood education. Also included in the collection is the manuscript of her autobiography, later published posthumously, and offers a personal account of her life, educational vision, and how she built an institution.
Elizabeth Harrison’s personal library collection is another highlight of NLU archives. Many volumes contain her handwritten marginalia, annotations, and inscriptions which provides insight into her intellectual life, reading practices, and understanding of education and evolving educational concepts. Throughout her career, Harrison collected ephemeral materials, notes, memos, clippings, invitations, and travel documents, including a flier from the Chicago Kindergarten Club, which she helped to establish. These materials which provide glimpses into her daily life and work, and participation in national and international networks, and work promoting the American Kindergarten Movement.
These items, along with many others included in Elizabeth Harrison’s papers expand our understanding of her work as an educational leader, and highlight the intellectual foundations of her educational philosophies and professional networks through which she advanced the kindergarten movement in the United States.
Selected Images:
Caption: Elizabeth Harrison at her desk, 1916. National Louis University Archives and Special Collections
Caption: Chicago Kindergarten Club Announcement, 1893. National Louis University Archives and Special Collections
Caption: Elizabeth Harrison’s copy of The Montessori Method, 1912. National Louis University Archives and Special Collections
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