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Brooklyn schools collection

Call Number

CBHM.0006

Date

1828-2023, inclusive

Creator

Extent

20.3 Linear Feet
in 16 boxes, two flat file folders, and three shelves of loose volumes

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

The Brooklyn schools collection consists of materials relating to Brooklyn schools, both public and private, ranging from nursery schools to post-graduate institutions. Schools that are more robustly represented in the collection include Brooklyn Heights Seminary, Brooklyn Technical High School, and St. John's University.

Historical note

In colonial New York, young people primarily received education through private schoolmasters and tutors, and free schooling was available to poor families through the Dutch Reformed and Catholic churches. Following the establishment of a state government, the Regents of the University of the State of New York granted charters for secondary schools in the state; the first charter, in 1768, was for Erasmus Hall Academy, located in the present-day Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush. Individual school districts in Kings County were created based on village, town, or neighborhood boundaries, with each district receiving funding from local taxes, state contributions, and student tuition. This system continued into the mid-19th century, when Brooklyn created a municipal board of education in 1843 to oversee all schools in the city.

While the number of schools in Brooklyn grew, very few educational opportunities existed beyond the primary grades for the children of poor or working class parents. Secondary schools such as Erasmus Hall and the Brooklyn Female Academy (opened in 1846, and now known as the Packer Collegiate Institute) were private, and therefore only affordable for middle class and wealthy families. The Central Grammar School, founded in 1878, was the first public school in Brooklyn to offer secondary level classes. Out of Central Grammar School, Boys' High School and Girls' High School, the first public high schools in Brooklyn, were formed to meet the demand and need for free public education beyond elementary school. Higher education also became available in Brooklyn around this time, as the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (now known as Polytechnic Institute of New York University) conferred its first baccalaureate degrees in 1871, and St. Francis Academy evolved from a monastery and preparatory school to St. Francis College in 1885. Black children in Brooklyn attended separate schools until the 1880s, and the last school in New York City to be explicitly racially segregated was closed in 1900.

New York City consolidated in 1898. Immigration caused the student population to surge and during the 1950s the city's public school system enrolled more than a million students. Residential segregation led to racial segregation in schools and poor outcomes in poor neighborhoods and among students of color. In the 1960s, parents and residents began demanding change, including an especially acrimonious conflict in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville area in 1968. The school decentralization law of 1970 relieved these tensions, assigning governance of elementary and junior high schools to community boards, while high schools remained under the control of the Board of Education. National movements to provide bilingual education and special needs education came to New York City schools in the 1970s, but the city's public schools nonetheless still faced many shortcomings into the 1990s. In 2002, Mayor Michael Bloomberg successfully advocated to have control of the New York City school system transferred to the mayor. In the 2020s, the New York City public school system remains plagued by funding cuts and de facto segregation.

Sources

  1. Lopate, Carol. Education and Culture in Brooklyn: A History of Ten Institutions. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Brooklyn Education and Cultural Alliance, 1979.
  2. Ment, David. "Public schools." In Encyclopedia of New York City, ed. Kenneth T. Jackson, 955-961. New Haven: Yale University Press; New York: New-York Historical Society, 1995.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into two series. Series 1 consists of general material regarding education and schools in Brooklyn. Series 2 is arranged into sub-series alphabetically by school name. Within each school sub-series, materials are listed chronologically.

Scope and Contents

The Brooklyn schools collection consists of materials relating to Brooklyn schools, both public and private, ranging from nursery schools to post-graduate institutions. Schools that are more robustly represented in the collection include Brooklyn Heights Seminary, Brooklyn Technical High School, and St. John's University. Materials in the collection include school catalogues and circulars; student yearbooks; anniversary publications and histories; brochures; programs; newsletters; commencement programs; addresses; certificates of incorporation and articles of association; annual reports; photographs; report cards; diplomas; and alumni directories and publications.

The collection also includes one volume titled Souvenir of Our Public Schools, Brooklyn N.Y., which includes school staff listings, portraits of principals, and photographs of public school buildings in Brooklyn, dating from 1892.

Subjects

Organizations

Brooklyn Teachers Association; New York City Technical College; St. John's University (New York, N.Y.); Union Missionary Training Institute; Caldwell Institute (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Shore Road Academy (New York, N.Y.); Bryant & Stratton Business College; Columbian Institute and Kindergarten (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); P.S. 35 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Colby Academy (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Alexander Hamilton Vocational High School (New York. N.Y.); Grammar School 35 (New York, N.Y.); Commercial High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); De Severinus Academy of Fine and Applied Art (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Latin School for Boys; East Midwood Academy (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Nassau Institute (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Normal School for Physical Training; Trinity School (New York, N.Y.); Prospect Hill School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); St. Joseph's College for Women (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Music School; Misses Peck School of Music (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Music School Settlement (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Roosa School of Music (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Post-Graduate Medical School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); St. Catherine's Hall (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Preparatory School; South Brooklyn Female Seminary (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); St. Michael's Diocesan High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); College Grammar School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Harrison and Ranney's English and French Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Miss Hall's School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Heffley School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Miss Whitcomb's French, English, and German Day School for Young Ladies and Children; Harvey's Select School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); School District 15 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Miss Round's School for Girls (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Hebrew Educational Society of Brooklyn; Miss Katherine L. Maltby's Home and School for Young Ladies (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Kingsborough Community College; Long Island Business College (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Misses Crawford's School for Boys and Girls (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Lafayette Institute (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Prospect Park Institute (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Lafayette High School (New York, N.Y.); Prospect Heights School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Lockwood's New Academy; Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.). Eastern District High School; Master School of Music (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Van Doren's Institute for Young Ladies (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Froebel Academy; Walt Whitman School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Groschel Conservatory of Music (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Miss Dudley's Seminary for Young Ladies (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Greenleaf Female Institute; Brooklyn Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies; Brooklyn College of Pharmacy (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Law School; Brooklyn Juvenile High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Heights Seminary; Bedford Heights Institute (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brevoort School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Conservatory of Music (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Community-Woodward School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Auburn Academy and Educational Institute (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Academy of the Visitation (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Abraham Lincoln High School (New York, N.Y.); Bay Ridge High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn Evening High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn High school of Women's Garment Trades; Brooklyn Technical High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Catherine McAuley Commercial High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.); Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception; C.F. Young School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)

Conditions Governing Access

Open to researchers without restriction.

Conditions Governing Use

While many items at the Center for Brooklyn History are unrestricted, we do not own reproduction rights to all materials. Be aware of the several kinds of rights that might apply: copyright, licensing and trademarks. The researcher assumes all responsibility for copyright questions.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date (if known); Brooklyn schools collection, CBHM.006, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was formally accessioned in 1985. Sources and dates of acquisition for the bulk of materials is unknown. PS 139 Class of 1917 photograph gift of Lynn Washbourne Williams, 2011. Erasmus Hall High School class of 1932 photograph is the gift of Roy Nydorf, Ethan Nydorf, and Amy Moore, in loving memory of their father Seymour Nydorf, 2017. Girl's High School yearbook (1947) is the gift of Linda Chelmow, 2017. New materials will continue to be added to this collection as they are acquired.

Separated Materials

Upon reprocessing in 2023, materials from schools with their own dedicated composite collections at CBH were removed to those collections (see Related Materials note). Excessive duplicates were discarded, along with news clippings from periodicals available elsewhere.

Related Materials

Brooklyn yearbooks collection (BCMS.0031)

Class photograph collection (BCMS.0029)

Brooklyn High School Newspaper Collection (BCMS.0030)

The Packer Collegiate Institute records (2014.019)

Erasmus Hall Academy records (ARC.230)

Pratt Institute collection (1985.056)

Girls' High School collection (ARC.128)

Boys' High School register and publications (ARC.123)

Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute collection (1985.055)

Adelphi Academy collection (1985.059)

Boys' High School and PS 247 class photographs (2002.020)

Bella Gordon P.S. 64 Collection (BCMS.0042)

Group portrait photographs of classes at P.S. 139 in Flatbush (V1992.006)

PS 143 Class Book (2012.013)

Virginia W. Warthin collection (ARC.319)

School composition books and diaries collection (1977.348)

Old Crowd of Brooklyn Public School No. 3 reunion collection (1978.118)

Bretz family papers (ARC.321)

Yeshivah of Flatbush High School yearbooks are available on the digital collections as a part of the Brooklyn Jewish History Project (BJHP)

Collection processed by

Weatherly Stephan and Patricia Glowinski

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-08-22 19:08:32 +0000.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

The collection is processed to the file level. It contains materials that were accessioned as 1985.054, as well as new material that has accrued over time. The collection was processed to the collection level by Weatherly Stephan and Patricia Glowinski on December 7, 2010. Additional content was contributed by Emily Reynolds on January 13, 2011. Additional content added to the collection by John Zarrillo and Ryan Frick, who updated the finding aid in March 2017. That included merging the library's collection of school yearbooks with this collection.

In 2023, after the merger of Brooklyn Historical Society and Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn Collection, Dee Bowers added unprocessed and found-in-collection material from both repositories as well as school materials from both institution's ephemera collections, and consequently renumbered the collection CBHM.0006 to better reflect its makeup of multiple accessions.

Revisions to this Guide

March 2017: Updated by Ryan Frick and John Zarrillo
March 2023: Revised by Dee Bowers to incorporate unprocessed material and material from the former Brooklyn Collection

Repository

Center for Brooklyn History
Center for Brooklyn History
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201