Susan B. Crossman Kindergarten Collection
name: label: Collector
content: Crossman, Susan
label: Names
content: Froebel, Friedrich Wilhelm August, 1782-1852
topic: label: Topic
content: Education
label: Topic
content: Teachers
label: Topic
content: Kindergarten
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Collection donated by Crossman's grandson, John L. Menke, in 2010.
creator: label: Collector
content: Crossman, Susan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Susan B. Crossman Kindergarten Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: Papers document the training and career of Susan B. Crossman as a kindergarten teacher in the early twentieth century.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Susan B. Crossman Gray (d. early 1960s) was a kindergarten teacher at the Washington City Normal Kindergarten Institute in Washington, D.C., where she trained from 1902-1903. Crossman married Leslie Gray in 1906 and they had one daughter, Dorothy. 

Crossman studied the "Froebel Method" of early childhood education developed by Friederich Froebel (1792-1852)a German teacher. Froebel created the "Froebel Gifts," a series of activity-based playthings ranging from simple sphere-shaped objects to geometric wooden blocks for instructing children. More advanced Gifts relate to sewing, cutting, weaving and the modelling of objects in clay.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Cubic foot (2 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1902-1932
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1208
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Workbooks
label: Type
content: Manuals
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged topically.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Alison Oswald, archivist, September, 2011.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Workbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Manuals -- 1900-1950
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Papers documenting the training and career of Susan Crossman as a kindergarten teacher in the early twentieth century. The collection includes workbooks that were part of the Friedrich Froebel method of kindergarten teaching, which are filled with cut and folded paper and needlecraft projects that were part of a kindergarten teacher's training program; a 1932 photograph of Crossman; her 1902 graduation program from the Washington City Normal Kindergarten Institute of Washington, D.C.; class notes from 1903-1904; and a manual of Froebel's teaching methodology, undated.