Sesame Street Learning Kit
date: label: date made
content: 1970
name: label: copyright holder; referenced
content: Children's Television Workshop
label: maker
content: TIME Inc.
label: maker
content: Columbia Records
notes: label: Description
content: The Sesame Street Learning Kit contains 5 hardbound books, 2 posters, a 69 page parent instruction booklet, 10 parent/teachers guides on newsprint and cards that indicate the corresponding program number in the television series, and a vinyl record called <i>"The Sesame Street Record."<i> This kit is stored in its original 1970 cardboard box with flip-up lid and is covered with colorful illustrations of children and adults from the Sesame Street children’s show. The hardbound books are: <i>The Sesame Street Book of Letters, The Sesame Street Book of Numbers, The Sesame Street Book of People and Things, The Sesame Street Book of Puzzles, The Sesame Street Book of Shapes.</i>
label: Description
content: Sesame Street premiered in 1969 intent on teaching basic reading, math, and life skills to young of-color and low-income viewers who might not otherwise attend preschool. But its innovative approach—one focused on both “educational merit and entertainment appeal”—drew young viewers of every background. Sesame Street licensed a host of products designed to both delight kids and offer parents teaching tools—crafted in consultation with the same educators, child development specialists, and psychologists who helped create the show. The kit was marketed to middle income parents and schools to be used with three to six years old, though it was soon discovered that Sesame Street products, like the programming, appealed to children as young as one and as old as eight. It is notable that this kit was produced in English only, while earlier, less commercial materials were bilingual in English and Spanish.
label: Description
content: The learning kit was conceived through a facilitated focus groups with parents, teachers, child psychologists, and administrators for educational programming (i.e. Head Start, U.S. Department of Education…). While the initial programing had seed money from Carnegie Corporation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Ford Foundation, and the Markel Foundation, the various parts of this kit were developed by professional writers, artists, and performers involved with creating the television series as part of the Children’s Television Workshop on National Education Television.
label: Description
content: The manufacturer of the kit and its contents (except for the record) is the publishing conglomerate Time, Incorporated. Time, Inc. was founded by young Henry Luce and Briton Haddon in 1922, originally as a weekly news magazine for the US. As Time Magazine grew, the company branched out internationally. In 1990, it merged with Warner Communications into the media conglomerate, Time Warner. The Time assets have since been acquired by other companies.
label: Description
content: The vinyl record was produced by Columbia Broadcasting Records and includes 19 songs introduced through the programming. Columbia Records was founded in 1889 as the Columbia Phonograph Company by Edward D. Easton as part of a break-up from Edison. They began selling disc records in 1901 and were still producing vinyl record albums under the label Columbia Records in the 1970s when this album was produced. The initial Sesame Street and book was the last album under the 4-digit record catalog system with the highest catalog number assigned as CS-1069 in August 1970. This record produced for the kit is in stereo with the original cast and has the newer 5-digit catalog number of CR 21530. Columbia Records was later purchased by Sony Corporation.
label: Description
content: The kit is an early example of tying in educational programming through television to products marketed for extended learning at home and in school. The success of Sesame Street changed the face of children’s television and had a transformative influence on early childhood education in schools and at home.
topic: label: used
content: Education
label: used
content: Children
label: referenced
content: Sesame Street
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
label: Exhibition
content: Entertainment Nation
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Jacqueline Stansbury
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0254.01
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0254.01
label: accession number
content: 2015.0254
objectType: label: Object Name
content: learning kit
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall outside of box: 3 1/2 in x 13 1/2 in x 13 1/2 in; 8.89 cm x 34.29 cm x 34.29 cm