Prospect Center Archives
The Prospect Archives consist of children's work; documentations and papers by Prospect staff and participants in Prospect programs that explore classrooms, curriculum, teaching, learning, evaluation, and other subjects; and the archives of Prospect as an institution. The largest part of the Archives is the collection of about 300,000 pieces of children's art, writing, sculpture, and other work. The work was produced by the 350 children who attended the Prospect School from 1965 through 1991. It is organized by child and for some children extends up to 10 years in the school. Some files include work done before the child attended school or after the child graduated.
Each child's work is complemented by narrative records compiled from teachers' weekly records, biannual reports to the family and leaving school reports, and from notes of meetings held by Prospect staff to learn more about the child or his or her work. The Reference Edition of the Prospect Archive is a microfiche, slide, and typescript publication of 36 child files from the Archives. The main criteria for selection of the children were that the files spanned at least five years and that the group have a balance of boys and girls.
The microfiche comprises virtually the complete work of the 36 children, typically about 1100 images per file. Accompanying the microfiche are bound copies of the transcribed writing and of the narrative reports. Slides of about 200 pieces of each child's work, spanning the complete file and representing work in a variety of mediums, are available for rent at a modest fee from the Prospect Center. The slides and narrative records have been used in classes for pre- and in-service teachers as well as in a variety of professional development workshops, conferences, and institutes. Two copies of the Reference Edition exist, one located at the Prospect Center in North Bennington, Vermont and one at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, Special Collections Library. The Reference Edition is copyrighted by Prospect Center.
About the Prospect Archive and Reference Edition (pdf, 89kb)
Board Retreat Opening Remarks
Beth Alberty
March 13, 1999 - Holiday Hills, NY
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