The Cleveland Day Nursery Association was founded on March 15, 1882 by the Young Ladies Branch of the Women's Christian Association and officially incorporated in 1894 as the Cleveland Day Nursery and Free Kindergarten Association. Although the young ladies had originally organized themselves as the Young Ladies Temperance League in 1874, they affiliated with the Women's Christian Association in 1882 and thereafter worked to provide proper care for the children of working mothers. Forty young women formed the nucleus of the Association including Mrs. Samuel Mather, Mrs. Samuel Raymond, and Mrs. Louise Rawson. They directed the Association in acquiring nursery locations, hiring nurses and nursery assistants, fundraising, and occasionally worked at the nurseries themselves.
The Association began with three nurseries in 1882, adding its first kindergarten to Perkins Nursery in 1886. The nurseries were located in working class neighborhoods, and often included activities at the nurseries for the entire neighborhood population. Awareness of the economic conditions of the nursery families led to a sliding fee schedule. The major nurseries were Perkins (1883), Wade (1887), Bingham (1898), Mather (1911), Lakewood (1921), and Hanna (1926). The Florence Harkness Summer Camp opened in 1926 to provide the nursery children a healthful camp experience as well.
The other major activity of the Association for over thirty years was professional kindergarten education. The Cleveland Kindergarten Training School was begun in 1894 and affiliated with the Chicago Kindergarten College. The school offered a two-year course using the Association's kindergartens for practice teaching. Graduates found employment not only with the Association but also in the public schools as kindergarten education was incorporated into the elementary school program. The Association discontinued its kindergartens and the training school was absorbed by the School of Education of Western Reserve College in 1927.
Many of the activities the Cleveland Day Nursery introduced improved child care and family services in Cleveland. In 1913 it joined the Welfare League and served as the League's consultant and evaluator for other Cleveland nurseries. Since the Association had always been at the forefront of the nursery school program in Cleveland, its members naturally worked for legislation, standards, and licensing to improve nurseries. Health care for the children was a major concern. A permanent visiting physician was hired in 1910 and regular dental care for the children began in 1918. In 1906, a social worker was employed to provide family social services. A full department was created in 1926 and first called the Behavior Clinic but was later renamed the Department of Social Service.
The Cleveland Day Nursery Association Records, 1874-1973 and undated, consist of annual reports, minutes of the Board of Trustees and special committees, financial records, correspondence, reports on individual nurseries, publications, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings. Records beyond the late 1950s are less numerous than for previous years.
This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of Cleveland, Ohio, and day nurseries, kindergartens, and day care centers there in the late nineteenth century and twentieth century. The collection provides information on early childhood education. The Association's early use of social workers and psychologists is better documented in its records than its medical and dental programs. Another aspect of the records is the information on charity work and the interaction of numerous charities in Cleveland. Both the impetus and the endowments for the Association came from the families of Samuel Mather, Samantha Hanna, Joseph Perkins, Stephen Harkness, and John D. Rockefeller.
The collection is arranged in nine series.
The researcher should also consult PG 147 Cleveland Day Nursery Association Photographs.
Processed by Carol E. A. Burks in 1976.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3667 Cleveland Day Nursery Association Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gifts of Eleanor Hosley in cooperation with the Center for Human Services in 1975, 1976, and 1977.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.