Children play in a pretend grocery store, Josephine Newbury Demonstration Kindergarten, Richmond, Va.

Children play in a pretend grocery store, Josephine Newbury Demonstration Kindergarten, Richmond, Va.

Four children are shown playing in a pretend grocery store. One boy uses a play phone and writes a message; a girl retrieves items from the shelves; another girl pretends to check out while a boy uses a toy cash register to ring up the sale. 

The Newbury Center was fully accredited by the Virginia State Department of Education as a kindergarten and as a training venue for teacher certification. Summer training workshops were attended by students from 13 Virginia universities. Education majors from VCU and VUU could do their student teaching there. Nurses in training in pediatrics at Richmond Memorial, MCV and Johnston-Willis hospitals came to fulfill their requirements in education and socialization of the young child.

The building included a mirrored glass panel running the full length of one wall in the main classroom, behind which up to 20 visitors could observe the children and their teachers. The observation room was soundproofed and air-conditioned. A microphone and speaker system made it possible to listen to the activities in the classroom. This facility was considered very advanced for its time; it was modeled after the teacher training lab at the University of Maryland. 

Before the Newbury Center opened in 1957, there was no education available in a school setting in Richmond or the surrounding counties for children younger than five. 

The photographs in this series present an idealized image of childhood experience, social expectations, and gender roles, as well as the educational philosophy and methods of the time.

Dementi Studios, Richmond, Va.

Josephine Newbury Demonstration Kindergarten Collection, Special Collections, William Smith Morton Library, Union Presbyterian Seminary

1957

Union Presbyterian Seminary Library