The Panopticon of Childhood: Harold E. Jones Child Study Center, Berkeley, California, 1946–1960

Abstract

In 1946 the well‐known Danish educator Sofie Rifbjerg (1886–1991) travelled for six months to the USA. The purpose of her trip was to study American developmental psychology. On her way she spent some time at the Institute of Child Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. The institute had become famous because of its working on longitudinal studies of parents and children during the years of the great Depression. Affiliated with the institute was an experimental kindergarten, where the staff could study and test the development of the pre‐scholars. Until 1960 the Institute as well as the child study centre was housed in a former middle‐class home. In 1957–1960 a new structure was built, designed by the Bay‐area architect Joseph Esherick (1914–1998). Based on material found in the University of California archives the paper describes the story of the building design process, and how the needs of the children clashed with the needs of the scientists with the architect as an aesthetic mediator.

Notes

Calvert, Karin. Children in the House. The Material Culture of Early Childhood, 1600–1900. Boston, 1992; de Coninck‐Smith, Ning, Hans Christian Jensen, Signe Mellemgaard and Gertrud Øllgaard. “Sådan går dagen for lille Lise… og Oscar. Tekster til en udstilling om ting til børn i 150 år” (Texts from an exhibition on design for children through 150 years). Southern Denmark University, Centre for Cultural Studies 2000.

See among many others de Coninck‐Smith, Ning. “Where Should Children Play? City Planning Seen From Knee‐Height: Copenhagen 1870 to 1920.” Children’s Environments Quarterly 7, no. 4 (1990): 54–61; Gagen, E. A. “Playing the Part. Performing Gender in America’s Playgrounds.” In Children’s Geographies. Playing, Living, Learning, edited by S. L. Holloway and G. Valentine. London, 2000: 213–229.

For an overview of existing research into the history of school buildings in Europe and the US see: Châtelet, Anne‐Marie. “School Building and Architecture: Europe.” In The International Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood. In History and Society, edited by Paula S. Fass. New York, 2003: 725–726; Gutman, Marta. “School Buildings and Architecture. United States.” In Fass. Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood, 726–728.

Dudek, Marc. Kindergarten Architecture. London, 1996.

Boyd William. Towards a New Education. A Record and Synthesis of the Discussions on the New Psychology and the Curriculum at the fifth World Conference of the New Education Fellowship held at Elsinore, Denmark in August 1929. New York, 1930.

Sofie Rifbjerg’s journey, “Sofies formaninger. Et brev til afgangsholdene 1946”, is discussed in a special edition of Dansk Pædagogisk Tidskrift no. 8 (1986): 289–291, where a letter from her travels sent from the transatlantic liner The Gripsholm is published. The purpose of her journey is not mentioned. My thanks to Randi Gregersen for drawing my attention to this reference. See also Rifbjerg, Sofie. Træk af den moderne opdragelses historie. Copenhagen, 1966: 174–182.

Clausen, J.A. American Lives. Looking Back at the Great Depression. New York: 1993: 27–28, 44–48.

Interview with Professor Landreth in Macfarlane, Jean et al. Interviews with Leaders in the Child Guidance and Clinic Movement: Transcripts 1968–1969. Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Harriet Johnsson was head of a progressive artists’ kindergarten in Greenwich Village in New York. She was a strong opponent of behaviourism’s ‘habit training’ and instead wanted children to develop into independent, open and constructive people. See Rose, Elisabeth. A Mother’s Job: the History of Day Care, 1890–1960. New York, 1999: 107.

Clausen. American Lives; Macfarlane, J. et al. Interviews. 1968–69.

Macfarlane et al. Interviews. 1968–69.

On the kindergarten tradition in USA see Michel, S. Children’s Interests/Mother’s Rights. The Shaping of America’s Child Care Policy. New Haven, 1999.

Macfarlane et al. Interviews. 1968–69, and its interview with Landreth, quote p. 36.

Rifbjerg, S. “Oplevelser fra en rejse i USA.” Københavns kommuneskole 1946: 747–748.

Folder 713, University of Copenhagen Child Guidance Clinic, 1948–1950, 1.2, 713, 2, 13, Rockefeller Foundation Archive. See also Schultz‐Jørgensen, Per and Ole O. Børn og terapi. Universitetets børnepsykologiske Klinik 40 år. Copenhagen, 1990.

On Esherick and his buildings see “Joseph Esherick and his use of form, his use of space, his use of site.” House and Home January 1952: 125–135; Welch, F.D. “Life Work: The Architecture of Joseph Esherick.” Texas Architect, 9, no. 10 (1994): 58–62.

Esherick, Joseph. Joseph Esherick. An Architectural Practice in the San Francisco Bay Area 1938–1996. Berkeley, Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, 1996, 271 and 436.

Interview with Professor Landreth in Macfarlane et al. Interviews, 1968–69. On Kaiser buildings see Tuttle, W. Daddy’s Gone to War. The Second World War in the Lives of American Children. New York, 1993: 83–84.

Michel. Children’s Interests/Mother’s Rights, 143.

Landreth, Cathrine and H. Moise. “Unitplan for nursery schools.” Progressive Architecture March 1949: 83; Landreth, Cathrine and K. H. Read. Education of the Young Child. A Nursery School Manual. New York, 1942: 22–38.

Hines, Thomas S. Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture. Los Angeles, 1994: 112.

Esherick. Joseph Esherick. An Architectural Practice, 437.

Ibid., 436.

Dale B. Harris, 11 August 1958, letter relating to the building question in Joseph Esherick Collection, 5710 (f. 1957–59), Child Study Center, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

Memo, Committee of the BCD, November 1957, Joseph Esherick Collection, 5710 (f. 1957–1959), Child Study Center, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

Memo, Committee of the BCD, 11 November 1957, Joseph Esherick Collection, 5710 (f. 1957–1959), Child Study Center, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

Cathrine Landreth to Joseph Esherick, 2 February 1960, Joseph Esherick Collection, 5710 (f. 1957–1959), Child Study Center, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

On this see Dumm, T. L. Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom. Thousand Oaks, CA, 1996: 104 ff.