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Creator
The Modern School (New York, N.Y.)
Call number
Sc MG 634
Physical description
6.01 linear feet (13 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], The Modern School records, Sc MG 634, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
Home to Harlem Project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

The Modern School was a private elementary school founded by Mildred Johnson (1914-2007) that operated from 1934 to 2007. The school, located in Harlem, offered Black students an independent, progressive education. The collection includes the records of both the Modern School and Camp Dunroven, as well as the personal papers of Mildred Johnson.

Biographical/historical information

The Modern School was a private elementary school founded by Mildred Johnson (1914-2007) that operated from 1934 to 2007. The school, located in Harlem, offered Black students an independent, progressive education.

Mildren Louise Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1914. She was the daughter of Nora Ethel Floyd and composer John Rosamond Johnson, as well as the niece of James Weldon Johnson. She grew up in New York City and attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, where she was the first Black student to graduate from its teacher training department in 1935.

Johnson founded the Modern School in 1934, while she was still in school, as she needed practical experience to complete her degree but was unable to find a private school that would accept a Black student teacher. The school began with eight children in the rectory of St. Philip's Episopal Church; it later moved to various locations in Harlem before Johnson purchased a building to be a permanent site for the school at 539 West 152nd St. in 1953. The school expanded to teach nursery school through sixth grade, with attendance peaking at over two hundred students. In 1999, Johnson sold the building and retired; the school continued under new leadership until 2007.

From 1933 to 1965 Johnson also ran Camp Dunroven, a summer sleepaway camp located first at Greenwood Lake and later Pine Bush, New York. The camp offered hiking, swimming, horseback riding, and arts and crafts, among other activities, and was one of few such camps available for Black children at the time.

Johnson was involved in numerous professional and community organizations, including the National Association of Nursery Education, Progressive Education Association, Girl Friends Inc., Jack and Jill of America, and the Urban League. She also maintained a house on Martha's Vineyard, and was an active member of the Cottagers, a group of African American women homeowners on the island.

Johnson married Hedley V. Edwards in 1951; they later divorced. The couple had one daughter, Kim Melanie Edwards. Johnson died on August 11, 2007, in New York.

Source: Vineyard Gazette. "Mildred Johnson Edwards Founded Modern School." August 23, 2007.

Scope and arrangement

The collection includes records of both the Modern School and Camp Dunroven, as well as personal papers of Mildred Johnson.

The Modern School records include administrative documents, such as budgets, curricula, forms for parents, and a tuition and fee ledger; school newsletters; and programs, invitations, and speeches delivered at graduations. The largest portion of the collection consists of programs, scripts, lyrics, and production notes for the school-produced "festivals," or plays that were typically put on twice a year in the winter and spring and served as fundraisers for the school.

Camp Dunroven records include brochures, newsletters, notices sent to parents and campers, Department of Health permits, property documents, and ledgers listing campers and payments.

Mildred Johnson's personal papers include biographical sketches of Johnson, ephemera such as her birth certificate and passport, personal correspondence, her diploma and yearbook from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and various citations and certificates awarded to Johnson. There is also a significant amount of writing by Johnson, including her poetry books Paintings with Words and More Paintings with Words as well as extensive autobiographical writings on her life and the history of the Modern School. There is a small amount of material, primarily press clippings and ephemera, relating to her father, J. Rosamond Johnson.

The The Modern School records are arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mildred Johnson and Melanie Edwards, 2007.

Revision History

Finding aid updated by Allison Hughes. (2023 September 8)

Processing information

Processed by Allison Hughes in 2023.

Separated material

Transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound (MIRS) Division: audio and moving image materials. For more information, please contact the division at schomburgaudiovisual@nypl.org or 212-491-2270.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor

Access restrictions

Student files are restricted until 2090.