PHOTOGRAPHS,, circa 1880-1965

Summary: This series consists of black-and-white portraits and views, primarily from the Modern School of Stelton, as well as a few photographs from other communities and a few images reflecting the anarchist movement in general. It includes many portraits of Alexis Ferm at various stages of his life, as well as portraits of Elizabeth Byrne Ferm, Anna Schwartz, and other teachers, students and individuals associated with the Modern School. There are also several group portraits of the children and teachers. Of particular interest are three tintypes, circa 1880-1890, showing Alexis Ferm as a boy, as a young man, and an unidentified woman who may be his mother. The views include Stelton buildings, and the Modern School children and teachers engaged in various activities: playing musical instruments, dancing, swimming, reading, working in the wood and weaving shops, and performing plays. Scenes also show the children's art work and items made by the children.

Views of other schools and communities include the Pioneer Youth Camp in Rifton, New York, sponsored by the National Association for Child Development, which Alexis Ferm ran for several summers (1929-1934); the Mohegan Modern School in Peekskill, New York; Fellowship Farm, a socialist community neighboring the Modern School of Stelton; the Ferrer School at Forest View Grove on the Hudson (oversize, stored in a manuscript box); and the Children's Playhouse in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, run by Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm before coming to Stelton.

Miscellaneous anarchist views include a postcard of Lawrence textile workers organizers Arturo Giovannitti and Joseph J. Ettor (1912); a photograph and three postcards of an anarchist rally in New York, circa 1910; and a photograph of Alexander Berkman speaking in Union Square, New York City, probably in 1914.

As well as photographs, this series includes eight leaves of half-tone reproductions, which are stored in a manuscript box. These are sheets of images produced from photographs showing Modern School scenes dating from the 1920s, many of which are in the collection. The leaves measure 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 and each contain several images. Some were used in Joseph Cohen's The Modern School of Stelton (Stelton, 1925).

In addition, this series also includes several scrapbooks and photograph albums of residents of the Ferrer Colony. Victor Sacharoff and Leo Goldman have donated their family's scrapbooks, which provide images of the building of the colony, group portraits, individuals,and a general sense of life during the time. Sacharoff's photographs, removed from the photograph album before donation, includes images of the Fellowship Farm School, the Mohegan Colony, the Stelton monkey, and images of the Living House. Goldman's scrapbook and photographs include pages of his sister, May Goldman's, photograph album; images of skits performedat the colony; and the construction of several buildings in the colony. Several of the scrapbooks have been restricted due to the book's deteriorating state. However, high resolution archival copies have been produced and bound in order to maintain original order and integrity. Researchers are welcome to use the archival copies.

The photographs were donated by various former students of the Modern School and Stelton residents, some of whom identified and dated the images. A few seem to come from Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm's own collection, and are identified in Alexis Ferm's hand.