Science at the Peabody House
"January 3, 1935
24 Auburn Street
Boston, Mass.
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Dear Mrs. Platt,
I wish to inform you that I'll need some tissue dope to complete my model airplane which will be used at the Science Fair. I also wish to give the finished model to the Science Department.
Yours truly,
Walter Sorokoff"
Science was a particularly popular activity at the House, and the Science Club gave West End children opportunities to experiment, explore, and learn. The club offered a wide variety of opportunities for its members, including talks and programs led by local neighbors and, of course, the Science Fair! The first annual Science Fair was held on February 10, 1935, and featured--among other projects--a model airplane built by Walter Sorokoff which he ultimately wanted to gift to the Science Department at the Peabody House.
Children were encouraged to participate in science from a young age and were allowed to regardless of gender. Some young children studied meteorology within the city as a group, and older students created and displayed their own work in the Science Fair. Into the 1940s, girls worked on a variety of science projects that ranged from the mining and refining processes of table salt, how to make lotion and cold cream, and even ways of softening hard water.
The Science Fair wasn’t the only way that children at the Elizabeth Peabody House showed off their projects. In 1939, a group of students attended the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York, and with them came Chemical Man, a working model of the human digestive system created by Science Club member Hyman Gordon.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials in this exhibit are from the Eva Whiting White papers, Simmons University Archives Manuscript Collection 022. The images and text on this web site are made available for study purposes only. They may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the Simmons University Archives. For more information, please contact the University Archives at archives@simmons.edu.