Taken in 1928, this photograph shows a typical scene at Miss Illman’s Training School for Kindergarten-Primary Teachers. The demonstration school—then located at 4000 Pine Street—awarded certificates to teachers upon completion of a two to three-year program. In 1932, Illman-Carter entered into a special relationship with Penn’s Graduate School of Education, where University faculty taught English, psychology and general education philosophy and methods at the school. In 1936, the school officially became part of Penn under the name Illman-Carter Unit for Kindergarten-Primary Teachers. The school stayed open until 1959, when Penn decided to close it due to expenses—and because of a new trend of using public and private schools for practice teaching instead of confining this training to demonstration schools like Illman-Carter.

For more on this and other notable moments in Penn’s history, visit the University Archives web site at www.archives.upenn.edu.