Alice Karl honored for work preserving Lab history

Alice Karl, volunteer archivist at Lab since 1990, is continuing her devoted work to Lab Schools' history at the Department of Special Collections at the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library, where she will help organize materials from Lab that have been sent to the University Archives for preservation.

In recognition of her many contributions to preserving the record of the Schools, Karl was honored at a dinner on October 24. She was presented with a first edition copy of Lab founder John Dewey's School and Society, published in 1899. The book, which includes an address to the Parents' Association, revolutionized American education.

The Schools also have established the Alice Karl Award, which will go to a High School teacher for summer projects based on the work of John Dewey, the heritage of the Laboratory Schools, or on independent schools more generally.

"The Archive is our Schools' memory; it is a record of where we have been and has tremendous importance to where the Schools are bound to go," said Director Lucinda Lee Katz.

"Alice's many, many hours of thought and effort have helped to preserve that memory," Katz added. "We are indebted to her for taking on this monumental task and for staying with it. Her persistence in seeing the project through is admirable and will be key in the future generations of the Laboratory Schools community understanding what went before."

When Karl began her work, the publications, photographs, and other records of the Schools were organized in an inconsistent way. Many materials had been added randomly over the years without proper records or notations being made. Karl organized this jumble of documents, catalogued its contents, and supplied invaluable information for the publication of the Laboratory Schools' centennial publication, Experiencing Education. She also organized an installation of historic photographs in cases at the entrance of Blaine Hall and assisted with a special exhibition of photographs at Regenstein Library to mark the SchoolsÕ centennial celebration.

In 1997, she began preparing materials to be sent to Regenstein, where they can be better preserved in a dry, climate controlled environment. Boxes of those items now need to be sorted and catalogued so that educational historians and future members of the Lab Schools' community will have an opportunity to study them.

"There are 56 boxes of material at Regenstein," Karl said. "Recently, I've been going through a box of faculty manuals, but there are also boxes of publications and boxes of papers written by faculty. It's a fascinating collection and I've enjoyed making an inventory of them."

Karl and her husband, Barry, are the parents of two Lab graduates, Elisabeth Karl, '80, and Sarah Karl, '87.