Transnationalising American progressivism and emancipation: Frances B. Johnston and progressive education at the 1900 Paris universal exposition

Abstract

ABSTRACTAt the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, Frances Benjamin Johnston, one of America’s first women photographers, played a key role in publicising in Europe American progressivism and emancipation in education. Through displaying photographs taken in the Washington DC public schools, she revealed to the international audience how American progressive reformers were aiming at providing a freer, more child-centred and democratic education to children in the public schools. Such pioneering effort to disclose these accomplishments was met with considerable interest and laudatory comments from French officials and school professionals. Being a prominent character in American photography, Johnston’s life and work have long aroused the interest of historians of art and women. However, her role in publicising progressive education’s ideals and emancipatory dimensions remain an understudied and yet important topic in order to analyse the transnationalising of American progressivism in education. Using archival and primary sources from the French and US governments, this article analyses the reception of the American educational exhibit displayed at the 1900 universal exposition in France. It thus aims at highlighting the ways in which photography was used as a powerful medium to document, spread and propagandise American reform effort in education across the Atlantic.