Children’s Collections

Scholarly References about Children’s Collections

Burk, C. F. (1900). The collecting instinct. Pedagogical Seminary, 8, 179-201.

Hall, G. S. (1891). Boy life in a Massachusetts country town a quarter of a century ago. Pedagogical Seminary, 1, 232-237.  Have paper copy.  Includes a section on children’s collecting.

Hughes, F. P. (1995). Children, play, and development. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.  Have paper copy of pages on children’s collecting.

Glock, J., Wertz, S., & Meyer, M. (1999). Discovering the naturalist intelligence: Science in the school yard. Tucson, AZ: Zephyr Press.

McGreevy, A. (2000). Earthworms, stamps and butterfly wings: Encouraging children’s interests and collections. Gifted Education International, 14(2), 197-203.

McGreevy, A. (1990). Treasures of children: Collections then and now, or treasures of children revisited. Early Child Development and Care, 63, 33-36.

Muensterberger, W. (1994). Collecting: An unruly passion: Psychological perspectives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Traces adults collecting interests to their childhoods.

Newman, R. (Spring 1995). “Collecting keeps your mind busy”. Childhood Education, 71(3), 170-171.   .

Walls, R. T., Moxley, R. A., & Gulkus, S. P. (1975). Collection preferences of children. Child Development, 46, 783-785.

Whitley, M. T. (1929). Children’s interest in collecting. Journal of Educational Psychology, 20, 249-261.

Williams, J. W., & Stith, M. (1974). Middle childhood: Behavior and development. New York: MacMillan.  Page 22 discusses collecting in this age range.

Witty, P. A., & Lehman, H. C. (1930). Further studies of children’s interest in collecting. Journal of Educational Psychology, 21, 112-127.

Popular References about Children’s Collections

Gyllenhaal, E. (July, 2002). Aaron’s treasures: How to nurture your child’s urge to collect (without letting it drive you nuts). Chicago Parent. Online at http://saltthesandbox.org/ChicagoParentArticle1.htm

Fictional Works about Children’s Collections

Fox, P. (1968). The stone-faced boy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Bradbury Press.  OPPL:  Only his strange great-aunt seems to understand the thoughts behind a young boy’s expressionless face as he returns on an eerie, snowy night from rescuing a dog that dislikes him.  ALSO:  The boy is given a geode by his Aunt, which seems to symbolize the boy’s condition (expressionless face conceals the beauty within).

Murray, J. (2003). A few short notes on tropical butterflies: Stories. New York, HarperCollins.  A series of short stories, many of them about adults who collect insects and/or collected insects as children.

[There are more children’s books I can add when I have time.]

Scholarly References about Adults’ Collections

Lehman, H. C., & Witty, P. A. (1927). The present status of the tendency to collect and hoard. Psychological Review, 34, 48-56.

Pearce, S. M. (1998). Collecting in contemporary practice. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira.

Obsessive/Compulsive Collecting and Hoarding

Frost, R.O., & Steketee, G. (2010). Stuff: Compulsive hoarding and the meaning of things. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Tolin, D. F., Frost, R. O., & Steketee, G. (2007). Buried in treasures: Help for compulsive acquiring, saving, and hoarding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[I think there is a lot more on this now, but I haven’t had a chance to find/read/add them. There is also a lot on obsessive interests and collecting in the professional and popular literature in children with Asperger’s]

Adults’ Remembered Interests in Childhood Collections

White, N. R. (1998). “The best years of your life”: Remembering childhood in autobiographical texts. Children & Society, 12(1), 48-59.

What Children Learn from Their Collecting

Author? (1940). The educational value of stamp collecting. Journal of Educational Psychology, 31, 68-70.

Chipeniuk, R. (1995). Childhood foraging as a means of acquiring competent human cognition about biodiversity. Environment and Behavior, 27(4), 490-512.

Markman, E. M. (1979). Classes and collections: Conceptual organization and numerical abilities. Cognitive Psychology, 11, 395-411.

Paley, N. (1990). The collection connection: The educational value of children’s collections. School Library Journal, 36(5), 31-33.

Examples of How Educators Tap into Children’s Interests in Collecting

Burk, C. F. (1900). The collecting instinct. Pedagogical Seminary, 8, 179-201.  Includes a section on how schools can make use of children’s collecting.

Coffey, N. (2004). Collecting artifacts. Science Scope, 28(2), 34-35.

Hall, G. S. (1891). Boy life in a Massachusetts country town a quarter of a century ago. Pedagogical Seminary, 1, 232-237.  Includes a section on how schools can make use of children’s collecting.

Kopp, J., & Hosoume, K. (1997). Treasure Boxes: Teacher’s Guide. Berkeley, CA: Great Explorations in Math and Science: Lawrence Hall of Science.

Osga, E. (Sept/Oct 1986). Collecting as a curriculum strategy. Gifted Child Today, 32-36.

Purdin, D. (1990). Have hobby, will trade. School Library Journal, 36(9), 170. [hardcopy at UIC Daley Library]

Witty, P. A., & Lehman, H. C. (1930). Further studies of children’s interest in collecting. Journal of Educational Psychology, 21, 112-127.  Includes a section on how schools can make use of children’s collecting.

Museums and Children’s Collections

Monhardt, R. M., & Monhardt, L. (September, 1997). Kids as Curators. Science and Children, 28-33. Although written as for a class of students developing an interactive science museum, could also be applied to a collections-oriented museum.

Tunnicliffe, S. D. (1996). The key scientific value of a natural history collection for primary school children. In J. Nudds & C. Petitt (Eds.), The value and valuation of natural science collections (pp. 254). London: The Geological Society.

Van Balgooy, M. A. (1990). Hands-on or hands-off? The management of collections and museum education. Curator, 33(2), 125-129.

Nature Swaps

Barriault, C. (2001). The learning experience in The Nature Exchange. In S. Errington, S. M. Stocklmayer & B. Honeyman (Eds.), Using museums to popularize science and technology (pp. 19-22). London, UK: Commonwealth Secretariat.

Discovery Rooms

Arth, M., & Claremon, L. (1977). The Discovery Room. Curator, 20(3), 169-180.

Diamond, J., Smith, A., & Bond, A. (1988). California Academy of Sciences Discovery Room. Curator, 31(3), 157-166.  Have paper copy.

Doering, Z. D., Smith, S. J., Pekarik, A., Bickford, A., & Manning, R. D. 1994. From reptile houses to reptile discovery centers: A study of the Reptile Discovery Centers Project at the National Zoological Park, Zoo Atlanta and the Dallas Zoo. Unpublished manuscript, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Madden, J. C. (1978). Bridge between research and exhibits–The Smithsonian Naturalist Center. Curator, 21(1), 159-167.

Marsh, C. (1987). The Discovery Room: How it all began. Journal of Museum Education 12(2), 3-5, 13.

Smithsonian Institution (1991). Snakes, Snails and History Trails: Building Discovery Rooms and Learning Labs at the Smithsonian Institution. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. (Judith White is listed as the primary organizer and writer.)

Whetzel, M. (1987). The Object Gallery at the Florida State Museum. The Journal of Museum Education, 12(2): 15.

White, J. (1990). What have we discovered about discovery rooms? ILVS Review: A Journal of Visitor Behavior, 1(2), 128-131.

White, J. (1990). What have we discovered about discovery rooms? In B. Serrell (Ed.), What Research Says About Learning in Science Museums (pp. 7-9), Washington, DC: Association of Science and Technology Centers.