Curriculum Transition MIT to Northeastern University, 1996

The subject files contain a wide range of materials that offer rich historical information on the Lowell family and their role in the genesis and development of the Lowell Institute School. Photographs of A. Lawrence Lowell and Ralph Lowell (trustees) are included (Box 6, Folders 298, 310); of special note is one of Ralph Lowell taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt (1957) for Life magazine (Box 6, Folder 310). Also included are photographs of the school's first two directors, Charles Park and Arthur Townsend (Box 6, Folders 276, 316, 329), and early faculty members (Box 6, Folders 276-277). Of particular interest is John Lowell, Jr.'s will and testament from 1835, which called for the development of the Lowell Institute (Box 6, Folder 309).

The series further documents the school's relationship with the General Electric Corporation [GE] which sent many of its employees to the Lowell Institute School as part of their apprenticeship training. Programs and photographs from GE apprentice graduations are included, as are correspondence on the academic status of GE employees attending the Lowell Institute School (Box 6, Folders 286-288). Much of the correspondence and reports in this series details proposed changes to the Lowell Institute School, such as the Lowell Cooperative Program and the Community Fellows Program (both rejected). The proposals reflect the school's interest in redressing urban poverty during the late 1960s and early 1970s (Box 6, Folders 284-285). Finally, programs from the 20th and 25th annual banquets (1923, 1928) resemble yearbooks and trace student demographics from the school's founding (Box 6, Folder 261).