?To Grow the Children in the Open Air? - School of Arts and ...

Centre for Health, Medicine and Society: Past and Present
at Oxford Brookes University
History of Medicine Seminar Series, 5 October 2010
“To Grow the Children in the Open Air”
The Open Air School Movement in the first half of
the 20 th century
Mike Emanuel
(Oxford Brookes University)
The seminar series and related podcasts are kindly
funded by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award
exploring Healthcare in Public and Private

“To Grow the Children in the
Open Air”
The Open Air School Movement in
the first half of the 20 th century
A “non-evidence based” experiment in social health
-------------------------
Mike Emanuel
Oxford Brookes University
October 2010

David Turner, in The History of
Education , 1972
• “ The Open Air School movement is now dead
- killed as much by success as anything else
and overtaken by improvements in the
general health of the nation “

Air and Medicine

The Humours – the Hippocratic Scheme
( after Bynum : The History of Medicine )

From Miasma …..
• Pierre de L’Estoile 1609
“The disposition of the air was malignant, full
of thunderstorms … carrying off large numbers
of people of all ages”
• Charlotte Bronte ; Jane Eyre , 1847
“ That forest-dell where Lowood lay, was the
cradle of fog and fog-bred pestilence; which
quickening with the quickening spring crept
into the Orphan asylum, breathed typhus
through its crowded schoolroom”

……To Germ Theory
• By the late 19 th century Pasteur’s discovery of
bacteria and their role and Koch’s account of
the germ theory of disease ( tubercle bacillus
1882 ) redefined the role of air as a cause of
disease
• The miasmas of corrupt air came to be
regarded as germ-ridden .
• Germ theory dominated the new thinking on
public health – changing concepts of
sanitation and hygiene

The Sanitary Idea
• Public Health thinking by the mid 19 th century
was dominated by the sanitary idea
“ overcrowding in insanitary conditions was at
the root of the epidemics that afflicted the
great towns and cities “
Leading , for example , to the Public Health
Act, 1848

Fresh Air and Public Health
• By the beginning of the 20 th century fresh
( open , non-stagnant ) air became a potent
symbol for social medicine and social hygiene
– a basic human right that would result in
improved health of the population

The Open Air Sanatorium for
Treatment of TB
• First German sanatorium for systematic open air
treatment of TB in Silesia , 1854
• First British open-air Sanatorium , Norfolk 1892
• First detailed published results of open-air
treatment of TB in Britain , Lancet 1898.
• It was estimated that in 1897 ( Lindsay ) there
were 0.25 million TB patients in Britain
• National Association for Prevention of
Consumption formed 1899

Nature and the Open Air
Movement

Transcendentalism ; Emerson,
Whitman
“Nature” by Emerson and Whitman’s
“Leaves of Grass” seemed to have
strongly influenced the open air
movement

Walt Whitman : Song of the Open
Road
• From Leaves of Grass, 1855
• “Now I see the secret of the making of the
best persons
• Is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep
with the earth “

English Social Services : Sir George Newman 1946
Emerson and Whitman ( Transcendentalism ) continued to influence the
open air movement even to the middle of the 20 th century

The Open Air School – “ An Idealised Back to
Nature Movement ?“
From The Open Air Nursery School ( Rachel McMillan School, Deptford )
pub 1927 by E.L Stevinson – the School Superintendent

The growth of Education in the 19 th
century
• In 1818 about 25% of English children
received any education
- Dame schools and Charity schools
- Sunday schools
- Schools of Industry ( domestic service,
ragged schools, lace schools etc )
• 1870 Forster’s Elementary Education Act
introduced state education and building of
state schools

Froebel ( 1782 – 1852 ) and the Children’s Garden
of the mind – a practical guide from 1895
Based on Pestalozzi ( 1746 – 1827) – a child’s education is like the
blossoming of a flower
The Open Air School Movement moved this idea literally into a real
garden setting

The Garden and Open Air

The Garden of Eden and the
rediscovery of paradise through
Christian Socialism

Henry Taunt’s
Photographs of 19 th
century Oxfordshire
Following the urban movement of labour after the industrial revolution
rural life was pictured as healthy and natural

Kate Greenaway
Children dressed with considerable formality but in the outdoor space of
the garden
Kate Greenaway “ Under The Window “ 1879

Kate Greenaway : The Birthday Book , 1880
Fresh Air in January – the concept of “ wrapped up warm in a cold
outdoors “ - the basis of the premise of the Open Air Health movement

Alice In Wonderland ( illustrated by Arthur
Rackham) by Lewis Carroll , first pub. 1865
“The best tea parties always took place outdoors”

William Morris “ A book of Verse” 1870
The Garden was central to the Pre-Raphaelites .William Morris was a
friend of Margaret McMillan , the founder of the Deptford Open Air
Nursery in East London

A Garden illustration from William Morris “ A
book of verse “ 1870

Monet – Impressionism and the Plein Air
Movement
Outdoor oil painting was made possible by changes in paint technology
but coincided with, and was very much part of, the culture of the open
air movement

Frances Hodgson Burnett pub. 1910 -11
Classic and well known story of the spiritual and physical healing powers
of the open air . Air has its own fundamental and powerful property of
healing and the garden is the book’s central symbol
As the garden is restored so the human spirit and with it physical health
(Note : FHB was a Christian Scientist)

The Secret Garden – “That’s fresh Air ..lie on your
back and draw in long breaths of it”

Heidi by Johanna Spyri ( 1827 – 1901 pub 1880 ) –
An alternative and earlier strand of Open Air
Healing literature – based on the “ great outdoors
“ as distinct from the more formalised Garden
Heidi’s disabled companion Clara regains her
health on goat’s milk and fresh mountain air

The Scout Association
• Many other open air movements flourished of
which the most successful was The Scout
Association created in 1910
• Baden-Powell’s Brownsea Camp, 1907
• Scouting for Boys pub. in 1908 – 4 th best
selling book of the 20 th century ( estimated
over 100 million copies sold in 87 languages ).
Chapter 4 is devoted to outdoor camp life.

The Open Air Schools
“There is reason to believe that
nothing will so increase the
happiness, the health, the moral and
mental sanity of the nation as openair
schools”
Macfie – Air and Health, 1909

Annual report on the Health of The
School Child , 1912
Sir George Newman
• The method of an Open-Air School is a process
and not merely a school in the open air – a
combination of
“ Fresh air and sunlight
Proper and sufficient diet
Rest
The hygienic way of life
Individual attention
Medical Treatment
Special educational methods”

Washing the Doll’s Clothes – Edinburgh Free
Kindergarten 1903
Garden playtime in the Froebel tradition
From The Margaret McMillan Archive, Greenwich University

The Waldeschule at Charlottenberg ( nr Berlin )
Open Air School opened 1904
As shown in Berlin Congress - Open Air Schools 1911

Charlottenberg “ rest time “
Between 1904 -1911 OA schools opened , for example, in
Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary,, England, Italy, France, United
States .
From The Margaret McMillan Archive, Greenwich University

Uffculme School ( Birmingham ) open classrooms
1911
This was a social project of the Cadbury family

Uffculme School architecture - Birmingham 1911

The open rest shed at Uffculme School 1911
January 1912 – “ the weather was very bad this morning. Bitterly cold
with snow falling …..in spite of wrapping them up well and taking plenty
of exercise some of the delicate ones seemed to feel the cold keenly”

Open Air Schools in and around existed around
many cities – Knowle outside Bristol
From “ The Open Air Schools of Bristol 1913 - 1957“ Jeannie Shotey

“Pre – Tuberculosis”
• It was believed that TB usually began in
childhood as a condition known as pretuberculosis
and that certain populations of
children were especially susceptible – those
from the slum districts of the big cities
• For the most part the children were not
suffering from actual tuberculosis
• If these children could be reached then
perhaps the prevalence of the disease could
be dramatically reduced

Hugh Broughton’s practical guide book of 1912
formed the blueprint for many subsequent OA
schools – Broughton was strongly influenced by
Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys

Broughton 1912 – Building a pet house
“ Children who live in the open become acclimatized to cold and should
not be fussed over”

Broughton 1912 – a map made of soil ( with
contours and tea cup ! ) to teach geography

Broughton - History taught as outdoor drama

Fresh Air was the theme but good nutrition and
hygiene were effective therapy
Menu from Broughton – The Open Air school 1912

Rest time at Uffculme school 1931
Post lunch rest period was a traditional “ activity “ at Open Air Schools

Fresh Air class of the Italian section of Children’s
Aid Society of New York City 1919
“ if this is good for children with weak
constitutions , why not for healthy children as
well?
Physical Culture Pictorial Nov 1919

York - Sleeping in the Snow – late 1920s
From “ The Story of York’s Open Air Schools “ , Brian Sanctuary 2001

Outdoor lesson , St James’ Park London 1936

Children sleep outside Springfield House Open
Air School , Clapham Common 1932
Getty Library

Rachel and Margaret McMillan
ILP activists, Christian Socialists and founders of
the Deptford Open Air Nursery in 1911
Margaret McMillan Archive, Greenwich University

The Urban slum setting where most of the pupils
of the early OA schools originated
The McMillan Archive, Greenwich

Evelyn House , 353 Evelyn St , Deptford.
The garden was the girls’ nursery
The boys used the local graveyard as their school
ground !

The girl’s camp at 353 Evelyn St 1911 – Deptford
McMillan Camp School
A n outdoor nursery was set up for younger brothers and sisters of
children at the Camp school

Churchyard as a Dormitory
(Daily Mirror, June 11 th 1912 )
• How some little boys in Deptford are
improving their health by sleeping in the open
air – between a dozen and 16 small boys sleep
out every night among the tombstones in the
old churchyard of St Nicholas at Deptford --they
camp out just as though they were in the
country. This splendid scheme….. was started
by Miss McMillan at the Deptford Health Clinic

Taken from “The Outdoor Nursery School
( Deptford )
E. L. Stevinson 1927

Deptford McMillan school 1920s annotated “ the
children slept outdoors whenever possible “
Margaret McMillan Archive , Greenwich University

An outdoor lesson at the McMillan School 1920s
Margaret McMillan Archive, Greenwich University

The Deptford Camp School about 1936 – an
outdoor shelter

Queen Mary visits the McMillan School 1921
Margaret McMillan is behind The Queen

George Bernard Shaw visits the McMillan Nursery
– 1920s
Margaret McMillan Archive, Greenwich University

Margaret McMillan portrait in the Deptford
School – “ the saviour of the children “

Open Air Schools
Health and Therapy not Education
• The Stretford ( Manchester ) OA school
according to its Medical Officer of Health ,
1931
“ … the Open-Air School is essentially a place
for recovery to health, and incidental for
arresting educational retardation , in children
already damaged by ill-health….. Fresh air and
sunlight , … are amongst the oldest known
and most effective remedies

Open Air Therapy in Hospitals
• In parallel , hospitals built balconies where
patient’s in beds and chairs could be placed
outside and so “ enjoy fresh air and sunlight “.
• These can still be seen at many older hospitals
but are rarely still used
• They are not part of modern hospital design

Public Health Campaigns for
Open Air

From – Better Health 1928
THE OLD AND NEW WAY

Better Health 1929 - UK public health campaign
poster – top ranking for “ Mr Fresh Air “
Better Health is the official Journal of the Central Council for Health
Education

Better health July 1928 – UK public health
campaign

UK Public Health Campaign 1930s

Glasgow tenement museum . The holiday
fortnight as an opportunity to take the
“ fresh air “ - 1920s
Glasgow Tenement Museum

The experiment of Open-Air Nursery schools …
has proved conclusively that it is possible to
prevent the greater part of the preventable illhealth
by this means – see next slide

The decline of the Open Air
School Movement

By 1947 the schools still took malnourished
children but also a large number with asthma – a
disease whose incidence was increasing and was
more difficult to treat than infectious disease

The Deptford school in the 1950s
The Open Air Schools declined after the second world war but continued
through the 1950s and sometimes 1960s with a changing pupil
demographic

In the 1950/60s the Open Air
School movement faded away as a
consequence of
• General improvement in public health through
the creation of National Health Service
• Improved nutrition
• The use of antibiotics to treat TB and other
infectious diseases
• Housing improvement through slum
clearances
• The Clean Air Acts

By 1974 many schools still had Open Air in their
titles but classrooms were mainly indoors and
outside activity e.g. “healthy “ walks were all that
remained

Correspondence ref Broadstairs
Residential Open Air School
April 1954
• “ In other days it was .. The recognised practice …to keep all the windows
of the school rooms wide open no matter what the outside temperature.
This caused the temperature of the whole building to be uncomfortably
low, and we are advised it is no longer necessary to the same extent as
before. We feel it would not be unreasonable to keep the school
classrooms at a reasonable temperature but quite clearly they must be
properly ventilated…..it does seem to us nowadays not unreasonable and
a little old fashioned, that children and teachers should sit in classrooms
with their overcoats on. At the same time we of course fully realise the
need for these children to have as much fresh air as possible”

Reply to Broadstairs letter from its
Trustees
• I am directed by the Minister of Education to
state that she does not advise that windows
should be kept open in cold or damp weather
to such an extent that the whole school is
thereby made cold …. There should be no
need for children and staff to have to wear
outdoor clothing when in class. The children
can get ample fresh air by out of door
activities “

Open air school buildings in Cropwood nr
Birmingham in 1995 – no longer in use

2008 – Some ideas remain . The Secret Garden
Outdoors Centre
“ It is almost a form of child abuse to keep a child
indoors “
The Independent 29 Nov 2008
Back to Nature - 2008

Daily Mail Online
10 September 2010
• Doctors prescribe “ fresh air and farm work for
patients with depression “
Care farms offer therapeutic help to people with
a wide range of problems from mental health
and autism to recovering stroke victims

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
Plaque of Dedication 1990s
• It is not so much for its beauty that the forest
makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that
subtle something, that quality of air that
emanates from old trees , that so wonderfully
changes and renews a weary spirit
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 – 1894

From the Christian Garden to “
Contemporary Environmentalism”
• Belief systems change with time. Faith has
never been evidence based. But the belief
that fresh air is health promoting appears to
survive the multiple faith systems that have
sustained it over the years. The Open Air
Education movement is just one example of
such a belief system where evidence to sustain
it has never been substantiated ( or seriously
challenged ).

“Towards The Resurrection”
OxonNews August 2010
• Oxfordshire County Council Newsletter Article
“ Open Air Education
A campaign is underway to encourage
Oxfordshire Schools to take opportunities to
use their own school grounds as additional
classrooms for children”
“ On child commented – you can see and do and
learn more stuff because you’ve got fresh air
in your brain”

Please contact Tudor Georgescu for further details: Tgeorgescu@Brookes.ac.uk
Visit us online at: http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/historyofmedicine/