The selection and presentation of this history is biased—primarily on the basis of what would fit in the space provided and also on what records were available and who responded to my calls for information. It is also biased by my being an outsider to these events until 1991. I selected, purposely, the positive ways that the organization helped both art teachers and the field of art education in Pennsylvania. In addition, I looked at the records with the eyes and understandings of a white female art teacher and teacher of teachers for the past 15 years, building on my knowledge gained in years of historical research in higher education in the field of art education.

     I found many of the records of the Pennsylvania Art Education Association (PAEA) in the Archives of the Penn State University. Newsletters were found in Kutztown, and several former presidents of the organization turned over boxes of correspondence and minutes to me—temporarily—until they too go to Penn State. Clyde McGeary encouraged me to talk with as many former Board members as possible, because they would provide other information that would help us understand the lists of details recorded in minutes of meetings and in the Newsletters. Several former PAEA members and officers corresponded with me and shared their memories and artifacts.

    A pre-publication abstract of the history of the PAEA was published in the pages of the Newsletter. These pages are a summary of a 50 year old collection of memories, minutes, letters, and miscellaneous data organized so that readers will understand the settings for the excitement as well as the tedium of building an organization whose purpose was to represent hundreds of art teachers and supervisors, higher education faculty and Pennsylvania Department of Education officials.

     Histories of organizations generally sound like dramas with major and minor players joining together, alternately disagreeing, separating, and coming together in new formations with all of the actors and actresses being influenced by events off stage. The history of the PAEA fits this pattern. One of this historian’s quandaries has been to decide which dramas or events should be included. Those included here are related directly to the general purposes of the organization so that readers will focus on why and how the PAEA grew and changed over the last fifty years.

Virginia L. Fitzpatrick
July, 1997