By Linda Banks, Special to The Times
Museum collections rarely increase in even steps or in predictable cycles. The very broad collection of the Christian C. Sanderson Museum remains narrow in one particular way: Every item on display or archived, with a few exceptions, was personally touched by Chris Sanderson himself. As diverse and expansive as the assembled items may appear, they share this single provenance quality — having filtered through Chris’s actual life. The growth of the Museum collection is promoted by its diversity but limited by this provenance stipulation. Seldom do we purchase items. More often, concerned residents or people who actually knew Chris generously share their treasures and memories.
Chris leading exercises at the Oak Grove School with the school orchestra in the doorway. Chris by T. R. Thompson, page 257, copyright 1973. Photo courtesy of the Christian C. Sanderson Museum, Chadds Ford PA.
As I did preliminary research, September seemed to be an appropriate month to look at Chris Sanderson as student, graduate, teacher, and principal. How fortunate that museum visitors would choose a recent week to expand the museum’s holdings. Phyllis Thompson (no relation to Tom Thompson, our original curator) Kilvington and her brother James Jester Thompson are the children of Mildred Jester, who attended the Oak Grove School while Chris Sanderson was the principal there. Mrs. Kilvington and Mr. Thompson delivered a packet of news clippings, photographs and mementoes which their mother had clearly valued. Especially revealing is a child’s copy book filled with lessons in literature, exploration, and physiology.
In 1901, Chris Sanderson graduated from the West Chester Normal School (now West Chester University). He had earned his teaching degree in three years. He might be remembered there as a stellar student but not in the traditional sense. His grades and classroom achievements were adequate, but his extracurricular enthusiasm which established the approach to life that he maintained until his death in 1966. He was a lively raconteur. He loved theatrical performances . . . from Rip Van Winkle to The Merchant of Venice. He learned the art of Indian clubs. History and exercise appealed to him equally.
Chris’s supervisor’s first official assessment of him as a teacher commented on his presentation of a third grade reading lesson. His “drill was fine,” and the “questions he asked were good,” and he “kept the attention of the class.” No surprise. He valued concrete knowledge, engaged the minds of children, and enlivened material with a peppering of supplementary details and examples.
His professor’s final letter of recommendation stated, “I have found him a faithful, painstaking, and efficient student. His qualities of head and heart make him a most estimable young man.” With this solid recommendation Chris was off in 1902 to his first teaching position, a three-year assignment at Port Providence School. In the small Pennsylvania town where he was born, he saw himself reborn as a natural teacher.
Advance 23 years, and Chris has been hired as both teacher and principal at the Oak Grove School in Elsmere, Delaware. This was his first assignment outside of Pennsylvania. A Wilmington news article of the time touted his success in glowing terms: Under the supervision of the new principal, “Oak Grove School is taking on a new life, both in studies and in sports. Mr. Sanderson is a staunch believer in mixing study with play.”
As always Chris found joy in the integration of a broad range of knowledge and experience. At the Oak Grove School he organized a school orchestra, himself guiding a violin class of twelve students. Did I mention that he also started a Boy Scout Troop, a football team, a bicycle club, and a hiking club? Beyond all of these innovations, Chris encouraged the 300 students to be civic minded. They were the first school to raise funds to save the Henlopen Lighthouse. It’s no small wonder that these students remained loyal to Chris and loved him decades after he left. He attended their graduations and weddings. He spoke at their funerals. He never forgot a single pupil he had taught.
And now, let’s get back to the recent Thompson family museum donation: Mildred Jester’s copybook. Here is evidence of the sober Principal Sanderson’s focus on traditional learning. In Mildred’s neat cursive handwriting, this little eighth grader maintained careful lists of American and British authors and titles, European explorers, physiology facts and processes, and a comprehensive catalogue of books she had read. After 85 years, this little treasure still exudes the pride and seriousness of a thorough, conscientious student who has been inspired to learn. When she disposed of other childhood bits and pieces, she saved this document as testimony to the place and people who were too important to forget. And she continued to remember Chris Sanderson’s role in this period of her life by tucking news articles about him from 1941 and 1972 in the notebook. We are happy to add her items to our collection.
Among the authors given prominent mention by young Mildred was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I would not be at all surprised to learn that she and her classmates in the 1929 eighth grade graduation photograph which she preserved had committed lines from his “Psalm of Life” to memory.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
Let us then be up and doing
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labor and to wait.
You are welcome to see a focused exhibit of Chris Sanderson’s school materials at the Christian C. Sanderson Museum located at 1755 Creek Road, Chadds Ford, PA, just north of US 1. The museum is open March through November, Thursday through Sunday, from 12 to 4 p.m. or by appointment. Admission is $5.00 per person and free for members and children under 12 who are accompanied by an adult. For more information, call the museum at 610-388-6545 or go to the website at www.sandersonmuseum.org.
