There are many branches of the Montessori School across the world and in Canada, but we worked on the collections of Maria Montessori and Alice Franchetti, who developed the famous method of education and established the very first school in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century.

This was a small part of a larger research project funded by Western University in London, Ontario, with participation of the Fondazione Hallgarten – Franchetti, Centro Studi Villa Montesca.

Our part — in this huge project in which many other professionals were involved — consisted of developing a first planning of the exhibit to convert the textual materials from the archives into a visual narrative in order to represent the activity of this school during the first few decades.

This exhibit was the culmination of years of research conducted by Cristina Caracchini, who presented the historical and conceptual analysis of Maria Montessori's educational method. This most complete and detailed source, as of today, is based on the archival materials preserved at the library in Città di Castello and now exhibited at the Città di Castello in Italy:

Alice a Bruxelles. Le scuole della Montesca e di Rovigliano all’Esposizione Universale del 1910. Dalle Origini a Maria Montessori. Catalogo ragionato della mostra documentaria. Città di Castello, Pinacoteca Comunale 20 Aprile-23 Giugno 2024. Firenze University Press, 2023. 216 pp.  Link to the open-access monograph. 

The complete presentation and step-by-step documentation of the exhibit in Città di Castello can be explored on the official website of the Fondazione Hallgarten – Franchetti, Centro Studi Villa Montesca.